AMERICAN COMMENTARY by ARTHUR WEBB
IT WASN'T SO SMART TO WIN
THAT'S new? That's the question with which my old friend
Hannen Swaffer often greets his friends. And surprising Indeed are some of the answers he receives and the scoops he obtains. But that's his story.
Recently I have been trying his technique on some of my American acquaintances and the results, if not sensational, are newsworthy.
We think there is a market for a small town car and that people
will also buy heavier ones for long Journeys on the rough ronds.. Oh, yes, we want to revive the old Coolidge slogan:
*Two Curk Les every garage," Depression? That's a word we never une in our businest,
you know.
The Phono Girl WHAT'S now? parried my tele- phone girl. Just another delay On the Washington line to New York. They are the most talkative people in the world up there.
Do you know that on a dull day they make twelve million telephone enlis?"
What's new? retorted the White House correspondent of a New York paper. Well, he had been talking to somie Republican leaders and they attle worried. more thou are
the erres- They are not so sure, pondcat told me, that winning the
a smart thing that Glection was such After it.
They see that they cannot redegin then election promises to cut in come tax by 20 percent and still balance the Budget. And they are wondering if they will lose the 1048 Presidential election if they really get tough with Labour,
The Big Business interests would like them to get tough, but Seimtar. Taft and a few of the oller lenders
know that they have no chance of getting back again if they do not get a big slice of the workers' vote
all the big cities.
was
The other week when they really got exelted there were more than jourteen million. They tell me
four millon more
than the prewar record. Geel Do you know that they have three million six hundred thousand telephones, almost one for every three persons,
And they say they have a waiting list of another four hundred thousand.
The Plumber
Wumber who called to fix the WHAT'S new? muttered the leaking tap. Did you hear they are bringing out a brand new electric And you can take it that there top that turns cold water into hot?
It weighs only a pound and it's fixed in a few minutes. Or maybe you
a magle mirror door. would like a It's something that will let you see people outside, but they won't be uble to see you. You won't have to open it for unwelcome guests.
An
ન
something in the talk about running Eisenhower for Presidency. He
than General Marshall-and a better mixer
Most of the others who want to get into the White House are a pretty dull. It. The public will want someone with some personality, you know, and he has it.
The Publicity Agent
WHA
WHAT'S new? echoed the pubileily agent for a big motor ent company. Nothing at the moment, but you just wall. Some of those dream cars we have been talking about may begin to appear on the streets within eighteen months.
They will be streamlined and air- conditioned, have supercharged engines, electric brakes and inde pendent rear-wheel suspension with two-way radio telephones.
Sure, we promised all this while the war was rul, but we have been fon busy catching up with old orders to put new models into production. Now we are really seriously thinking of getting down to
to business.
no
Or, perhaps, you would be inter- ested in a freezer? It weighs more than a flat-iron and will make a pint of
Ice-cream
ninety in seconds.
You just pour in a few ice cubes, the come fee ereum mix and, turn
simple handle. They say it is so that a child can use it. You can bet they will in my home if I ever get one,
The Secretary
WHAT'S new? replied my seere-
tary. The answer is 1 have managed to buy butter at seventy cents a pound-about three and fourpence In English money--and they were asking me five shillings a pound a few weeks ago.
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1947,
THE PARKERS
OHDENA! DINNn's. HAVING A SHARE IN
MY GRAPEFRUIT THIS MORNING!
mumina's so SORRY, DARLING
JU JU: The witch doctors who condemn men to death
by
GERALD SCHEFF
have only partially succeeded.
Efforts to stamp out this custom
›ARLIAMENT has encoun- might have company in its journey to
tered a strange word . n new shrine. ju-ju. The medicine men of Westminster were angered by the sequel to a ritual murder 4,000 miles away on the humid, sun-drenched Gold Const.
They heard how five natives sen. tenced to death had been taken five times to the condemned cell in Ac era Prison, and on each occasion re- spilled.
