Why do we have Russians, Daddy?
Answorod-after much research-by
BERNARD WICKSTEED
Do you have a bright boy at
your breakfast-table who won't let you read the paper in pence? I have, and the other morning he asked: "Why do We havi Russians, daddy? Who first thought of them?"
Obviously that's a question requir- ing nolice, I've been reading up some early Russian history, and prepared the following written answer (strictly non-political):--
entled
The first
to be people Russians weren't Russlang at all. They were Viking pirates who went there a thousand years ago for what they could pick up. And they picked up plenty, including the name of Russ, which meant seanien.
That's how it is that Russia, one of the most continental of nations. gets its name from the sea.
The nation Krew up along its river banks, and by making a few ensy portages with their boats the Russ could forage from the Baitle to the Black Sea or the Caspian and find villages to sack all the way.
FINAL WORD
HE Viking pirates gave Russia THE
ils first laws as well as its name. One of the Inws was very convenient. It said that if either sido disagreed with the verdict in a civil suit the parties could fight it out afterwards, the winner to have his
own way.
the
came to the bit about not drinking.
"But ille in Russia" said Vladimir, would be impossible without drink," So he tunred them down, too,
He rejected Rome because he didn't want the Pope asserting his authority, and finally chose the Greek Church because envoys who went to Constantinople found the services so enchanting. Plenty of Russians still do.
(I know this sounds like a funny
made up, but it is) story somebody all put down
the Russian Chronicle
historians from which draw their material). Having decided on the Greek Church the prince had all his subjects baptised-by force when necessary. It seemed a pity to scrap the god with the gold moustache. Elljah. ·
so he had it
INVASION
renamed
IEV, with its early Viking herit- age, faded out of the Russian came into it,' picture and Moscow
of the Tartars and Mongols who poured in from Asia on horseback.
targely on account
women
For two hundred years they round the country stormed
men and taking the killing the
and children for slaves, They introduced gunpowder from China, and one of their princes or khans made 19 peace treaties in a row and broke them all,.
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1948.
Flex
"Isn't it lovely? Thanks to Gaitskell we'll all be able to come and stay with you for Christmas.”“
The
WOOING
of
BRITAIN
by
GEORGE
W Presidential election in
SCOTT
Demobilisation De Luxe
THOSE
By PETER LOVEGROVE
?
OSE of us who have passed through the machine of mobilisation recall it 08 A business-like, unemotional and morcifully short operation.
No speeches or banda delayed or speeded my own translation into the perfia of Civvy treat; nobody wanted me to Inspect anything; press photographers had long stuce exhausted all novel angles on the subject by the time I galloped through Aldershot and Woking, and both the ACC and the LCC. forebore to present me with an iced cake to commemorate their respective loss and gati.
Not so with Flight-Sergeant Lewis, who has just retired from the Royal Air Force and token up resi- dence at Ilford, Essex. When he left Halton Station for the last time the other day, he was given a fare well parade and inspected the apprentices among whom he had served so long. Officers of his station and the RAF Apprentices' Band and Pipes accompanied him to his civilinn home, which he entered under a battery of newsreel and press cameras to the strains of Auld Lang Syne played in slow time. And then, after listening to two speeches, ons by Air Commodore J. F. Titmuss, the Station Commandant, he was the guest of honour at a spectat lunch.
Perhaps the best known of all Service, mascots, Lewis (the name is derived from the initial letters of London, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland), himself the son of a distinguished Royal Welsh Fusiliers mascot, has had a long and distinguished career with No. 1 Apprentices Wing.
