THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 4, 1941
CHINA MAIL Return
--WINDSOR HOUSE
WHERE WE STAND
the
To
Glory
What a return to power for that their name, and. business to the two, she served four different din- by the troops. The luxury hotel She been Marine Parade,
sets empress who of inte had
Marlborough,ners to four
of lodgers ut has also been taken over,
the pleasures of losing her kingdom to younger Blenheim, Sandringham, Braemar midday. There was an atmosphere has discovered
embodies all the The New Year has and more showy rivals-namely, almost singing themselves they about her quiet kingdom of the monopoly; she
And, till the war began, sterner virtues as well as of boiled hard wisdom of economists on the brought forth a crop of the Owner of Lodgings, the Brl run.
Deity
Church who they proclaimed, in letters of or-cabbage.
and tish Landlady, the
chapel subject of scarcity and rent. She from pronouncements
sounds so Near Eastern and is ange, which far outshone the notices were on the wall by the can put the intending lodgers un- well-known leaders in so sturdily native, the
bedroom you der scrutiny and give laws to her goddess modest lettering of the landladies hatstand. In your
new subjects. She can charge There are regions, alas! In Seaview Terrace, their proud, might discover an illumined war- world affairs,
And which, Ma
and
It was extra, as of old, for "cruet." where her catastrophe is total, her sonorous titles
gaiety ning that God Sees All. when sifted down, bear home a ruin, her savings lost, within.
not supposed that those who came why not? For every cruet of herg But those of the species who Then there were the Holiday to partake of sea air would forget Is a masterpiece of ancient splen- the same message
were established on the safer Camps, cheap, social, with every the Lord's Day, array themselves dour, a true twelvepointer, as the an assurance that ulti-
shores have customers in crowds, modern convenience and all the as for a South Sea orgy of sun gillie would say, a Stonehenge of worship, or take the Marine Par- the dining-room, and suitably mate victory over aggres-pathetically suppliant, begging for
ade with a blatant and barbaric equipped with all the condiments show of scarlet toe-nails.
and relishes proper to what is ad- sion is approaching. This niche behind the face curtains
vertised as "liberal table." message of confidence in British strength to over- come the evil
and the aspidistra at which they once had mocked. To have rooms where a family nay sleep nt rest is now to be the owner of a
to
Private
difficult forces of treasure, and it is Nazism must have been blame those who would sell that. treasure a trifle dearly, for most read by Hitler and his ad- of them have been through hard visers with some forebodies and suffered the scorn and poverty which come to unfashion-, The able institutions. ing as well as rage. war is now well on its way
Especially had Ma suffered at
seaside, where the in its second year but it is the
once only during the past three dy boarding-houses had had their faces lifted and had treated Or so months that the themselves to a coat of paint in
Titivation had pro- stage has been sufficient-side and out.
ceeded from trimmings to titles. ly cleared to show the They changed their names
Britain has Hostel, Guest House, or advantages
Hotel, and even invested In a gained as well as the dis- Neon Tube sign whereby to flash
which still advantages
The weigh against her. New Year season has, in fact, given the world an small opportunity breathing space to as- work of the sess the months which have pass- ed as well
as the tasks which still lie ahead.
a
In his message to
the German nation Herr Hit- that 1941 ler declared
would bring them a deci- sive victory, but the German leader has cul- tivated the habit of making grandiose state-
By Ivor Brown
the
never
expects
The British lodging-house Is matriarchal, One
The basement, scene so often of the landlord to be lordly. He is, Ma's labours, the fount and origin for the most part, an appendage, a¦ of so many odd culinary odours, now with the jubilant humble helpmale who "pops out" shares Their official to fetch and dispatch, lends a landlady the return to glory. The modern pleasures.
once was the pest hosts and hostesses mapped out hand with the luggage, and gen- basement, that the day with a colossal time-tableerally performs the humbler of-of owners and the fatal bar to A
From of delights.