The men had been convicted of killing a village chief during the funeral ceremonies for Sir Ofori Alla three years ago,
I was on the Gold Coast. when Sir Ofort died, and wrote down at the time: "A lug the head or two will fall dur-
Many people disappear in the course of a Gold Coast year. Things, are rarely so obvious when a ju- ju man was apprehended wallding through the streets of a const town with seven-heads in a sack. aupervise the native police (often The handful of white officers who
superstitious men) have their hend- aches.
He was a mission schoolboy who become a native court officini,
In a case where tenant furmers resisted the imposition of a tax upon their cocon-palms by a village clilof, Joseph spoke ngalest the greedy
· headman, who was displeased.
Next day the chief's four fetish priests went to a compound, where they carved a miniature coffin,
Then they fashioned a small scaf- fold from which something_dùngled,
Leopard cult
Seven miles away Joseph. com- plained of a painful swelling in the theek and went to bed the three weeks later.
died
the
"He could not swallow and his nose," a sou told me. milk we gave him returned through
The key to this true story, I think, Is that despite his Christianity Joseph remained an African with Africa's superstitions.
Ju-ju is material black and white magic, in distinction to witcheroft, which
Care had been taken that he knew Is invisible and supernatural. It may take the form of a fetish, of the ju-ju, i ascribe his death to
fear charm, a tabob, or a sacrifice.
Three were hanged this week. The Paramount Chief of Altimo
Abuakwa was a scholarly man who dispensed Solomon-like fudgments in
his native court,
Sir Ofori transformed a backward province into a flourishing area with gold, diamonds and cocca for wealth. He went to England with his vig umbrella and retinue, and returned to tell his subjects what lay on the other side of the Great Wall-with a special emphasis on the wonders
of tube station -escalators,
Shaved heads
When Sir Ofori's body lay in state eir heads bare. thousands of men and women shaved
They wept and danced the nights through. Libation of :um. Was poured into the red soil and a zebu cow was slaughtered.
boomed,
Prices of meats and other things are beginning to come down because
myself, haven't people like
been buying them. So I suppose there
The Fontomfrom drums of is something in this consumer re-
sistence idea that they are talking and the talking drums spoke mourn about after all.
fully across the hills over the roof of the forest ..."Damrita, du-e! Damrifa, du-e!"
be
You can expect body panels, bumpers and fenders made plastic. Many new cars will lighter in weight and much cheaper than present models. We may even You would be surprised how polite Copy the British and make some some of the shopkeepers are be- small cars that do Bfty miles per coming. That's certainly something
gallon for use in the cities.
new.
PAUL HOLT
Thinking Aloud
THE TERKORIST
TE was a little man, a free H
mover, with large, frank brown eyes behind big spec- tacles. When he sat down he crossed his legs so that one ankle rested easily on the other kneecap. His dark mous- tache was carefully luxuriant.
Before he came in my hust said in. n low volce: "I want you to observe him closely. He is one of the most charming men you ever met; every- body likes him. He is a terrorist.
He is a member of Irgun Zvai
Leumi,"
13
I shivered, then decided to be bold, "Er,
you aren't a member of terrorist organisation by any chance, are you?" I asked in a gay volce.
His big brown eyes regarded me warmly. "Oh, no, I am a member of Haganah, the Jewish Defence Army. 1 do not believo in terrorism," he said, much as a man might say tomatoes don't agree with him.
a
We found we both didn't agree with terrorism. In ten minutes he was calling me Paul. He had solution of the Palestine problem which-sounded so sweetly reasonable I found myself agreeing with him the Government are dolts. It in-
·volved parülion and the securing of British military bases in southern Palestine.
When he left we were promising
•
Exummers in neighbouring pro- vinces
relayed the news, which spread across the lund with the speed of radio.
