PAUL HOLT
FOR
Thinking Aloud
TOR & year now an inked and greying piece of paper has clung to the glass panel of the shop door-"No cigarettes. Sorry"
A Miss Sylvia Townshend Warner has sadly remarked, this looks even worse when seen From the inside-9N settorngi€
yeros.
..
For a year now, staring daily at this Black Mass of apology, there has been altting an ageing lady known to ber customers as Mome.
Ghe.us amall, grey, spectacled, and
the knuckles of her hands are large and clay, like blood-alley marbles. The shop mells always of bread and butter, and a snub-nosed kettle stean's stop a miniature paramn
tove, ready
at all times to reinfuse the tea brew.
Mame thes not the present con-
#for. They have taken away
form her the 'dearest possession of
retired market gardener in his 108, a redoubtable old individualist much worshipped by Mame. During the winter Dad, foling. Each mention of him in
I could dell, was troduced
# new symptom. Hla peaceful end b was plain, hesitated only at the barrier of his Intron- algent spirit,
The other morning it was, I went in. The sun shone, people smiled. I couldn't think of any kind of erisia, bor Mr. Bevin's loca of tem- per. And that, I knew, wouldn't felofi even the cheapert of cigaroltes.
"Dad's
"How's Daxi?" I naked. Mame's
rejoined. voice dying." she said. "And lie's su surrounded by floods."
And she banged down 40 on the counter.
THE CHASM
WHEN & Uttle boy of nine was
1.
necused of murdering another
Wales, he said
to the policeman:
her fading days, that sense of crisis le boy of four in Port Talbot in with which, like a thug addict, she inledand her morale onse ond some-
twice daily. Fimea
Su dull these
skyti foy Meme.
Most of her customer are Jolly with her and get nowhere. The nning one seek the secret of hat ide, for it a well known that all tobacconists have codes these
I won't do it again."
- That one sentence, is the chasin between boyhood and manhood. For when a boy says, that, authority replies: "See that you don't." But When a man says that, authority
"I'll ce replies:
that you don't." SPENDTHRIFT
ou knocks on the counter with THE first lady of our stage, Dame
a form wh prlure 20 in MIC shop wirile in the next it gets you ning but a cold stary of distnge Smart little boys. Inowing this,
local
content
to bona Ade dravellers at sixpence a go, thus: "Ses that one, third on the right with the bogber's polet You want f rough twice and say you fancy Tudor Minstrel. Turi dix i str.“ But not with Mame.
It was by are dent discovered key to her heart and the drawer ter he keeper the reserve supply WALTO
It was the first morning of
I said.
2
The domestic fuel cuts. Like the old days or "No said Mame severely. "AL we then the black-out was official." And she sinpped down 20.
I live fred my calls since then be I could by the occasions of crisis as they have come along. The wuw was a great help.
Lilian Braithwaite, went the other afternoon to watch the per- formance of a young netress newly arrived in the West End whose brian performance in hoboting part has been the achalra- Hon of Be whole professsion for months now..
GX-
After the Last curtain Dame Lillan went round behind to con gratulate the young woman. "Oli! but Dame Lillon what a pity you had to come for a matinee, was holding myself back, you We have to in the afternoons.
know.
my
"or course 1 understand. dear." sald the Dome, adding gently "You little spendthrift you.'
DR
POWER COMPLEX
YR. O. P. CLARKE, of Worthing.
1:as wrüßen 43 the Medical World to say how much he hates dog. But I detect a curious tone in the doctor's hate piece. I don't
Once I went too far. Cheerfully think he hates dogy as much
I Miked about President Truman's dog-worshippers.
as
aw make fri Greece and Turkey And there I am with trim, for thinking that a fairly promising so many people keep dogs for the, krahject, but it didn't raise a packet, wrong reason. They keep them to It had to be something tangible, flatter themselves, to give tiem- Bike bread rationing or the black- adves a spurious sense of power. out Even Mr. Max Intrator would They like the cringing because only be worth ten.
makes them upright, and the fawn- Then there happened the affair Ing because
makes them dis- pensera of happiness,
Some of them get to selling dog Duding the year of calling I had the wrong way round when they mown to Inow that Dad was £1
think of themselves......
to Dud.