the buthe be-fices compatible with carpet-slip- profitable let or sale, has become fore breakfast
He dance at pers and a pipe. to
knows his the asset of a property. What re- in secluded areas, night all was Scheduled; contests, place and worth and is no more idence, even
can be dubbed desirable without and competitions were incessantly of a hearthrug monarch than was
whom Mrs. it? The once abhorred depths, organised; nobody had a moment poor Joe Gargery, to in which to wonder what to do; Joe was "a master mind" and which made us lament the idiocy the pleasure machine swept up habitually "on the Ram Page, Pip, of ancestral architecture, are now boredom as a vacuumi cleaner on the Ram Page." He has pro-turned into the precious heart of pounces upon dust. What could bably retired some years ago from the home. The narrow, curly the landlady, with her sedate pri-a post and has now turned retire-stairway has become the ladder to
He is a subterranean quietude. vacy of "digs," set against such ament into a regular habit,
himself with
one bliss
of this world. She
much
a
life, where none need be solitary, only seen when sent for and then We laughed at the landlady and none need deliberate or scourge is only half-visible, hovering like now are on our knees to her. We
choosing between a ghost which suffers acutely from
tore up the house-agent's bulle- and another, since re- nerves. (I have always suspected tins with their cautious reference land, "the dawn is al-velry was laid on with a constancy that ghosts must be panic-stricken
to "semi-basement," Semi-base- ment indeed! We would have ready high." Queen Wil-squalled only by that of the water at the prospect of our solid selves.)
He had not, apparently, in the cubicles?
none of it and want none of it in the hemina, General Smuts,
past, but Ma, with her majestic maho- | pocket-money
now. Full basements, please, now his finances ought to be
devious the true General Metaxas, King gany sideboard, her nice seclus on
deep, dark, and of separate apartments, ber heir-stronger, just as services as a pop- condition of sheltered life as have Haakon and others
per-out are more frequently and 1941 understands that ill-starred loom furnishings and acreage of
urgently needed.
adjective. So struck with inspiring as-Victorian oll-paintings or engrav-
back to glory the barely saleable at 2 For Ma's empire is restored and subterranean kitchen comes, along surance the same note of ings (now
there in have been added to with her who reigned peny a yard), her cavalcade of new jewels a confidence which lies in cruets, and the powerful odour of its renovated diadem. By wire, drab dominion over sink and cop- Great as once Diana of the the hearts of the greater roast mutton and boiled vegetable by letter, and by pitiful oral reper.
Ma, stern emerging fron the lower or hin- quest from houseless nomads she Ephesians has become portion of mankind.
der
gaunt, parts of the
and many is besought to provide accom-goddess of the basement, It may well be that Herr staired stucco mansion, was not modaljon. She, who had watched blessed, too, has that nether tem- more cavernous appealed to the visitors flock to the lure of the ple become, the Hitler spoke the truth individualists who kept themsel-Neon lighting and the Holiday the more desired. On the round- when he said that 1941 ves to themselves and chose their Camp. sees her rivals over- about of Time
she rides in ไย suit their thrown. Civil servants are billet- triumph, the owner of a treasure would bring decisive vic-own holiday way
Somehow, with the aid ofled in the swaggering Guest House far beyond mood.
rubies, the Woman tory-but surely not as he a scampering, bewildered girl or and the Camp has been occupied With a Room To Eet. would wish it. The odds are mounting rapidly ments, which, while! against him. Britain, they may sound reas- backed by her own cour- suring to his expectant ageous, undaunted peo- people, are now generally ple, the United States. discounted by the world the Empire and her Allies, at large. While confident cannot be forced to suc- of success British leaders cumb to terror and ag- do not adopt the same
gression in all its worst tone. They know that,
characteristics. Perhaps much suffering and loss
when Hitler complained Danish town the young people met show undue "unfriendliness in union wiuld be devastating to the still lie ahead, that pro-that Germany to-day for a dance. Uninvited, some Ger- their connections blems will arise which stands alone ringed by
officers
Those troops. Of course, appeared.
are known, and present simply tried to ignore the acts of sabotage may be baffling for foes, he had begun to have unwelcome guests and danced on. they have been severely punished, terprise. But this often tends to
even by a German
The Germans In
Denmark
After the cattle show in a small | seeched
man
to
not the population
with German more serious
through a Customs union between Germany and Denmark. The Ger- mans at the same time asked the Government to consider the question of a common currency.