SONS
Vic-
titioners wear steel hooks on their arms,
Most horrible of all Ju-ju is the I once reached a village up coun-
Cult of the Leopard, which recently try where the sun beat down on a broke rut afresh in Nigeria, forest clearing dotted with mudhouses tims of moss-murder are torn as whose walls were crumbling and burned to parchment colour. Most by leopard claws, and the prac quitoes and tsetse fles abounded.
'There met 10 harassed headman
arrested who told me he had young man of the tribe. dicing to destroy souls" following for lend
He was accused of preparing me the death of an old woman.
It was
to
"Sunday" was a Kroo boy from Liberia. He came to the police at Takoradi suying that he trembled
For offending a tribal custom he had been ordered to sall home.
There, he was told, he must drink sas wood.
but this was the headman's vexed pinin case of poisoning, problem: "I know not whether fine him or send him away to pri- this native concoction at ceremonini The Kroos say that if you drink BON,"
trials and live, you are lanocent of Many educated West Africans, though they detest the licence for
any crime. evil which accompanies ju-ju, agree that it is unwise to eradicate too swiftly practices In
which
native religion plays so great a part.
Sacred rivers
Most sas wood ritual drinkers. however, are proved decisively guilty
and decisively dead.
Strange sequel to "Sunday's" story is that one day, of his own voli tion, he boarded a ship to go home. Witnesses said he seemed to be in a trance, Primitive Gold Coast people be- I once talked to a Ju-Ju man, lieve that Nyome (the Sky-God) When called of the native police delegates his earthly powers to les- station in small township a shaking ser gods (the
abosom), whose constable informed me the Ju-ju shrines are the sacred rivers and man was in cell. groves, tail trees or giant rocks. T
the scrawny, wizened inspected Ancestor-worship is also Impor individual and noticed his cell door tant. Food is always laid at the table was unlocked. for the revered who died long ago (it disappears too!).
Next is the fervent belle! in Su- man or felish.
Explained the constable: "He Is powerful ju-ju man and could walk through the walls. What ՆԱՏՕ
to keen the door locked?" nudit village accounts in which they Provincial commissioners still a1 egg inside a brass bowl in his read as an item of expenditure- locker
from protect him
Ju-ju "Pacification of the gods." spells.
kept sacred waters, root powder, and A native police sergeant I knew
it
He told me that if the egg burst meant another was thinking evil towards you,
Fowl sacrifice
by HODGES
West African ju-ju
in ceremonial
man
dress.
Fetish priests (Komfu) are trained
WORK TO START
ON NEW HOUSE OF COMMONS
The building of the new Houso of Commons, the foundations of which are now complete, will begin almost immediately, anys United Press.
The now building will cost in the and neighbourhood of £1,000,000 will take between two and three years to complete.
The former House of Cominong was reduced to rubble and ashes on the night of May 10, 1941 in a German alr rale. The authorities have still not discovered how the House,
covering an aren 00 feet wide and 170 feet long, was so com- pletely demolished. Whether it was one high exploalve bomb or an oll bomb, or soveral-bombs that were dropped on the building has never been established.
Warm Croam Stone Usad
Not a piece of stone, timber or metal of the demolished building will be used in the new. The old House of Commons
bullt of war Anston stone. London emske ate it away to such an extent that ex- ternal
repairs cost £1,000,000-as much as the new building will cost. Most of the new slane will come from Clipsham, In Rutlandshire. It is warm cream in colour, and recommended by Ministry of Works experts to the Select Committee as being the most suitable. It has not been used for any 11ge building in London, but its durability has been established by repairers, who have used it to patch the fabric of the Houses of Parliament and other London buildings.
was
In the new House of Commons
by medicine men (Dwinsly!), some- there will no longer be scenes of times by a seven-year apprentice-members sitting in each other's laps ship in the bush.
which used to occur during the old The third lint in the queer chain days during crowded debates. The which mixes ju-ju with healing and architect, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, has (Nkonyaye). sorcery with religion is the magician provided for 015 seats compared
with 744 in the old Chamber,
Medicine men hold an annual con- vention, usually in the sondy Nor- thern Territories of the Gold Coast. It is said the greatest African ju- ju man is a centenarian, Dabusmoso of Dahomey.
