1941-03-08 — Page 7

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THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 8, 1941

CHINA MAIL

"WINDSOR HOUSE

DOES IT CREAK?

A critic of democracy has complained that Brit- ain's parliamentary ma- chinery is to-day tardy, dilatory and inefficient. It creaks. It delays. It needs drastic reform. He said this in a broadcast discus-¦

sion and added that one

could

now say these! things in Free England without being called a Bolshevist or a Fascist.

The reason was that in the common suffering of the present war it was

realised that everybody' was after the common

good and should be allow- ed to express his own views on how it could be attained. He proceeded to argue that, if Britain was to survive as a great eco- nomic power after the war, it might be necessary for the British people to accept "more discipline] from the centre" and to'

sacrifice certain small lib-

erties of conduct so that they could be sure of the greater freedom of pro- tection from attack.

HONGKONG

SHANGHAT

IMMIGRATIwe OFFICE

POST однос

CINEMA-

RICE

FLOUR

Cont

QUEUES WITH A DIFFERENCE

The Man With

A

the new

The answer given in the!

When people discuss Broadcast debate was that world after the war (a recent and still popular habit, as our wars go there must be a limit to, by) one is apt to hear some harsh growling about the banks. Some-

our ruin.

Table

By Ivor Brown

Page T

sober ritual of a copper-plate hand.

1

Clients, of course, not custom- crs. For banking is to us a pro- fession, not a branch of trade. The man with a table has be- come the man with a status. The clerk of a bank is admitted to lawn tennis clubs from which he would be excluded were he only clerk of a commercial house.

arc

The vagaries of British snobbery numerous and very strange. Next door to the bank may be a chemict's shop, a fine, old-fashion- jed, gracious shop, with all the signs and appliances of a learned profession, the great carboys full of coloured water which proclaim the ancient craft of alchemy from the front window; inside," the walls ore lined with the finely shaped jars for the drugs with handsome Roman lettering, gold and black. No stock-in-trade could be more dignified. The owner has passed examinations and has initials after his name He may be very learned and the quite as safe to consult as average doctor. But he remains the man with a counter: he is a shopkeeper. He may not play

lawn tennis--nol, at least, with retired colonels in South Devon.

Yes, they may rear at the Mas- ter Bankers, the men at the top of the tables. Nearly a century and a half ago Thomas Jefferson proclaimed:

I sincerely believe that bank- ing establishments are more dan- gerous than standing armies, and That the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on It large

scale.

But how could we curry on our wars without this business of funding? Nineteen-fourteen may have swindled its sons by leaving them at vust debt, and 1939 will swindle its sons still farther by leaving them vast dels on two wars. But it was the war that made the debt, not the banker. He merely assisted at the loaning. Consider the bankers of your ac- quaintance. Do they seem to be engaged on a large-scale robbery? If they are, they do not know it. They may not believe quite so strictly as their Victorian pre- decessors that they are trending 011 a sacred floor, but they cer- tainly would be surprised to learn that they are dwelling in a thieves' kitchen.

On the whole, they are merci- ful to our overdrafts. That is, if they know all about us and our address, who our parents, what our school. From the Radicals' point of view it is all, let us ad- mit, regrettably cliquish. The

I may sometimes wonder whether cashing of our cheques is carried the operators of the financial non in a general atmosphere of chine do themselves fully under-middle-class good manners. Hands stand their implement. To be self-¦ and collars and conscience are all confident, to look and speak ini-| clean. The bank messengers in posingly, and to possess a jargon London are consequential fellows carry you a long way in this with severe uniforms and sun.c- world, to the top of many pro- times with top-lia's, symbols of fessions and possibly to a throne the system and noble ghosts of the Mottramite banking of last century. Shy tolk may feel abashed by all this, like Stephen Leacock's Little Man who had no sooner opened # bank account then he used his first cheque to

the sacrifice of personaling, they say is coming to these liberties. All Britons dens of iniquity and fountains of

flit Those who into make my mind clear about cre-

and currency, but

remain might reasonably be ex-social reform with a butterfly and dit This I take to be a fair-in Threadneedle Street,

transient motion are usually most baffled. pected to give more of vehement about the sins of the ly general condition of ignorance.

which their time to the active dealers in credit; perhaps they are though the candour

1 have tried earnestly to claims it is not so common.

right.

service of the nation. They

must be prepared to give

up more of their property|

rights and endure higher

4

can

The

Churchill Uses Vast

Powers Warily

chief difference between, Commons

than

pro- We

By Raymond Daniell

or even

If it indeed be true that the banker is so powerful a creature and is the privy tyrant of our public life, then the fellow has indeed come up in the world. To draw the money out and flee in

and

currency

terror.

the

the ancient Greek his name was simple and explanatory: he was

The introduction of young wo- just the man with a table, When I visited Greece, a successor of men and type-writers and count- to ing-machines has done much against those this ancient "trapezite" would ar shatter the pristine solemnity of taxation in the interest of the powers Mr. Churchill holds handed down by a single Minister rive on our ship in the mornings, the old Temples of Mammon.

