SHOWING
TO-DAY
KINGS
a
Af 2.30, 5.10.
7.15 & 9.15 P.M.
What a Frenchman
What a Fighter
What Fun!
It's all
Those French fadios-in-waiting
can't soy nopa
to Hope- 'cause he's @gay-blado barber who's
got 'em in a lather
of laughs
and lovel
HOPE and a smile wide. BOB HOPE and Joan Caulfield in Monsieur Beaucaire
PATRIC KNOWLES
PLEASE BOOK YOUR SEATS IN ADVANCE
SUNDAY MORNING AT 11,30 A.M. ONLY GINGER ROGERS RAY MILLAND in
v
"THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR" A PARAMOUNT PICTURE AT REDUCED PRICES
CENTRAL & ALHAMBRA
DAILY AT 2oo 515 75 897 PM. DAILY AT 250 5oo 7208920 PLÁ CENTRAL: Extra. Porformance at 12.30 P.M. SHOWING TO-DAY
That ever-lovin lady of Salome..
THE
MORE CIAMOROUS!
MORE AMOROUS
MORE DANGEROUS THAN BYER?-
UNIVERSAL preventi
YVONNES DE CARLO ROD CAMERON
LADY OBJECTS
with ANDY DEVINE FUZZY KNIGHT SHELDON LEONARD ANDREW TOMBES Original Scrocosley Written and Produned by Matovi-Fonter und Benen Tugann'
CHARLES LAMONT Emotive Prydson (OWALD KENEDICT
TECHNICOLORS
and
-BEVERLY SIMMONS
ORIENTAL
COMMENCING TO-DAY: 2.30-5.20—7.20—9.20 P.M. Thrilling as they are beautiful! Glorious as they are gay! Dazzling a world with the songs they sing and the things they do!!
What makes them so Glorious! --is what makes this so Great!
SHOWING
TO-DAY
THE
DOLLY SISTERS
Starting
TECHNICOLOR
and
BETTY GRABLE JOHN PAYNE JUNE HAVER
MAJESTIC
STEWART GRANGER
in
M
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1947.
THE 75-POUNDERS
ON THE RIVIERA
Charles Graves tells you
how the tricks are worked
Y friends in the French 4220221032:2
Surote tell me that Scot- land Yard
have men boasted to them that they have photostats of 3,000 British cheques cashed on the Riviera during the past two months.
So there must be at least 2,000 people who are spending anxious nights in Britain when they think of the palm trees, of the olcanders, the tamarisks and the wistarla, the Judas trees and the mimosa, the champagne cocktails and parti- cularly the cocktail bars, of Monte Carlo and Cannes.
|:120(22926141 KATESKJUTATJANAZOTATASI PRIRENT SOLIDJETJ
For it is in the cocktail bars that 00 percent of the blockmarket cur- renty deals are transacted.
The rich British woman bewalls her lucit at the tables and says that she will have to cut short her stay.
The aleck barman looks BY'm- pathetic and Kays,
Too bad, madame. It is formidable that 60 little money is allowed to you by your Socialist Government."
(All barmen are Conservatives).
Barman fixes it
THE woman, encouraged by this, launches on a talk with more de- talls. When she has Bnished the barman looks carefully round to see whether anyone is
within earshot, and if the coast is clear whispers deferentially. "Perhaps I can assist madame,
"Can I ask you to meet someone at the X bar at noon tomorrow? He is very discreet."
Madame probably refuses the Arst time, tries to retrieve her losses at roulette or trente et quarante, fatla to do so and is now in a really rather serious situation.
In fact she cannot pay her hotel bill. So again it is Andre the bar- man who finally Axes the interview. The X bar is the most popular for this kind of clandestine meeting as it has a number of dark alcoves.
A little dubious
THE
Д
Riviera sply, probably White Russian, possibly a Pole, possibly a Hungarian, meets madame and offers to cash her cheques at say 545 francs to the £.
Others are standing by to fly back to make as good an excuse as pos- al sible when their case comes up Bow-atreet or elsewhere.
I.
I personally had been in Monte Carlo less than 24 hours before was invited to cash an illegal cheque, It was partly my own doing because I had been inquiring whether the Max Intralor investigation had caused n slump in Illegal currency deals.
A young Scottish peer and his wife on their honeymoon down here found their first week's hotel bill was 30,000 franga (£74),
What did they do?
Instead of cashing illegal chequen they moved to the Hotel S. where they had a double bedroom with view over the sea and a bathroom next door for 200 tranes a night the pule of them.