Reputed master of the Japa ju-ju¦ --the power to deflect bullets from their course-legend auys he is cell- bate because only a woman can des troy his powers.
Natives say he lives in a mud- house decorated with skulls and hu- man skin.
Here are more ju-ju stories:- The barman of a European club stopped smiling when he heard sing- ing outside. He found members of his clan in deep mourning-for hint! Shaking with fright he returned to tell the white men what had hap-' pened. He died not long after.
Life saved
An Afrcian soldier was taken to a Eritish military hospital. The 1.0. could find nothing wrong until native orderly said: "He ju-ju vic-| 'tim.
Д
the
Traditional Dimensions The rebiteet has preserved the traditional dimensions and essential features of the House. Thus sense of intimacy and almost con- versational form of debate en- couraged by the dimensions of the old chamber will be maintained.
Among Improvements in members' recommedation are two floors below the Chamber, the upper one com-
10 Individual prising
Ainisters' rooms, a large conference room and spacious lobbies. The lever floor has been planned for members' use, comprising a spaciovu lobby lounge, two conference rooms. 10 rooms for interviewing constituents, and 21 smull secretarial rooms.
A
or
new auite of offices is provided for the reporters, including separate room for the Empire Press. A large number of additional tele- phones and call boxes for members and reporters have been provided.
Footnote To History
con-
The man's life was paved when he was convinced that a syringe, con- taining only water, held a Ju-ju more placed on him. powerful than that als enemy had
Twentieth Century-Fox stu- dios spent US$18,000 Most drastic antidote Was that structing a replica of the coach prescribed
by a medicine man in in which King Charles II føde Sekondi-a potion to be drunk withi pieces and scrapings from every item on State occasions in 1660. oi Jurniture and clothing in the vic-
The coach was for use in liming the pleture, "Forever Amber."
But when it was completed it. proved too heavy for horses to draw at the rapid pace which the action of the story required.
Intrepid studio mechanics there- upon installed a motor in the rear of the coach. Now a special driver necessary to keep the motor- powered vehicle from pushing the horses, says Associated Press.
The body was draped in rich om- broideries. There were gold orna- ments on Sir Ofort's cats, lips, hands and arms. He were gold-leaf aan- din's,
His right hand clasped n
gold sceptre, Into his other hand the thoughtful had placed coins to pay Sir Ofert's ferry face across the River of Souls.
The Ju-ju of Lake Blouumtwistin's house, including sandals. Tribal soldiers of the Asafu-fired- A trickle of black powder or a known to dislike metal, so the boats-Ju-ju and witchcraft apart, the. their flintlocks. Sixteen widows Africah home may spell death.
twisted chicken-bone outside an do not have rowlocks and the fisher people of the Gold Coast are sunny- sang dirges, and the chief's
men spurn steel hooks.
natured, with beautiful songs and danced until they dropped from ex- tion on the untutored native
have seen the power of sugges-
Miners sacrifice fowl to the under-
legends. haustion.
mind.
ground gods before they will open
They have wise and witty pro- Secretly, as is the custom, the body suggestion or even self-hypnotism Ju-ju may be a form of auto-
verbs. Two of my favourites are: a new scam. was buried in the night by the Nkron- from fear. I have met long-realdent not be bulit until libation of rum bird by tearing down bridges," and, i Is
Takoradi's modern airport could "You cannot impede the fight of a so, family, caretakers of the matri- whites who Ho bald that he thought the dan- lineal stool, symbol of Akan chief-
do not scoff at ju-ju had been poured into the red-ochre on polygamy "A man with nve ger about taking such power away laincy.
powers.
soil. from the men who have It now was
One showed me bluish weals all- greater than in leaving it with them, funerals are long and costly affairs natives to cut him with a knife- Six months later-for African over his body where he had allowed give it lo was, he thought, insoluble. for the problem of deciding who to
As for the danger of advertising Mensni, a sub-chief, disappeared. influencing the news, I was reading with a sport to vien seen. Ju
#sword through his cheeks. Monday morning in the Opinion co- lumn: "Shop carefully this Christ- This is an historic precaution against under A public which decilnes to blasphemy of sacred oaths buy provides a wonderful discipline
duress. to the seller."
mas.