As the war alarm grows, America's
attitude changes
•
and offers an
opportunity to the British Empire
obtain
Britain woukl
from the Aralis the use of the Negev, rich in mineral and agricultural resources. for her own military and economic requirements.
from
Britain should be separate Western Union and nothing more than an ally of it. Thus Western Union would be restricted to a Continontal union,
Promotion Came
After figuring proudly at the head,
on all
ceremonial
of the Band occasions
reached
n wider
at Halton, Lewis first pubile at the Jubilee in
Aircraft Apprenticen 1845; and so well did
he behave
that he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. Thereafter his polished hooves, gilded horns and impeccable parade "panacho" were never long out of the limelight. Legion Festival
The Legion Festion before the King
British
and Queen and other members of the Royal Family, the Lord Mayor's Show, the 1940 Rugby Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, the Battle of Britain Parade in Hyde Park, and the Festival of United. Empire all brought Lewis- more. popular favour, promotion, and the award of the Defence Medal.
The truth is clear that Britain has His viewpoint exemplifles at once the nature of the Zionist grievances only to persevere in the exposition and also the determination of the of the dimculties of this project that American State Department and is now still-born to convince militarists to re-establish a power- America of the utter impracticablilty human beings are rigorously
ful Britain.
Britain
The squabble between and the US. over film quotas con- tinues, but this is strictly a battle between business men and does not assume political importance.
There is fear in come quarters.
American foreign policy.
being Instead of
Independently formed and guiding the rest of the Western world, is being too much Influenced by Great Britain."
NEW YORK. At the beginning of the year
•ITH the United States American opinion about Britain was very low. It held little the
und news,
the hope for our economic future. public and the politicians con-
America is ceas- that But although Moscow was then a small pack-centrating their main attention Ing to look on Britain merely us
relation, on the campaigns, war talk in a beggarly
as she ha The Angles who came to England woods town in the north and was
the end of the to able to stand the onslaught better Normans who went
war, on the open plains of the America has been less fervent. done since
the new plan promotes us to no Normandy belonged to the same race than Kiev,
For one thing Moscow was
more exalted rank than that of as these Russ. That's why we and south,
and the Tarturs
a junior staff officer under Ameri- the Russians both ..... feet and on a tributary.
Norse mostly followed the main rivers. So
con leadership, inches.
old They were
anyone who wanted a quiet life Incasures.
found the best place to get it was up some backwater, like the Moseva tributary.
and the
the
And if you
Norman study churches in England you will sec that the builders worked in mul- tiples and fractions of 7ft, a mea-
Even so, Moscow was only com. sure the Russians use still and call paratively quiet. The local princes themselves made things lively their enough by Indulging favourite sport of putting people's of eyes out.
the sajene,
A
The Russ founded a dynasty
and negotiated princes ut Kiev trade
agreement with Constan-
Ivan the Terrible was a Moscow thople. Their exports in those days boy. He became prince of the city were furs, honey, and slaves,
In 1533 when he was three years old, and at an early age began to show how terrible he was by throwing cala off the Kremlin roof.
One of the terms of the agreement was that Russ saltors in Constan tinople should be given free Turkish baths.
AFTER PAGANISM...
CHRISTIANITY reaclied Russla by the same trade route, It was introduced by a prince of Kiev named Vladimir, who ataried his reign with an orgy of paganism.
boyar, M
But this decrease in War talk, far from indicating an American trend towards belief in
But none of the anti-British forces cited here diverts the surging
of Britain being a part of it.
What Now?
WHAT, then are our duties and
found American
and sympathy support for Britain and the British Empire:
Wurks in responding to this new-
make immediate They are to plans to expedite pressing measures and to work out sound designs for the development of the United
He also became a member of that very exclusive club, from which ex- cluded-the Allied Forces Mascot Club And now that he has reached his nge-and-service release group number for
mascots, gost, moun- tain, while (not affected by the present three months' suspension), and as a tribute to one of its most colourful and pubileised members, the Club has offered him honour
retirement at able
the PDSA Sanatorium, an ideal spot for him to spend years of leisure after such a busy pubile life.
Lewis Carroll and James Thurber would have enjoyed his exit from Service life and. the pomp and a peaceful settlement of For the cliizens, of, every Blatc
ceremony of his stream of friendly opinion away Kingdom: and the Briush Empire,
reception at the We must make unceasing efforts Sanatorium. that this is from Britain.