•
•
SIDE GLANCES
COPR. 1947 BY NGA KRIVICE, INC. ↑ M. -
By
Galbraith
"You know how a girl likes compliments, Georgo do you honestly think I'm as pretty as I really am?"
Skeleton
BLUES' ACROSS
1. Heaton to be
uprat
4. Constabiilney
10. in a cage our bravery
is apparout.
11. Eat rope for
a change.
12. Estates lack.
in a proper beginning,
13. Boag of the
lampe. may-
bo.
14. „Miss D'Urder
vills F
18. The
ma
from Whito
chapel. eura
to
10,
D100G
Whitrisy
Bow
ม
17. The graduate and the American
soldier are wise meni.
21. Pater foat his head in the van.
22. They're no help to the social
climber
23. No trap la desded (for this nah."
El Cloan to 'there's 'nothing minn
CLUES DOWN
A canny follow tror facing
No, bez tinta ballang didiätor.
B. Clever in ode setempt. spot Tha svela; Jonás "Eilə: "Gend ́la 's cricket matchu
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1947.
THE PARKERS.
by HODGES
Monty's only son
becomes an Army recruit
Firing on the revolver range nt Catterick Camp, York- shire-Trooper D. K. Mont- gomery.
A wooden dormitory hut in the Cromwell Lines, Catterick,
is the Army home of Trooper Montgomery. The label (inset) with name and number is for his kit.
There is a bare scrubbed table on which they can write.
the
Young Monty's "home" on moors is five miles from Richmond and over 15 miles from Darlington, When Field-Marshal Montgomery but Catterick is no longer the lonely visits Catterick he will find, as he wilderness many of the soldiers of would wish, that his son has, no the first world war knew. privileges. 1e is just Trooper Even Monty, when he visits the Montgomery to the
ser Northern Command, will find a dit- geants and gets pushed around like ference. Largely it is due to the anyone else.
wise direction of the general officer Major-General R. T. O. DS.O., who has made
training
HILE Field-Marshal Lord Montgomery of Alamein, Chief of the Imperial In this democratie young Army, General Staff. was criticising which Fleld-Marshal Montgomery Army camps in the Southern has designed and is shaping, the Command recently, his only son, Every youngster has the same chance only distinction recognised is merit Trooper David R. Montgomery, of becoming an officer.
was making his bed in an Army hut on the edge of blizzard- swept Catterick Moor.
David. 18. tall, and unlike his father except for the steely blue eyes, is one of 20,000 men at Catterick learning to be soldiers in his father's new Army.
He got his calling-up papers when
was at Winchester
When I say young Monty he was shooting at the revolver range. He got a fuir "card," but it was not so good as that of Trooper Len Will- the mott, of Wembley, who left Royal Navy after the war in order -to make-a-career-in the Army.-
I asked young Monty how be liked the life.
"It is a good life if you are in- ክነው
College, terested in it," said Willmott: the Royal Armoured Corps,. chose and wears the Monty black berei but he will not be able to pin on it the silver tanic badge of the Royal Tank Regiment of which his father
colonel-in-chief. Field-Marshal Montgomery's own of course, is the Royal rehire Regiment.
Varwick
After six weeks' preliminary training David Montgomery went to Catterick to carry out Keneral military training to at him to be a tank driver-operator.
No bed lamp
T
With him are other public school- boys, apprentices, labourers, shop assistants and clerks who, like the field-marshal's son, were called up and left their jobs
to become "No- tional Servicemen."
Young Monty, as his new col- leagues call him sleeps in a wooden hut with 20 other young fellows.
If there were no fuel crisis the hut would be centrally heated by eight modern steam radiators.
The men share lockers above their beds. They have no window curtains or bedside lampo, but each man has an iron bedstead with a mesh steel mattress.
rossword
Do they set the table in the
Hallway Hotel
might wind
uth
7. Dancer' YOU
with
TUE Beleton Crossword cla you the problem of 11.1 'kha binck squares and clue num ders as well as the words Four numbers and our binck - squares are given as a MATCH
The "black squares form'a aym- ruetrical pattern. That is, the top half of the design lá, the same as the bottom half, and the right hand side corresponds to the left. WITH KHK in mind you will be abla to ill in ten more wuares at once. to correspond with those already given.
When yas have done this, you will see that the words af ) Across and 4 Across indst both be of six Totjera.. and you can gradually baltā up the pattern sa You Molte the clues and Ulf in the words. No words of tess than three lettera are used..