An attitude which advertisers will class without resentment, I do not doubt, as "Independent.".
IMMORAL TO USE IT? Ts Guinea Plg Controversy shocks mc. Doctors wish to withhold the results of Inhuman experiments conducted on concen- trailon camp prisoners by the Nazis. They admit that the scientific results of this cruelty are valuable. but think it would be immoral to use them.
Now I am Imagining for a mo ment that I was a prisoner of the Nazis and they threw me in a free- zing tank for six hours to prove that the human body can lower ita hent below 70 deg. and still live. Or my. eyes were gouged .out
to try an experiment on a child born blind.
I suffered. I am useless now. Is my muffering to be useless, too? If I were a wraith from Delsen I'd haunt these smug doctors. Whip are they with their qurosy consciences to spurn wisdom? Are they trying' to buy their tickets to Paradiser
to meet each other in Paris, where GRANNY GOVERNMENT
he knows of a little restaurant,
terrorist?" asked my host.
Well, what did you think of our
"I liked him," I said, blushing miserably.
Life is so confussing these days, don't you 'think?
MX
COLLEGE QUIZ ̧·
How grannifled is
our Govern-
นส
ment becoming! not to use a certain kind of artificial
Publie announcements warn snow decoration, because if it gets near the food it will give us all the collywobbles, Recently mothers were warned not to skin sausages
· and use the meat in sandwiches.
not to
smell tho
Y son came down from Cam- When the spring cortes they will
bridge the other day. He had be telling US been sitting for a scholarship. One flowers for fear of hay fever.. of the questions he tried to answer
You
wast: "What goód do
think will
FLAGS IN HEAVEN?
be done by a Royal Commission of MOTHERS are writing to the Inquiry into the Press
papers- complaining that their
ẻ sons, who died bravely in the war.
He told me he answered that such are left to lio "in enemy terrilofy." a commission would investigate the They want their bones removed from Influence of advertisers on editorial German soll and brought to rest in reporting and policy, and loquire England into the desirability of so much;
Now what, does this mean? Does
the grave?
power for persuasion and propagan patriotism go beyond.. da being in the hands of so few mon. Are there flags out in Heaven?
sometimes lusting
д
year-Akyea and pour herbal powders Into the!
bloodstream-the 99 antidotes to ju-
Mensal was undoubtedly slain so that Sir Oforl's Ntore, or "spirit,"
SIDE GLANCES
Many heirs to chiefdoms undergo this ceremony before initiation.
The strangest case I investigated concerns the ju-ju called Agwalag- wa, and how it brought death to the man Alto, who called himself Joseph,
COBA, KÄLI NY MEA BRÊVICE, MO, T.M. DELU.S. PATC
By Galbraith
"Well, maybe I'm not as romantic as Tyrone Power or, Charles Boyer, but I might bò if I had Hody LaMarr or
Ingrid Bergman to Inspire mo!"
wives has Bve tongues."