Next they discovered the reataa- rant P. where they could get a first- The answer was that it had tem- porarily reduced the price from 500 class meal a la carte for. 120 frames francs to 530 francs to the £.
"But what la the legal sequence?" I asked.
coll-
rach.
Honeymoon
"That is all right," was the reply. "You write your bank o private let- ter instructing the branch manager TN this way they were able not only
for to write and sign the cheques
to extend their honeymoon to you to a nominee in Britain.-
over three weeks, but were able to
And even have drinks
risk a few
"You do not sign it yourself, old boy, and the agent will pay you your money the minute he hay seen you post the letter.
to
"It could not be more simple. "Of course, if you don't care do that you can always write home you onc and get someone to past pound notes in ordinary unregistered envelopes.
"But see there is no covering mes- sage. Then if by any chance they are intercepted-they practically are never intercepted-you can disclaim all responsibility."
Intrator men
WE were sitting in the cocktail bar of one of the most expensive hotels in the world.
White-Jacketed waiters were serve:
and glasses at ing dry martinis champagne at about 6. d. each in English money. My nudged me,
franes In the Casino,
An English business man hero is paying 1,500 francs a day for a dou- ble bedroom for his wife and himself together with a small single room for his 14-year-old son.
The first night he arrived he dined In the hotel and found his dinner bin was 4,000 franes.
He consequently lunched out and dined out every day after that, but had breakfast and tea in the hotel ench day.
Yet his hotel bili was 27,000 francs, to which had to be added all his food and his drinks and his cigarettes, which alone cost 200 francs for 20 cigarettes.
Quite frankly, 1 doubt whether the Government realises the im- portance of these first symptoms of revolt among the public of all poll- tical sympathies,
For the visitors to the South of France are of all classes. Thanks to high, earnings during the war mony people have enved up £75 and more for a holiday and they object to be- in told how they can spend their
w
own money.
It is all the more foolish when one learns exactly what Mr Hugh Dalton replies down here in answer to the question, "Mr Chancellor, do these cashed English cheques really affect your financial plans to any extent at mli?"
Mr Dalton replies, "Frankly no, but they embarrass me in carrylog out certain other regulations."
Nothing is more agitating than to and oneself in a foreign country un- able to cash a cheque legally, yet changing a cheque is such a habit of the average well-to-do Briton that he does it automatically, and it is made
of the Riviera.
no very easy for him by the aples
A
POCKET CARTOON
BRINDE
THE MANH-POWER SHORTAGE
ONE TOI YOU - DOESN'T (0-2)
BY THE
WAY
by Beachcomber ·
Justice Cocklecarrot, MR
whose handling of so many famous cases has made him the most respected legal authority of his time, has been appointed MAN who lost, money at the chairman of a Committee up- offered French pointed to inquire into and re- Casino was
£2,000 offer
franes up to the value of £2,000 by a man whom he had never seen ise-port upon the desirability of the fore.
Nithwhistle Plun.
This plan would necessitate immediate
house
the
He was a padded shouldered char-
nil nationalisation of acter wearing a dinner jacket in the Salle Priver in Monte Carlo.
properly. The State would The man refused,
buy all houses at three-pence a ton, Huw some people manage to pay and would then tear them down to their bills out here is somewhat of make way for green-belt dormitory mystery, to the layman, But one sites and compulsory holiday camps. soon discovers how it is done.
A rich man takes seven of his staff to Boulogne for 21 hours and thus Keta seven multiplied by £75, minus the expense of 24 hours at Boulogne.
The remainder, say £500, credited to him
by an agent at Boulogne,
is
A milder method is to drive to the
Ile did not. like me, pay 400 francs, Riviera by car and send the chauffeur to have his suit pressed, because he back third class and keep the change Have his valet de chambre a tin of of his £75 basle ratlon. sweetened condensed milk, so his valet did his clothes for nothing,
Apart from this, cigarettes continue companion to be the most popular form of tip. The French are rationed, but in any case most of them prefer English or American type,
"See the good looking youngster in the grey pin-striped sult talking to That the woman in the green dress. Is Z. He is one of the Intrator men. "Look at that middle-aged man in the golf jacket and grey flannel trou- straight sera and his hair brushed
Prices too high
A free holiday
ANOTHER way, but only good if you have your own villa, is to invite poor relations or friends for a free holiday on the understanding that they bring their precious £75 of travellers' cheques with them and leave them behind.
Pride conquers all
The calm, patient' beginning, and then the burst (there is no other word) on that final phrase,
(Music critic.) Accompanist: Was it your braces again, maestro?
