1940-12-17 — Page 23

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THE CHINA MAIL, DECEMBER 17, 1940."

CHINA MAIL

"WINDSOR HOUSE

THIS FREEDOM

Page:

Air Raid Night

IT was a starlit night, and not

a breath of wind was stirring was the scream of a small child.| I was awakened by a stream, It

banshee wall of the-air Mid-siren

sound was.

ful new chu-chu with a lot of red

with the pathetic readiness of child to be deceived by those he trusts, he calmed down and was

wrapped in a blanket and carried

felt anger rising: blast Hitler;|

As I drew near, a strange and

"Yes; a loverly dug-out," agreed with wide blue eyes,

and blast the German people who, improbable sound came out of the the child. lovê such gods...

earth; and I was reminded of Irish | "Loverley dug-out!” fairy-tales I heard a thin merry the sound of:singing:— tinkle of music from the hill, and

ing and whimpering with pleas

A dog frisked round nie, leap sure, thinking what a good sport I was to get up in the middle of the 'night!

A voice called to me from, the

hill:

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Tasty Sausage

No; I hadn't. I turned to the dark and empty house, now look- ing utterly doomed, as if it had

By H.V. Morton

Ba, ba black sheep, Have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir,

Three bags full...

I enteres the dug-out- and saw a sight which might have met the eyes of an early Christian in the Catacombs.

In the long, narrow, tomb-like place, my household sat round the child. Upon the floor stood an old nursery gramophone, from whose reluctant vitals proceeded the hearty voice of Uncle Mack of Children's Hour.

My God, what a children's hour! "Be careful what you say," "I was warned. "He's forgotten the

the light of my torch, went to the kitchen and fung over the switches.

only a moment to live, and, by|s-i-r-e-n."

I opened a cupboard and saw some cold sausages on a plate. I began to eat one.

A high constitutional I thought at first he was having authority has said that a nightmare, then, as I became fully awake, I realised that his the most important hour scream was accompanied by a in any Legislative Assem-louder, wilder scream outside; the bly in the world is ques- going over the dark countryside. tion time in the House of Commons. There we have house. Voices called and whisper-you switched off the light?"

Doors opened in the lonely old

"Whatever are you doing? Have daily the Grand Inquested. Glowworm pools of torch- of the Nation on which in struggling into overcoals or pull- light on landings showed, women the simplest way Parlia-ing flannel trousers over pyjamas. ment performs its im

In the nursery, a boy of three memorial function of lis-sat in his cot trembling and be tening to complaints and wildered, asking what the horrible. redressing grievances. If one asks why the proceed- He was told that it was a beauti- ings of Congress do not carriages, and that appeared 10 interest the American pu- satisfy him. blic in anything like the same degree that those of a the British Parliament do the British people, a large into the night, ecross the paved part of the answer is that terrace into a hole in the hill-side: owing to the differences 1 felt admiration for the cour- in constitutional practice, age and the ingenuity of women. the American Congress lacks this contact with! the daily life of the people. The reports of question- time in the House of Com- "Isn't it a lovely game, darling?" mons since the war began, fitted like ghosts in the starlight. as dark forms show conclusively that in "Yes," said the child' doubtfully. The hideous wail of the siren had protecting British consti- died away to be succeeded by an tutional liberties, the sur-Intense stillness. Yes; I could vival of this feature has hear, high up, the hum of aircraft. alone been of high value. It was humiliating to think that, A Free Parliament and pulse, or even a sudden jelt, might a Free Press remaining in cause the finger of a young Ger- active existence, though the

man to press the bomb-release at precise moment when submitting voluntarily to curve of descent world land bris the necessary discipline of cargo of death on this dear and Thin stems of

chief now the outward and visible signs that we present to the world of our faith in liber-

war, are

ty and democracy. That

A Lovely Game

1 heard one say,

up there near the stars, some im-

harmless home.

the

The clock said it was Aftes minutes past two. The sausage tasted very good.

"Was that a b-o-m-b or h g-u-n?" someone askeri me, spell- ing the words. so that the child

should not scize on them and associate them with fear.

Dear Old Thunder

"Gosh! That was near!"

The earth shook.

"Only, thunder," said the child' happily.

"Yes, of course, only thunder dear, funny, old thunder," we replied. And we looked at each other, knowing that death was casually roaming about overhead, near the stars.

It is the casualness of death from the air that is so infuriating. You do not kill even blackbeetles by dropping a flat-iron on them. !

"Civilisation, 1940," I thought, would be a grand title for us, as we sat in the morgue-like tomb.

When I looked out, I saw the lovely light of a new day tremąş bling in the east. The grass was turning green again, and the folda "It was a b-o-m-b," I spelt were gold with wheat or white back.

with barley.