SIGNS OF
THE TIMES
By PHYLLIS BENTLEY ✪
the
well-known author
д
theme for comedians' jokes. During a radio variety pro- gramme the other night, while comedian and his stooge. were dis.
removed permanent. been
1
"LEEDS' CUT
*
FAMOUS weekly in Bri- houses had been completed, in the cussing the unintoxicating quality of tem modern beer (a frequent post-war tein, "Time and Tide" has proportion roughly of seven
porary houses of steel or wood (pre- tople), the comedian remarked that recently held a competition fabricated, whence "prelab.") to he undersicod the hiccoughs bad for a paragraph purporting to four of the ordinary
from the beer.
the demanded give details of life in 1946, type.
stooge, orded for export," rc- written as though composed in
piled the comedian mournfully. The 1996, the details all to be just
shout of laughter which greeted this slightly wrong, as alas historical S the train which bore me rally revealed that the antics of the details of this kind so often are. from Scotland to Yorkshire little man in the "balance our trade" The prize-winning entries gave
approached the city of Leeds, Board. of Trade advertisement had the time buing between three made their mark on the public con- an amusing hotch-potch of and four In the afternoon, I selousness, Bread Unit and Squanderbug saw that Leeds was having that post- and Bovin Boy as seen through war phenomenon known as an elec-
Insumcient
of
A remark I read in a joke column the mists of 50 years; the re- tricity cut. Houses and factories the other day is very revealing, sar-
dim in the twilight; only here for
torially speaking. sulting
lay picture of
present-day British and there a gas light shone redly Britain, "Oh, she's very inhibited life was ludicrously distorted, through the haze. Leeds was very always wears hat." Even in rain, nothing at all like the real cross about this.' cui, protesting even in fog, even in snow, the mo thing. It occurs to me that the grously that the city had received dern girl in Britain goes hatless. mist of distance may distort in valuable production hours; as a re- the rain becomes very severa, she lost except on very formal occasions; If warning and had, lost similar fashion, leaving a false sult it is proposed in future to sound wears three-cornered scarf tied impression on the minds of the former air-raid alren when con- under the chin, or a hood of plastic the months ago friends and relatives overseas, sumption threatens to overtake pro- or nylon. A few and that it may be worth while then everybusly in hearing is shops received a sudden delightful
consumption to
of plastic and nylon water- giving a few odd details of life minimum immediately, so as to keep proofs; some brightly coloured, soma In this country which I have the factories running at full power.. transparent. That they were tres noted recently, and which are The all-clear signal will be given mend:usly needed (I myself had not truly significant and indicative when the danger-point is passed. At spared enupons for a raincoat since the thought of resuming the sirens. 1940) was shown by the change in of post-war Britain.
As I was being driven through the nation gives a wry grimace. the appearance of Britain's streets on However, Mr. Shinwell, Britain's rainy days--they suddenly blossomed Glasgow the other day-in' a thick Minister of Fuel and Power, takes like flower-gardens. foz, by a woman doctor, a specialist a hopeful view of the situation. The in children's diseases there, loomed increased
house
louss
of the
ת
to cut their
MANNERS
have be
cased consumption cf. electricity up in front of us lorry with an is an evidence, as he says, of indus-
visitor to Britain now enormous, a high, a massive, a truly trial progress; the production of coal
who towering
as n "It's as big
knew is rising every week and it is only.
the country before. load.
exclaimed." is A a matter of time before new gas and World War It would be struck, said, my companion:
I thinki by the change In new prefabs., you know electricity plant overtakes the nu
tlon's' needs. -~ Meanwhile, as: two. ...our manners....... These
for Now in the great, forested coun- bars of a radiator equal three looms come
more free-and-easy. tries of the world the sight of a ace- in electricity consumption, switch off Yorkshire was never stiff din man» tional, w:od house travelling the to help the export tradel
Frer, but it was sometimes brusque. ronds to its destined sile is not un- usual, but in Britain, the land of NEEDED FOR ; alone and brick, such a thing whe never seen before this postwar AN amusing sign of the spread with friendly epithets."You've only period. The eight, sent, me
·A· of the
understanding about the three minutes, love, so, you'dibert Intest housing figures;. I see-that by......vital necomity data exports. Is look sharp," "No, dear we've no the end of Detober 1940, 110,439, the "omergence of the subject fish at all to-day rank
Now, however, the exhortations of
FOR EXPORT porters, bus-conductors, and mop-
assistants generally prowrepřinkled
SA
SA