Slager. How did you guess? Accompanist: As the climax came, I saw you clutch your breeches, just as you did before they fell about your
feet at Bournemouth last year.
Singer: I riso do my toes to give that final phrase all my strength, and what do I get?-broken braces. The audience were very kind not to laugh.
Accompanist: Maestro, had you
back. Tint is Y, another of Intra luxury hotel keepers all along tors to Munte Carlo know that they been compelled to finish with your
Madame looks a bit dubious and says she will think it, over, returns to the barman, who inquires the price offered. She tells him.
"Another of my friends will be tor's men. even more sympathetic to madume," Andre says, and arranges yet another encounter, for he is on a 10 percent commission basis.
This time the woman is offered 560 francs to the £ and does the
deni,
She never knows the agent by any thing more than the christian namą -say Serge, or Joseph, or Nicki, or Max, or Carol to name Ave of them --and now having returned home she is frantically trying to remember the details of her black-markel transactions and wondering how she
can possibly retrieve-her-cheques. Afraid to return
rooms,
trousers in a heap over your boots,: plty would have conquered
mirth. Art is above such catastrophes.
Interlude
Prodnose: Surely you admire' an artist
who can flaish his song knowing that at any moment
were, crash about trousers may, as
At least, however, the British visi-
THE
Casino. ure safe in the card detective
"I the Riviera are the first to admit
Scotland any that their prices are far too high for tries to enter it he will be refused the English,
to the gaming fidmittance "He says he is a Pole, but I know he is a German refugee. They have "But what can we do with the which are under the sole control of got a big deal cooking in Algiers.
and local, so Casino,"
the Commissaire Speciale of the taxes, both national
by the I was told today "Remind me to tell you some time high?" they ask. "There should be administration. about the 10,000 United States sur- a tourist frate as there was a tourist plus white tropical suits which made mark and a
"Inspector Tarr has not been here tourist lira before
unless he used a false name, a false were sold the war." their way to Haila and winlesome at 10s. cach,
passport and a false nose. "They were retailed on the Riviera
other evening he would have seen No. 11e should have let them fall, for 2,000 francs aplece (£4).
two visitors break the roulette table end, in sheer bravado, he should 10 times in two hours and win 8,000,- | have thrown off coat and waistcoat, 000 francs.
to test the audience. It they laugh, "Could the good inspector object? they are philistines. If they ignore And what could he prove?"
the whole thing, they are music- lovers.
Inescapable debt
THAT British people get into debt on the Riviera is almost inescap-
able.
ONE or two visitors are uctually only £75 basic ration to spend more
and
It is impossible for any visitor with
too scared to return
than 12 days en pension at a de fuxe Ketting more and more heavily in hotel even if he is a teetotaller and debt.
non-smoker.
WILLIAM HICKEY
that cut
ON
All agree that the frane should be at the rate of 000 to the 2, which is way of saying that the £ is another only worth 103, down here.
Listen to a British bank manager: "Five customers out of six tell me that they
are perfectly honest at tome, but are being made deliberate-
ly dubiourable by the currency re- gulations."
Listen to my friend the Monaco Government's pawnbroker: "The les my clients tell. You see the gambl- init makes them not normal.
"A mus in Birmingham will be Birmingham. Here honourable in that man is not to be trusted."
PARADOXES
A
MEMO: The Tory peer seemed turnips spread all over the face.
FUSS: At Cardi, in No. 10, nearer than the Socialist commoner and, too,
slices of beet Portcamel-gardens, the tenant, A. the lios makes them HOGARTH, was on
puzzling over to the working man's needs. He wrote rubbed a memo to a colleague whom I know: folter."
foolscap notice that warned him, "Mir Strachey, the old-Etonian, don't
the Towns Improvement understand the working cla
COLOUR-BLIND: In London, "under
classes' needs.
He buys turkeys and pineapples when at the opening of the Physical Claures Act 1047 and Public Health they want beef and bread..........W."
The W stood for Wnelton. old Man Society's exhibition, one man tried Act 1875" his street 15 to be re-
chester Grammar School boy.
The
the
tests colour blindness
and numbrred by the local council. couldn't believe his eyes. Like Live Forty shillings ne faces anybody per cent. of the men at the exhibition who destroys, pulls down, or puts up nt YACHTS: Down
Gosport he WDS colour-blind, mistaking any other number from the one de- bright red as tailed. Mr lugarth's new number? small-boat owners looked over TOM bright green and SOPWITH'S Livo Ane yachts matching colours. The paradox? He No. 10.
colour 27
artist for 20 Endeavour and Endeavour II. in a has been last-minute view before the sale,
| of this size are a thing of the past,
11 is most improbable that they will sail again." So these
years.