At Halton, he had n Enst-West problems, dénotes in the Union believe
to bind together the British Com- deflant bleat for the WO 1 and ate' Century. The loader what is now a firm conviction America's
writers.
There is another cause for discon- the columnists, the lec-
monwealth of Nations more tightly his demobilisation papers and turers, all of them have been tent in the U.S., but not one for
than ever before and to re-establish | clearance chit. At Ilford," where he That is
wearing Britain in the, powerful leadership | arrived
demob suit that this is the era of the U.S.
disappointment over Western Unioit
of the greatest and most powerful † (without a chalk stripe) and a telling their public day after day hostility towards Britain.
family bloc the world
bowler hat at a rakish has ever
angle, he was greeted by Duke, a Shetland pony, Barney, ex-RAF donkey mascot who have been known to Billy, the travel by Underground.
large white resident goat, three dogs, and a number of convalescent shire horses.-
in this country, that an open clash between Russia and the West must come some time.
But the U.S. is willing to concede With this conviction strong ungrudgingly a subordinate posi- American tion to Britain in its vision of the in the minds of
future grandeur of America. policy-makers and propagand- ists, and growing stronger every day, there is developing a new attitude towards Great Britain.
Britain is acquiring a special importance to America, and the He was attended by which is Russian for a well-to-do result of this fresh trend is an man, and this old boyar had a habit anxious desire to sustain. of putting his feet up on the bed,
the. One day when Ivan was 13 he got support and strengthen so mad at him about this that he British financial structure, and ordered him to be put to death.
to expand the industrial capacity of the United King- dom.
THEN REMORSE
He had a thousand people put to. ROM then on he never looked dicath to bring him luck, he married back. He tortured and killed his
4
Our Part
a dozen wives, and then surrounded subjects in hundreds. He had whole A BELIEF that war
with Russia is inevitable is the
his palace with statues of heathen families liquidated by throwing them gods. One of them, called Perun, in the river, and sent people out in most potent form of pro- the god of thunder, had a handlebar boats to push them under when therpaganda in favour of Great moustache made of gold.
surfaced.
Britain,
In a death struggle such as
But after a bit Vladimir began to Oddly enough this terrible man tice of paganism and looked round had a conscience, and there was so Americans envisage World War
for another religion. The first people much on it that he couldn't sleep at he approached were some Jews who night. His howls of remorse echoed had come to his Court. The religious through the corridors of the Kremlin future of Russia hung in the balance and kept everyone else awake, too. until he asked them his lost question, which was "Why are you scattered all over the earth?”
All the same, Ivan is probably the answer to the bright boy's question. He was the first Russian to call him- "For our sins," said the Jews, self Czar (short for Caesar), and when he died in 1592 he had laid and Vladimir turned them down.
the foundations of a Russian State, The next people he asked were and pushed its boundaries the Arabs, und the religion of Siberio. Islam sounded all right to him until
Next question, please.
KAMALA CIRCUS
CAUSEWAY BAY
GRAND CHANGE OF PROGRAMME
FROM 7TH NOVEMBER 1948..
NEW THRILLS!
into
NEW STUNTS!
NEW FUN!
TWO SHOWS DAILY AT 6 P.M. & 9 P.M.
Matinoes on Saturday & Sunday at 3. p.m.
III. will be, Britain is seen as the last line of European defence against a Russian sweep across the Continent.
The change in the disposition of American citizens towards Britain brings with it n re- cognition of the importance of the Commonwealth in any de fence plan.
These informed Americans
Other Voices
THERE are dissentients from this THE
-general opinton. It is well-that- we should be aware of their ex- istence.
The America expected us to lead Western Union and make it a powerful, living movement,
That desire has failed, and peri- sible Americans are seeing how the absurdity of trying to link a strong and vital self-merificing Britain with a weak, nervous, debilitated France.
