THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, MAY 22,
UP TOWN' TRAIN TO WHITEHALL
FILLF
CITY
by GILES
SUB
"Even if Attice has suspended the purge, I think you're a very silly civil servant to come to work like thai”
THE
Truman dream
The backfires-
on Truman
big
America
tract Russin into making peace
in overtures.
is
NEW YORK.
question is-What Harry Truman up to now? The subject of this question is, of course, the mysterious mess. age to Moscow.
to
Accustomed in an election 'year to find politics the answer any difficult questions America supplied that answer again.
· Truman-an also ran in this year's great Presidential race-- had tried a great political gam. ble. His objective-pence with Russia at America's price.
The advantages of such Rooseveltium coup-if it could be brought about--were obvious,
What happened, it now turns out, was that Russia led the world to believe that it Americn making the overtures.
Was
Until now, they have hardly bothered. For Truman has not been like Roosevelt, a man you had to fight all the time.,
At their national convention, few weeks from now, the Tories pick their man. If American were Britain that mun would be TOM DEWEY. But
do not keep a lender until he retires or is discredited. Indeed, a defented candidate is usually a forgotten man,
in American politics the parties,
Dewey has hung on because peace he is Governor of New York
by C. V. R. THOMPSON
And now Truman and his Government have been busy denying that there are going to be any Munichs, any talks and because with Molotov
he has got the or Stalin,
any best radio voice since F.D.R. changes in
America's foreign From Britain's point of view policy, any let-up in the re- President Dewey would be a armament programme.
-fair-weather, friend.
It is too early yet to say that Truman's gamble has failed completely. but it has certainly backfired.
Unpopular
Then there is Senntor ROBERT TAFT. He is the man big business and big politics woult lite to see an old-style Tory but ho knows more about government than any nther man in Washington.
As the man who secured the But if time proves that it in the White House. He is not only peace, he would not have to has, Truman will find himself worry about Henry Wallace and Worse off than before. Because his pence-at-any-price followers, he will have given his Torg or about the resurgent Repub- opponents something that has licans, who are America's Tories, been missing all through this
And, politics apart, he would election battle-an isut, Batisfy an urge that has lately For the moment, the Tories been overtaking him to make are saying nothing. Before world peace his life's mission. they renounce the American What Truman hoped for was foreign policy trace they want that his secret message empha- to see whether it is worth open sising "Amerien's strength and ing up with such broadsides firmness of purpose would at- against Truman.
I
"There's nothing enjoy more than a nice long walk in the country,”
JESTS AND
JEERS
Taft, however, is unpopular with labour because he sponsored a Bill to end strikes unhispiring to the publie because his voice is as fut is his Ohio homeland.
would find President sceptical thal $110, especially with a Socialist Govern- ment, is of any use to a tough, hard-
In Talt Britain
#1
Wading America.
HAROLD STASSEN tried some- thing new to American politics.
Go wass you face," they repeat
By JOHN RODERICK
SINING, CHINGHAI-Life PICTURE
pulses and throbs in the. A girl of 12 with checke so red market place of this far north they look like patches, Her Hittle west China walled city.
Glances:
A Lall, Mongolian youth dressed in red woollen sweater
1948.
By Walrus To Tangier
NE night in Tanglor I was taking a drink
in a bar when a baronet standing beside me put down his glass and remarked that he'd just bought a walrus,
"A what?" said the barman. "A walrus," said the baronet.
Naturally this caused a little comment, and someone said: "What are you going to feed it on? Oysters?"
But it wasn't that sort of a walrus. It was one of those amphibian airplanes they used in the war for naval and air-sen rescue work, and the, next day the baronet took me up in it for an aerial tour of Tangier,
This is quite a good way of accing an Oriental or African city, especially tho native quarter, because you escape all the poverty and the smells and the beggars. From the air the dirtiest towns look clean.
Sun roofs
As you know, most of the houses in North Africa have flat roofs, where the women go for a sunbathe.
We thought we might see some, but the baronet's Walrus made such a noise as we skimmed over the housetops that it frightened them all away.
All-we
saw were a few dozen peeved-looking storks searching for places to build their nests. The slorks come from Central Europe, but every year they take a few months off to have their own babies, and the roafe of Tangier are among the places where they have them.