6. In this what makes an nsion » N
Spring onion 7
9. Alfie Ih ̈ the cold here.
15. Leave an 'unt of the pact.
10. Bmall bicture in the mörten.
10. They may be allowed in 7113170
at Verno, po
[20. Brita 'tine to be Worlipped at
(deas.
LANT WEEK N SOLUTION
"Quite well," he said, but it's cold work saldiering Just now."
He told me that the Army did not come too strangely to him, because he had served in his school J.T.C.
"I do not think I shall make the "After
Army my career," he said. ny military training I intend to go to the university."
He intends to maintain his studies during his Army service.
"I have not definitely fixed on, a career yet," he said.
CBE
David Montgomery leads the way through the snow to the range. Each man carries a "broken" revolver.
camp amenities his special care.
"Young Monty" and the 20 others into the open to reach the dormitory in his hut have no need to go out bathrooms. When they get there they find none of the tin basins that He will live, in fact, in a self-con- another generation of soldiers knew, tnined town, with its own shops, but porcelain sinks with hot and cold banks and churches and fish-and-
water laid on.
༔
During his three months at Cat- terick young Montgomery will find the "home" life his father designed for the new “Army.
Plenty of Sport
of
chip shops.
It has even got coffee stalls, mo- delled on the old London type, whicht are. brought out on to the main-road- junctions of the camp at night for the benefit of men returning to their billets.
He will have all the sport he
Monty will watch with special in- needs, the choice of two camp
terest the new Tank men. He will cinemas. Most of the units, like the sce new methods of training suggest- 57th Training Regiment the ed by himself. He will see his own Royal Armoured Corps, have their son learning the intricacies of Canic own cinema shows every night and radio in a classroom, in a model tur- a change of programme three times ret in the open, und later in a moving
tank..
a week.
He can see a show in the Signals theatre and act with the dramatle an ciety, in which the G.O.C. often plays, attend celebrity concerts, gra- mephone recitals, debating societies, and can study in rest and writing
rooms.
In his own son he will see Britain's new Army, and he will find at Chat- terick, as he did elsewhere, that the Army of today's all right.
Alan Brockbank
Seeress Sees Very
Little
Even the crystal ball of "Madame Annabel Raynal, sder- €38" is hazy on the French poli- itical situation today.
It worked fine on "revolutions in many ́countries which may even · lead to a completo world conflict" as forecast for the coming year. It could foresee the "death of a great English leader in few months,” but on the matter of the present tangled skein of French parliamentary ways and party shenanigans it "togged." "Taded" and performed all the little tricks such as the little gines balls aro apt to pull off when faced with delicato questions.
Д
Hoping to steal a march on ex- perta wise in the ways of politics as they are practised in Franco, United Press correspondent in Paris vlalted the dark-haired, plump little sceress and her well-polished "ʊye to the future."
Looking into next year in the midst of her cluttered room, a dark- eyed Annabel could see in her glass globo the "death of another leader in Greece," illness of the American President" and reassurance that his "Iness"
would not be fatal.
But on the matter of the present situation in France the position of Socialists and Communists together or Individually the eye of the future" did a very unmystic- fade-
out.
Too Busy with Future
Annabel, wrapped in a greasy quilted blank robe with red piling and tassels, maintained that she rend no papers and had no polllical afintions, being too busy with the future."
Madame Raynal, hitching up her bell with its signs of the zodiac, star- ed Into
the crystal to sce Llint Premier Stalin of Rusala "would continue sickly but active for at least
А
Sear But when the subject of French politics
broached, was
ogain Madame's face darkened and shadows seemed to fall over the room; the little crystal ball with Ils pink ribbon around the baza fogged. faded, jumbled and became watery.
There are some questions which even a well-trained crystal in the hands of a veteran secress cannot be expected to answer.
SCCMINUNAT BARNENDE KA
THE MODERN POETS
CHORUS
Now through night's caressing
grip,
Earth and all her oceans slip; Capes of China slide away From her fingers into day, And the Americas incline Coasts towards her thadow-
linc.
Now the
crcep
ragged vagrants
to crooked holes to sleep. Just and unjust, worst and best Change their places uk they rest. Awkward lovers lie in fields -Where disdainful-beauty-yielda, And the wealthy and the proud Naked stand before the crowd, And the losing gambler gains, And the beggar entertains.