Tho New York Times is becoming the exponent of the theory that
known
Faith and courageous action built the Empire. Faith and courage are needed again today.
By seizing this opportunity, Britain can escape from the stigma of being a third-rate Power and junior partner, and reoffim her rightful importance as a great Power alongside America and Russia,
"SAY, THAT DAME HAS SURE GOT SUMP'N!"
Palestine is still a sore
spot
annoying the Zionists in the U.S.
While propagandists led their fol lowers in cries of delight when declare that the Empire should bath Marshall and Bevin accepted be maintained and that its the Bernadotte Plan. there wero boundaries should not be other, Semitic, voices which wailed
their protest. diminished.
Indeed, the enlargement of
It was enough for the senti the Imperial domain would not mental, military minded publicista U.S. and Britain had be: opposed. The Colonial Em- that the
reached agreement o & plan for pire must be upheld, say the Palestine. The agreement and, not leaders of opinion in the New the plan was what mattered to World. And everywhere there them.
is recognition of the need for But Summer Welles, the former increasing the administrative Under-Secretary. State; con-
of
Bernadotte Plan, and
responsibilities of Great Bri- demns the
accuses Britain 'and America of
tain.
..
'trying to harry the General Assem- biy's Political Committee into accepting it to attain their own selfish, short-sighted ends.
'U.S. Century' THE American Government is
By giving the Negev to Trans- willing, even anxious, to hand Jordan, he says, and reducing the over to Britain the trusteeship territory of the Jewish Biate to of Cyrenaica, the important less than one-half of that allotted to it by the Assembly's Partition Italian colony in North Africa resolution last November, the U.S. Running parallel with this and Britain would deprive Israel new attitudo born of mili. of any chance of becoming an inde
pendent nation. tary considerations is an un- explained optimism in Washing. He calls the, Bernadotte Plan a ton in Britain's ultimate econo- project to give Britain milltary status in the 'Near East to which mic recovery.
she: la not entitled.
1-Minute Mask ... gives your skin
a lighter, smoother look!!!
Before you go out-always a 1-Minute Moski Cover Face, all but eyes, with Pond's Vanishing Cream. Its "keratolytic” Detion dissolves off tiny roughnesses, clinging dirt particles,
Whenever you weal
te look your penittext
1-dilute Mashi
After one full minuts, wipa'oft' the Mask 'and see the resultal Your skin looks lighter, clearer. it feels so much softert
POND'S
Frankenquiries to Room 322-323, Exchange Bldg.,
Exemplary Decorum
The whole slag party gathered round a decorated table, and with- out further ceremony got stuck into a large iced cake made of ingre- dienis with a particular appeal to goats, donkeys and horses, and with carrots in lieu of candles.
Though not every guest_displayed Lewis be- perfect table, manners, haved with his customary CX- emplary decorum through thô meal, the speeches and 'Auld Lang Syne'- until the time came for him to part company with his beloved band. The minute he was handed over to two civilian attendants, he drew back on his haunches and refused to budge an inch. Only a whispered consultation with the bandmaster broke the deadlocke: The musicians about-turned and marched away playing one of their livellest tunes in the direction of the stables, and Lewis automatically fell into step. As the stable door was reached, the attendants leaped at him, grabbed him by the horns and encouraged him enthusiastically from the rear, and Lewis, struggling gamely and bitterly mortified, disappeared from public life for ever, N
Surely quito the most un- ceremonious finale to a, dignifled Service career.
KEL, JOHN A. ROCITveir says, "After a Maik, myikiničokida Aner-texturad ..., feels smoother| Make-up/down,
Always before make-up, smooth on a light filmm of Pond's Vanishing Cream and leave it on, It's a Heavenly Powder Base, tool
LD. SEYMOUR & CO., 185-
Des Voeux Rd., Hong Kong
Tels. 38520-22697;