Wille all the other hopefuls were ambitions, he announced himself a being annoyingly coy about their candidate and proceeded to workc for it. No one has worked so long or so hard.
Youngest State Governor America's history Stassen is only 41, which is too young his party big-wigs. They are
afraid of his "liberailsm."
-in-).
still tor also
Stassends to his critics. a glib, cocky youngster who, in his attempt to be all things to all men, is hope-
Jessly confused in his own mind,
time when
He was strongly pro-British at a his home State, Min- nesota, was the most Isolationist
and therefore the most anti-Brilish -State in America.
Favourite
candidates that is not the way in It the people really chose their American politics-Stassen would almost surely be their choice. For
he has made the strong favourites, Dewey and Taft, lopir alliy in the primary electiónst
to
It lugs now as it Dewey and Taft will poll almost equal votes in the first ballot at the convention. Stassen's hope is that, in succeeding ballots, euch will be unable gather enough votes from the other for a majority, and that in an attempt to break the deadlock enough delegates will switch, to Stassen,
Again, that might happen if the people had any say. But what is inore likely is that a deal will be made by the hierarchy and a "dark
horse" will be nominated.
At one time Tangier was British. Charles II. got it as
a wedding present along with Catherino of Braganza, but, like a lot of wedding present it wasn't appreciated much at the time, and after 23 years of not knowing what to do with It be cave it away again.
Samuel Pepys. the diary man had something to do with this. Ha went out on a tour of inspection and then sat under a fig tree and wrote a blistering report on a pince.
The fig tree is su
Д
we
BIRD'S EYE VIEW... this timo óver the
Jand where the
sun shines and. money talks...
by BERNARD WICKSTEED
International world might be like.
No politics
THERE IS
טוז
no inconic tax or rationing, wars. strikes, or party poltiles, and the winter
and the
P
Botne
and asked them to change money. Yet their lights burn far into the night. So what are they doing?
Many aro no more than covers for wholesale currency, deals, They will And a way of transferring .is like an English June.
money from anywhere to anywhere no export drive,
There is no purchase tax either, no matter what restrictions the labour,
no direction of Governments of other countries may pubs have no place in their way. licensing hours. A bottle of Scotch costs whisky In
The people who live in Tangier pound, and if you order are called brand you want.
Tangerines (and bar they ask you what gerines are called mandarins). In the last eight years the Tangerine The head of the administration is population has doubled. There are a Portuguesa admiral, and the police now 140,000 of them, and the only chief is
* Belgian Frenchman runs the water supply,
colonel. A productive industries among the lot aro a soft drink plant and a sardine Englishman the
Spaniard the electricity, and an factory.
municipal slaugh- terhouse.
P
#
The international council which runs the city has 30 members from 11 different nations and communities. At least there should be 30, but the Urce Russian members entitled to sit have never been appointed.
Bank boom
to
pass
there úre
who
the
THEN
the Americans
take thetr scats Brid help by-laws but don't consider themselves bound to keep them because their country has never signed the statute that gave Tangier its constitution.
Right now an American citizen
saw it from the Wals building a block of flats that in one values have changed, and there isn't storey higher than the Inw allows
nation In Europe
and no one can stop him. Πισιν that
There wouldn't jump at Tangier if it were
a great deal of building offered.
roing on in Tangler just now, and you get a good view of it from the air. Most of the new places are banke. Before the war the city got along with ten. Now there are 46.
In hardly any of them can you cash a cheque or open an account. They'd laugh at you it you went in
It is in such an Important strategic position, across the straits from Gibraltar, that no one country wants by a miniature Uno and makes an any other to control it. So it is run interesting preview
of what
an
Len-
I went to Tangler once before the war and found a certain civic prido in the place, but there's not much making now. The people arc too busy money -- cunutibal money derived from the misfortunes of thora very countries that gave them ur passports.