May slccp's healing
extend Through the darkness to our
friend.
power
Unpursued by hostile force, Traction engine, bull, or horse Or revolting succubus, Calmly the morning break Let him tie, then gently wake.
。。。 PEACE OR WAR, BRITAIN'S FUTURE,
THE SOVIET WIVES, GOING TO CHURCH .
POLL
W. H. Auden.
OF RUSSIAN OPINION
Wetering out unsuccessfully, while will be anivas to offer.
!
50
"Do you
The chainbermaid: "I know Moscow, Apr. 20. the actor said it would not fail, the The chambermaid said-life would
The others had no little of England that my opinion is XUTH the Moscow Conference teacher adding: "Something worth still be hard.
worthless." The salvaged."
six clear-cut ideas.
The rest had no opinion. To my fourth question: "What, in
My nith question was: it becomes more than ever fas- My second question was: "Do yut your opinion, is the future of the cinating to know what the or- expect a major war within the next British Commonwealth?" the teacher think the Soviet wives should join
sald: The Empire will dissolve and their husbands in England?" dinary Russian thinks about 15 years?"
Only the teacher, the ballerina and The the actor knew of the case. student sald: "I would not dream of marrying abroad when every soul is needed here.
some of the difficult, problems left in its train.
A poll of public opinion in Russia
is, of course, impossible. Only the
By ALARIC JACOB
"When life is hard here and soft abrond-what sort of women are
emigrate?"
[Communist Party has the resources to sample opinion over this Vast territory inhablled, by nearly 200 Nine of them said "No war." The Britain become a small, pleasant they, do you think, who pine to million, and there is no doubt that girl student said: "It can't be ruled country like Sweden." the_party does.
out that Fascism 'will spread to some The student sold: "At the moment My sixth question: "Would you However, I offer a little plece of nations now democratle, and it it it seems you will become part of the like to travel abroad?" brought these personal masz observation without does we must expect they will at United States, but if the workers in replies. The soldier said: "I have
the Dominions assert had all the travel I want." claiming more than to set down the tack us." She added that the United Britain and
The ballerina, the actor, the tea- views of the ten people, five men States might go. Fascist, smight themselves you could become a pros- and five women, I polled.
she. Derous, independent federation of cher, the atudent, and the typist said France. "Wotch de Gaulle."
they would like to see other lands. The women were: 1, a Moscow sald: "When the workers vote for States."
The teacher asked it Britons were University student, aged 19; 2, an Communiam, then the Conservatives
She thought the coloured races of allowed to travel. Un to the limit prepare to overthrow Parliament by the Empire, would one by one drop of £75 a year," I said. hotel chambermaid, aged 38; 3, housewife, aged 42, 4, a typist, aged force.”.
The teacher commented: "If every out, leaving only -70,000,000 at Euro-. 26; 3, a retired ballerina, age un-
When I said that Fascism in peon origin. "But with that you Ruslan who wanted to travel was. disclosed.
out each year
It would cost our country many billions. The soldier thought the Empire Wo could only, afford that if we "They would call it 'Americanism, would remain very much as now.
had a huge tourist trade of our own None is a Communist, although of course."
He had read some stories of Kip Tho, seventh question was! [the girl student, who, incidentally,
ling. He had not heard that we you practise rellets? My third question was: "What do planned to leave India.. sold she would like to join the party you expect the state of the world The ballerina said: one day.
to be five years hence?”
The men: A school teacher, age
countered: "Read Sinclair Lewis's of 100,000,000 within a century." America seemed improbable, she could become a splendid federation allowed to take that many roubles
40; a railwayman, 31; on actor, 46; It Can't Happen Here.
soldier
a chauffeur, 27; and a private
24.
socmed the beat informed of the lot,
All except the student, the teacher. "England, and the soldier said they had gone
only once or twine, a wear. Yet the
độ though diminished in power, will be to Easter Mass, but went to church To my first question:":"What 'will' · The teacher, the actor, and the a centre of art. happen if this conference faila!" the student said the USSR. would be. The chauffeur, "England will re- chambermaid said: "My sister Was student, the typist, the teacher, and the stablest country in the world. main a great truder."
a nun. I am a faithm) churchgoor,"