"Surely those were G-c-r-m-a-n 'planes the high up ones--as we came in?"

"Yes! they were G-e-r-m-a-n." "Noise Noise!" said the child

Suddenly, I felt my hand jerk up, and the sausage missed its way to my mouth, as an explosion shook the windows: a sound like tipped. a gigantic load of coul being un-suspiciously, remembering again the ogre-like scream of the siren; and we flung ourselves into ecstasy of normality in order to chase his little mind away from the boundaries of reality, knowing had no right to trespass into que that so young and small a thing bloody world,

I felt alone and afraid. Why was I lingering about like this? I must get away.

With nerves stretched to meet another explosion, which I felt swiftly through the house, out into must come at any moment I went the pale starlight and across to the dug-out in the hili.

The bank rose, dark and shaggy. foxgloves leaned I out of long grass and nettles.

an

The fantasy of that night seem- ed dispelled. We were like people who had been living under an ing upward of a new day. evil spell, now broken by the well-

And, even" as. I looked, there came the sound of the “all clènt"; and I went inside and told them.

The child was asleep. We car→ ried him to the house and slid him into his cot; and then went back to bed.

In the morning, or rather later "Now let's play pat-a-cake!" in the morning, we learned that said someone with a firm, astrin- "some damage had been done to gent voice, and spen the clammyfarm bulldings," and that the "loss Catacomb echoed to the clapping of life was negligible.” of hands.

"Isn't it a lovely dug-out?"

Whose farm, we wondered; and whose negligible life?

Why Bachelors Stay That Way

man is

blind.

they should remain in be- Between the ages of 20 and 27 bottles, old magazines are all alikes to keep at least some things | which he would be conscripted to ing and command a high plunge in headlong, eyes

most susceptible. He'll part of his precious sanctum sanc- to himself. That's why he joins All in at bridge or negotiate, a torum. With the invasion of a wo-Secret Societies and hides in his non-aggression pact with the measure of public respect But after 27. scepticism sets in man, man sees all these cherished club. They given man something outraged cook. is the main guarantee of and the bachelor goes into hiber closet for "safe keeping," to be pipe).

alang with "Reasonable Hours" belongings whisked into the hall to keep to himself (besides his the pledge which the nation. He becomes as shy of replaced in prompt order by glass Prime Minister authoris- marriage as buying a new hat- gadgets, whita. lamp-shades, and ed Sir Archibald Sinclair AFTER 27 the male begins to use

fluffy nothings. to broadcast that it

his head, and it will take an the policy of Government expert indeed to beat down his

panicky ideas.

.

was

WHY?

"to preserve in all essen- Bank manager or on-the-dole, tials a free Parliament all bachelors have fixed obsessions of the worst things that can hap- and a free Press; that all pen to them. those emergency mea- LOSING HIS FRIEND8 ... At

bachelor dinners the bridegroom❘ sures which restrict the is always spoken of in the past liberty of the subject shall tense. "What a good fellow he used to be!" "Didn't we have fun in the disappear with the pass-old days!" All this, of course, is a ing of the emergency, and good joke, but it firmly fixes in that the new offences bachelor's mind that

the bride groom will never see his friends created by regulations un-again and that marriage is as der the Emergency Pow-nal as going to war. ers Act and the extraor-lor can't make up his mind on any dinary powers entrusted one girl. The girls he couldn't live

WRONG CHOICE... A bache-

without

to the Executive will van- changed so much

ten years ago have

HIS. WIFE. LETTING, HER- SELF GO... as soon as she is safely and scourely married, wearing the same old hair do in spite of any new styles. that might come along, and making his-marriage as dated as a 1929

car,

|

AN ARMY OF CREDITORS.. swooping down on his doorstep to attach his furniture is a regular bachelor's nightmare. As a bache lor he just manages to keep out of debt, but married, he'd feel as un- balanced as the Federal budget in election year.

METAMOR"

THE FINANCIAL SWEEFS STAKES

awe a bachelor. RUNNING A BOARDING HOUSE

He seescit as a race run between for his wife's rela hackled-husbands to ste who tives is a formidable thought for cant affords the longest” autor: any bachelor who may be barely mobile, the biggest front lawn used, to keeping, one room under and the most expensive für coat. control, A mother-in-law may BEING TIED DOWERED, drop-in for tea and stay for the promptly puts away in mothballs winter-and spend it prying with all the Errol Flynn adventures ||bird-like curiosity, into closets, and most bachelors plan to have. He's..