The effect of such a Customa
whole industrial structure of Den- mark.
rightly This country is known as a vast agricultural en-
period, but they do know faint glimmerings of the But then a German officer, bow-sometimes.
ing courteously, asked a young military court. But it seems as if conceal that only one-third of the
more.
his luck once
The officer left, but next morn- ing the police were asked to in-
Of minor importance also is this example and yet it contributed to harden the political atmosphere when later a crisis threatened the existence of the Govern-
Erik
that they have the confid- evil he has wrought not giri for a dance. She turned to a the majority of
all the trouble-population is engaged in agricul- some cases during August and ture: another third is engaged in ence of a determined peo- only
industry--for instance, shipbuild- to the conquered Danish friend and asked him to
have been the off- take her away, as she "felt so September
ing and great machinery works, ple behind them and as countries but to his own tired." The same happened when spring of sheer German jealousy. which before the war were suc- cessfully exporting. When it was they review the progress people. He and his collea- the German tried
learned that such proposals were already made they fur-
under preliminary discussion and gues must see that all thermore realise that
that, in fact, a delegation had left those nations still uncon-
for Berlin strong resentment was events have on the whole quered will not limit their vestigate this outrageous case of very
felt in industrial quarters and also proved to be extraordin- energies or spare their unfriendliness towards the pro- ment.
among the working people, who tectors of Danish neutrality. A
suspected a new attempt to re- arily hopeful and
en-sacrifices, "They intend," strong representation to the Dan- Danish farmers have always.duce them and their already low- of living to the couraging,
as a well-known Canad-ish Government was even made for one reason and another, been ered standard An assessment of Brit-ian recently said, "in the through the military governor in strong opponents of the idea of German level.
Copenhagen.
summer time. When the Parlia- ment in April decided, in spite of It appeared that the Foreign ain's chances of winning great words of Pitt, to Similar cases of "unfriend-all opposition, to introduce sum- Minister,
Scavenius, had the war seven or eight save themselves by their liness" have been reported to the mer time it was promised the gone far into promises. during with Ber- months ago would have exertions and the world Danish Government over and over farmers that it would not be ex- these negotiations
the. made many feel that by their example. That in German officers and sol- tended beyond August 15. On the lin, strongly supported by
diers who have tried to make con- evening of the 14th, two. hours, Minister for Public Works, Gun-
a con- before summer time was to end nar Larsen, there was every reason to example invites the brave tact with Danes and as
sequence have been cold-shoul- and when all
preparations had fear the worst and little and the free of the whole dered (and not only in the ball been made in this respect, the When it was learned how far Minister was curtly, in-they had gone in their negotia- reason for anticipating a world to associate them- rooms) seem to fail entirely in Prime victorious outcome. That selves in this greatest understanding why. The decent formed from Berlin that it was tions-without any mandate-they
ones express their
# surprise regarded as unpractical to have met stormy opposition. this attitude has been crusade for humanity in sadly. They go, round rather two sets of timing within the. Ger- course, the papers could not write completely changed is to order that victory may be naively, and ask people to explain man military administrative area about it. But the opponents had why Germans always should be so would the Government please their spokesmen within the Gov- ernment, where after one stormy be seen by the confident early, overwhelming and hated. They seem quite honest in cancel its decision?
meeting following another it was statements made by pro-fruitful. And the fruits of their surprise, and one sometimes
against The Government then, actually decided by nine votes almost feels sorry for them. The minent people all over the victory must be the at- German troops brought with them infringing an Act of Parliament, three to break off all conversa- world during the past tainment of the vision to Denmark and Norway an in- was forced to announce by way tions and inform Berlin that con- structive pamphlet which ordered of the radio that the summer sideration had to be postponed in-
the definitely. week. These pronounce that great, good and wise that they should behave politely time should continue, and
day sum- ments ring true. Nothing men saw 80 clearly and unprovokingly and to. a Parliament was next
large extent one cannot deny that moned in order to pass the Ger- Germany still seems to be cauti- of a lurking distrust or twenty-one years ago; a they have tried to do so. But they man-desired law. No comments ous not to offend the King. He, -on the other hand, repeatedly stresses fear can be traced in world of peaceful, useful fail entirely to see their own wore offered,
tactlessness in attempting to be
his loyalty to the Government, them. As General Sikor- cooperation in good works intimate with the population and A question of minor importance and appreciation of his timely
yes. But strongly felt in Den-intervention recently, when ski, Polish Prime Minister, by free men and free na trying to be loved" by them.
mark as just another humiliation, crisis, seemed Inevitable, may said in his recent broad- tions, a world from which Their protests were the reason and it happened shortly before an largely have strengthened the cast to the wretchedly the devil-worship of Mars Prime Minister over the Copen to a critical head: the question of warm sympathy from the people behind recent appeals by the important question was brought overwhelming demonstrations of unhappy people of Fo-will be outlawed for ever
hagen wireless, in which he be- lan
nic«/ rapproachement, on his seventieth birth
+
Of
a
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