table, set up his and those President Roosevelt is through an Order in Council.

change None the less, it is difficult to en- the community. They seeking lies in the difference in-

Even

One such, I remember, ter these places without seeming in peacetime a British money. must even give up the herent in the British and Amer Prime Minister exercises greater promised to return with his tange to be a person of some class and power over foreign affairs than an in the evening in order to change privilege, which is doubtless very governmental systems. The

American President. However, a back any Greek money we had luxury of pestering their powers Mr. Churchill wields are

wrong in a society supposed to be his to use only so long as he uses

left over. The "trapetzite" was democratic, but must, none not as good as his word: he had leaders with trivial ques- them in such a way as to please Parliament and people. That's

British money in his wallet and less, be admitted to be flattering. What a difference of emotional tions in Parliament that why, among other reasons, the

preferred to keep it and be rid British people faced with a crisis

limitation of powers

exists if a of his Greek, which was more of tone accompanies the lodging or collection of money in #1 Post would interfere with the in their affairs,

to our so willingly and

in British Government's foreign pol- a compliment cheerfully gave up so many

a bank! I can understand why supreme task of post-war hervil rights, under for icy is disapproved by a majority than a convenience to ourselves. Office and the similar process

a strong ininority, the But he had great charm, like so Communists should hate these toward explaining the paradox of Prime Minister may be forced to many Greeks, this

young man reconstruction. But an

why this country remains a free resign for lack of confidence of with the flying trapeze. One for-places: for them the man with a with a family the emphatic "no" must be democracy although led by a man the House.

gave him. But if he is now in table is the man with all the powers of the dicta-

affiction of the proletariat. the answer to the ques-Lors of totalitarian States.

The war has brought a vast, in- the Army Pay Corps of the Greeks. tree, whence he cuts rods for

Life's ironies are countless, and Under laws already enacted per crease in the government's do- We may trust the Evzones to keep

it may after all be true that the tion whether there should sons and property of all subjects mestic powers

with hardly any an eye on him.

From the pan with a table to worthy bank manager, who keeps of the Crown in these islands are appreciable. change in powers to

the man with a throne (or at least al' our charity accounts for noth- also be a surrender of the at the disposal of the government. deal with foreign affairs. right of criticism and ap- longer his castle, The government, pared himself to a

A man's home technically is no President Roosevelt once com- with a power behind somebody ing, is warden of a church as well. quarterback. else's) it has been a long journey, as of the air, plays goodish golf peal against the decisions it it wishes, can order him to take calling signals. Mr. Churchill is In our own country the march has from a handicap of twelve, gives

In those whose own houses have quarterback and captain of the been made demurely, as it were advice about everything, and

many in elastic-sided boots with stout obviously a model citizen, is also of the country's rulers in been razed by German bombs or team as well. There are

fires. Even trial by jury can be Ministers in: his Cabinet but it is but silent soles. Mr. R. H. Mot-the tool of a demonic and anti- the heir to an social sovereign force. As was all vital matters. Blunder- suspended under certain circum- he who has the final word on all tram, himself

the of us.

Meanwhile the bank re- ing or unscrupulous lea-stances, and there are men in pri- matters of major policy whether honourable stool in a family bank, said, these are mysteries to most

son now under the Defence Act they have to do with improving has written beautifully of

in mains for me at once. awesome ders are best brought to against whom no specific charge conditions of life in the shelters august Victorian atmosphere

man with has been filled.

or sending an expeditionary force which this seemly, courtly pro- and agreeable, The account by public censure Yet it is doubtful if there has against the Italians in Libya. If fession was carried on. The banks a table may have become a com- and exposure. "Under an been a single serious instance of the war is won or lost it will be have been called the Temples of bine with a myrind counters, but by those who failed his magic abides and he bestows suppression of vital civil rights, his glory or his reproach, for while Mammon "efficient" dictatorship

accuracy of confidence with cash. He and I While blanket powers already Farllument hus power to oust hun fully to realise the

and such leaders could only be have been granted to the Chur- from office it is unlikely to do so the phrase. In the kind of bank exchange a piece of paper,

the when I get money for a cheque I chill government, the tendency is for several reasons. One is that that Mr. Mottram knew

instinctively feel that removed by assassination. for Ministers seeking, to impose he knows the temper of his own youngster was soon made to un- always It is easy to say which way drade Berties, to seels, specific fan in using, the powers they have holy ground and that in serving the bargain. Sometimes, no doubt, drastic regulations affecting in people. He is not likely to go. too derstand that he was treading on, somehow I am getting the best of of life will ensure a more authorlantion from Parliament. given and can take away. Another these tables he was serving Truth, I am. But he discovers all. Are honest government Eff-Thero is less likely to be publie perhaps stronger, reason is that if Justice, and Probity as well as not the sad facts written,

outery against laws which have Mr. Churchill went there is no clients The ledgers were sacred and black, in the tables of the ciency is not everything.been debated and argued. In the one in sight to take its place. {"bʊʊka," tʊ" be inscribed "Witir “tire*mat with table to an mwen pa bë”w.

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