A
A kindly Englishwoman rung husal for sick donkeys, but in the streets around it you see children of seven working 12 hours a day in tailoring and cobbling sweatsnops.
any case there are no parks for the children to play in, for almost end the cemeteries. the only open spaces are the markets
(wo sidos
BUT that's the sordid side of Tangier. From aloft you sco it as it -should be
seen,
with all the harshness rubbed out. You see the mosques, but not the beggars round the door, the purple bougain- villaes blooms, but not the mangy dogs. Even old Pepys might have changed his mind if he'd seen the place from a Walrus.
THE SPY WHO ROWED
FROM SCAPA
By NORMAN BARRYMAINE
N the cold hours before In on
Ile mended their watches and the morning of clocks instead of their having to man in a heavy ulster stepped Britain. He applied October 14, 1938, a burly little, be sent to Inverness.
By 1932 he had Ilved five years into a row bont from a cove on
to the Scottish the rocky shore of Scapa in the
for naturalisation.
Oillee
The dark horse certainly will not
He had no dimeulty to find a few DE GENERAL DOUGLAS MACAR- | Orkneys.·
-leading citizens to vouch for him, well for He rowed six miles in the dark The papers went through without a THUR, which is just as Britain-as-for- America.
to-rendezvous-the-U-boat-13.00.
a
It might be JOSEPH MARTIN, who as Republican leader in the House of Representatives is its Speaker.
and Sixthy-three bachelor, Martin lives, eats, drinks, alceps, and dreams politics. As o President, he would probably just like President Truman.
Best for us
bo
The man most likely to be chosen has always said he does not want the Job SENATOR ARTHUR VANDENBERG, who la most re- sponsible for the absence of an issue in this election.
hitch
On the Sunday morning, Septem.
On October 15 the Admiralty an nounced that the Royal Oak had, ber 3, 1939, when the sirens were been sunk in Scapa Flow with the walling their Brst warning of war, loss of 634 men out of the ship's he received a tetter from Rotterdam complement of 1,280,
A few days later in Kiel a great mother was
telling him thut his 80-year-old celebration was held as U-boat 1.06.
very ill. Her death. bed wish was to see her only son.
entered dock. Admiral Donetz was there to congratulate the commander The little watchmaker packed his bag. locked up his shop, and a' duy
loter walled from Leith Rotterdam.
Kapitan Leutnant Herbert Prien.
But few bothered about the short stoutich man in civilian clothes who unobtrusively emerged troni the conning tower and was hurried away to a waiting plane which took off for Berlin.
WATCHMAKER ARRIVES * We have to go back 21 years to pick up the threads of the beginning. of this real-life spy thriller.
ar
For Vandenberg. 11 reformed hands are tucked under A grey | Isolationist, made foreign policy opron. Her bluc pantaloons ore what Washington likes to call bi-
A Dutch citizen, representative of wrinkled but neat
partisan, that is, he forced both
Swiss firm of watchmakers, Looking at me, she blushes, and parties to accept America's foreign rived in England In 1027. runs away.
polley.
He was a retiring, middle-aged, Her eyebrows are missing. This Now 64, Vandenberg would un- little man
who occasionally doubtedly accept the
Presidency fessed to his customers how very for one fenn and one term only. much he would like to settle down And from Britain's and ail other as a watchmaker in the Britishi points of view, he would provably Isles,
and black knitted skull cap sets is a sign of leprosy. his wares, wrapped in cotton,
on to the flagstones of the market place.
SKETCH:
con-
or 10
MEETS H.432
10
clerk treated him
་
THE ROYAL OAK
He received plenty of sympathy as he told how he had arrived a few hours too late to comfort his mother. •
It is
still mystery how Von Mueller picced together the In- tricate, top-secret details of the boom and nets of Scapa Flow's anti-submarine defences, Presuni-
the
ably it was his patience, methodical compilation of scraps of information Three days after he walked up s
gleaned
from chance remarks, and the gary-plank at Leith a man his astute observation. arrived nt the Hotel Commerce,
Honours were showered on Frien Rotterdam,
commander of U-boat 3.00. und his crew. Admiral Donetz WAK decorated by Hitler. But Mueller's name did not appear in the long of awards. WATCHMAKER DISAPPEARS And the last that we know of him was when he boarded the plano from Kiel for Berlin.
This is the story of the sinking of the Royal Oak as Cookridge in his intriguing book, told by E. H.