កង
SHUTKA: The Pravda welter
wisecracks. Ils name: David Zaslavsky-and his last one
Mr Sopwill's view? "Big yachts OPPORTUNITY—I Upselling had a paradoxical pastime-making
an old joke, CHARLES SCHEDER American millionaire's (22), fur trader from Windy BDY, had gone down very well; he des
North Canada, reported that the toys are ilkely to end their career to greatest need up North is-refrigera-cribed a widely prevalent nervous day by selling in parts. Salts for tors. ("Eskimos rely entirely condition. as "dollarium tremens." cuiting up. the 80 to 00 ton lead caribou for food, and have no way
FLYING: More kestrel and keels for contractors (who might pay of preserving the meat.")
were reported up to £100 a ton).
sparrowhawks OPPORTUNITY--2 Group hovering over London and other BEAUTY: And
housewives Captain "Cocky" Dundas (20), D.S.O. cities. Driven from the countryside. weren't bothered enough with new and Bar, D.F.C., looked forward to by gamekeepers protecting pheasants,
ore Anding-paradoxically- ways of serving up turnips, and promotion in his new clvvy job as they beetroots (while other vegetables are British European Airways assistant that city streets are safer than open ED. scarce) Dr ERNO LASZLO. at about £8 a week. It should be fields. Hungarian specialist decided that easy for the group captain:, he hat good beauty treatment is mashed started at the bottom.
If
NANCY Sluggo Was an Optimist
At 2.30. 5.20,
7.20 & 9.20 p.m.
PHYLLIS 'CALVERT
TOY SHOP
"THE “MAGIC BOW””
י
with Jean KENT* Donnis PRICE DISTRIBUTION BY EAGLE-LION ||
COMMENCING SATURDAY — CECIL B. DE MILLE'S GREATEST!
REAP THE WILD WIND
IN TECHNICOLORI
I'LL TAKE A
FOOTBALL-A
PAIR OF SKATES-- A SAILBOAT--
A BASEBALL
·BAT~~~AND A BAG OF: MARBLES.
Russian-joke.
"Had he been here at 6 o'clock the
AT
"Follow me
his
ilm in ruins.
Myself: Like a house of cards?
The Slopcorner girl
M'
Nice and Cannes and other IMSIE SLOPCORNER is to be resorts in France matters are
the 1947 Nylon Queen. Her different. 1 was given an eyewitness mother said yesterday: "I do so account of a Scotland Yord man who think that without them nylons. sat behind an English gambler who unsightly though they may be in our was betting heavily.
country meadows, we'd ret.no When the latter had finished the electric light, and with candies so inspector touched him on the scarce and dear, all I do say is I do shoulder and said: "Follow 'me." so think it important."
t." Her father He then told the Englishman that he would be well advised to return to England within 24 hours.
10
said: 'I suppose Mimsic knows what she's doing. I'm hanged if I du."
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
ACTISAN
I and, i Down. Seeria that Fou
has no option to whap 13
•
8
Responsible for anavenly music »
0 One of the conataliations. (B) been in the pet natite (4)
131.
10 the colour of standing orders
fotrude B is Weakon
10 Taxon from the angle expected.
1 That's when you get to the DOTB.
By Ernio Bushmiller
"A BUGLE---
THAT'LL BE
$17.50
OPEN A CHARGE ACCOUNT
་་་
เปิ Time 141
26 945
20
ยา
* Kingdom, #5)
Ele engnikris pridless Charivari,
fo fumpton 16 suggesta pole. (3) Sunde ameking 12-21
Not at all attractive, 19)
UbwD
1. it maths Pat no peer, 193
* Fruits Free State | 201
Noticed. In ang swiɛnbera
Layer. (3)
(4)
5. Sounds se though drid was ta»
tended. 101
teo ACTORS.
ti uften
BELsuited
years. 101
V. Born (3)
during Lato
14 imitate ten in four TOTLETE. 14)
15. Head piece. (5)
17, shows Nool was unsccompanied.
(4) 21. Web-footorita just habit
(4)
dira or just 8. PERG817
24 shot a nasty plecs of work.
lution of yesterday's puasia" -Bets Borereien; 6. Overact; is, lembrand?
Aerin 15, Optum;
Ogres Won; 20 To: 21, Oble; 14, Unsci
10
ปล A 1
Are: 14, Lee
When You Feel Tired and Restless
take
Elliotts Nerve
and
Brain Tonic
On Sale at All Diapontarios