dusty corners. A brother-in-law, scared to death of designing hoping to be set up in business, females in ruffles and faffeta who HAVING TWINS IN THE parks himself on them until he talke about regular meals and an FAMILY

may be a feat"gets on his own feet.” which would make

The anchorage. He's more scared of a him under thought of coming home every "homebody" than a dozen rattle-.. standably proud, but the prospect evening to an elongated table of snakes and thinks of marriage as of a family of four on his hands hungry relatives is a scary pros-making his life's adventures no after the first year makes him pect to a bachelor who may be as more than a series of leaks in the doubly cautious. He sees the brave as a lion at his office or the root and furnace trouble. serenity of his home upset by a Grand Sachem at the lodge. long series of howls, food formu- A. MEAL. TICKET:

He's las; diapers, clothes lines, clothes heard that women" plan mare pins, and warming milk battles. rlage liker going to market te

HİS SAVINGS GO UP IN SMOKE

buy a cabbage. He's scared 'ho'll and disappear like be the cabbaga÷that some wo- Free Lunch in Scotland with the 'man sizga upo to- see if he can money he's been saving for fish- feed the family. that now he ing rods, vacations, golf clubs, and A PUNCTURED EGO

A SUDDEN ish with the advent of vic- wouldn't be caught out with them: old age. They vanish overnight frightens bachelors. thinking of PHOSIS ...of the lady of big tory and peace."

He squirms at his narrow escape. into brown linoleum, a gas stove marriage. Very often a bachelor dreams. He's afraid that: the How does he know that to-day's and a three-piece suite,

thinks of himself as a Tyrone soignees woman who made his There is a gloomy spe- choice may not be to-morrow's BEING FOUND OUT.

Power and his success with the heart stop beating might change culation which represents tween a young girl with siender mants in a love affair or marriage. than his irresistible charm.

mistake. He may be drawn be- one of the most unfortunate mo- lady of his choice due to no less Into the kind of frumpy fright democracy as helplessly charms, or a dowager with a fat When the little lady stops cooing would shock him to death to really

he's seen laying down the law to a bewildered husband. caught in a trap by war. either choice may be a wrong one and begins seeing through his so much due to his charms as the

bank account. He's afraid that about really "understanding him" find out that his success was not TURNING: INTO "A" BUTLER Either, it is argued, it will

4. for some young lady who, so he doesn't choose.. alibis it's a sure sign she has his fact that the little lady was just once married, will relax and fully, be defeated in war or des- MARRYING A BRIDGE CLUB number. It's a plain signal that beginning to question the desir- expect to coast through life on a troy itself in winning a come home every evening to find Juan of courtship days, but the cases anyway.

. is a big proposition. Will he he's no longer the dashing Don ability of a lifetime behind file wave of luxury. He sees himself donning on an apron and cooking HAVING SOMEONE TO TALK his breakfast, airing, the dog and shows

out of this cupation of his living-room like days:

TO INCESSANTLY. He won dashing off to the office to make. ders if he can think of something the wherewithal to meet the bills. supposed impasse. If Par-

Interesting to say to a woman HIS WIFE BEING SMARTER: llament permitted itself collects all sorts of junk, under POSSESSIONS?- The bachelor

every day of his life—or if they] THAN HE.... might tam out to to be extinguished in war, the general heading of hobbles and a man. He never suffers more sothera

at all terrines wiht just sit and stare at each be the chad Marraked to pla second to a womana, Supe to be silenced or fall into souvenirs: Class pictures, whisky ngonised suspenso as during the BEING DOMINATED ispose after marriage she continued desuetude on the order of served the essentials of for a girl's answer to a proposal all bachelors. It koppe more men corning more than he while his few minutes when he is walling the most common marital fear of to be Miss Jones, Head of the Stuff the Executive, the recov-freedom and used its she has been waiting for years for away, from the állar than locked salary just takes care of the gas- ery of its liberties at the powers in such a way as

him to make,

church" doong. The bachelor is bill. Or suppose she were the up- HIS PRIVATE THOUGHTS... afraid the sweäti-little feminino | and-coming president of the local end of the war would be to carry the support and become an open book when a whisp might become a little dicta- garden club while he still be- a slow and painful, per-respect of the public will curious litle lady begins prodding tor overnight, partition his cher Leved that the Hardy Asters were him with questions and poking ishecki Belöingings and: wage the now next-door neighbours, haps impossible, task for be irresistible when it de- into his mental comers. He sees mechanised war with a vacuum and the peonies, the workers of a long period to come. But mands the restoration of himself, punching a time clock for cleaner on everything he wanted Mexico. Parliament which has pre-its liberties,

even his most intimate thoughts left alone. He sees himself as a⠀ And finally-Having a woman and, unimportant, activities. Ho: minority, relegated to a den from | around at all.

ware Minister a bevy of women in complete oc-plodding John Smith of marriage

the Soviets in Poland?

WHAT WILL HAPPEN-TO HIS .:

PROPOSING.

It

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