"Secrets of the British Scernt Service," (Sampson Low Marston, 156.).
The reception. deferentially. He inquired for the suite of Herr Fritz Burler.
Burier was agent H.432 and chief of the Nazl Service. in Holland, He treated his visitor with deference, took him by-car to The Hague, where the two men weat to the private house of Captain von Duclow, the German Naval Attache. "Kapitan Kurt von Mueller, may "I would like especially your In politics midway between the lovely Scotland with its lakes and I be permitted to congratulate you?" progressives und the dichards, mountains," he sighed
sald Buelow. "It 过 A dcult He achieved bla ambition and journey from Scapa Flow!" politician. His drawbacks-no in- opened a workshop in northern Vandenberg is more statesman than
The retiring littlo watchmaker
It i easy to agree with Cook- timacy with domestic problems, t. Scotland, moving a year later to had changed to an officer
of the ridge that it would not be dificult Kirkwall in the Orkneys.
German much of a Russophobe.
navy. The cold-rimmed
for a man who'can play the part of then, Today's best election bet,
Although the people of the island spectacles were still there. but the a watchmaker unfalteringly for 12 Stassen versus are suspicious of strangers, they round shoulders had gone. is Vandenberg and
Other for
years to have little difliculty In Truman and A. N.
a soon offered him milk, sea gull's egg A few days after his visit to Rot- Scratch and cloth on a sign of their friend-
Posing as an anti-Nazl or displaced terdam he returned to Scotland in person in some remoto corner of the photo possible Henry Wallace.
ship.
deep mourning.
occupied Relch.
be the best choice. A Tibetan strides into the street. He spreads a cloth carefulty on He is tall, willowy, with the grace the ground, Inys his burden gingerly of the interior people. Opon it. Lovingly he smooths out
He wears long earrings of beaten
bag.
What wonders of Tartary or Tibet will be spread forth?
He wears a long robe, roped in of
the cloth, carefully reaches into his gold. The metal has been punched
through the lobe of his car.
His movements are feline, almost feminine. 1lls hair is done up in What Is the treasure
which he colour is gray.
the back like a woman's pug. The handles so cautiously, whlie a knot of the curious stand around in the waist. unticipation? Asked how she was enjoying her Now at last he slowly pours his
When he catches sight of me he honeymoon in England, film star offerings
stops and stores. Westerners are onto the walling cloth, yellow haired devils to Tibetans. Lana Turner replied: "Just Topping," | altar.
They are--pennuMB,
I stare back. Then we
small. dried Persimmons, and Slakiang raisins.
He bows deep, low, a courtly Smiling wryly, I buy some.
gesture. I grin and return the courtesy. Then we pass on, star- Ing back over our shoulders.
The more a woman does about her face, the less she does about the house.
VIGNETTE
and
A troop of kindergarten children
CENE:
follows me down the street, shouting The market place. A young A good line is the shortest dis- and laughing at this foreign op- lance between two dates..
parillon. They tug at my coat talts boy in frayed cottons and blue skull stall and scream delightedly when I turn cap squats in front of the ond make a ferocious face.
where musical instruments are sold. He picks up a black ebony flute. 'Admires, caresses It. Then 110
Overheard at the bar:
"It's not the heat, it's the humidi-
Ly,"
Skipping and running, they grah
me by the hand, jump up and down. Ulows a few liquid notes.
pru-
Suddenly, I shout at them, for they truly need it: "Go wash your He puts it down. Talks casually face."
with the stall keoper, They This is superb. They repeat the tend he is just offhandedly fnterest. Customer: Walter, there's no words, not knowing the meaning ed. Ho would love to have it... chicken in this chicken ple.
A moment inter, hands behind his back, he strolls away, whistling- Associated Press.
Go Wars you face, go Wass you
Waitor: Well, you don't find a dog face."
in a dog biscuit.
Y escape down a narrow street.
finish.
PAULA
By DENNIS WHEATLEY
||---) STEPPED ON|| I'LL GO,IN,
SOMETHING--
I THINK IT WAS
A BODY!
SIR!
Death of a star! The body of Rita Vane la discovered
in the studio tank.
RITA VAHE
OOOH!