1949-09-09 — Page 6

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TYPHOON AFTERMATH

THE CHINA MAIL, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1948.

BRITISH MAGAZINES AND THE DOLLAR CRISIS

The week-end magazines in England are one of the chief institutions of British politi- cal life. The discussion in them has a great influence on policy. By studying them carefully, the reader can see what lies ahead,

The most important of the magazines are the "Economist" (Independent), the Tribune" (left-wing Socialist), the "New Statesman (Socialist), the -Spectator" (Independent), "Time and Tide" (Independent, but inclined to be Conservative).

The most interesting article in the magazine last week-end 1 in the "Economist on the dollar crisis. The article analyses first the politics of the crisis, then the| economies. It. prints the article in parallel columbs. The one on the right is marked "For American Rendern, Not to be rend in Bri-

thin,"

The one on the left is marked "For British readers. Not to be read in America,"

"truth is It does this because many-sided, und if there is to be the understanding nations, different facets of the truth need to be diferent. places"

between

stressed

In

Once again Hong Kong has been lucky to have missed the full impact of a typhoon, although It was lashed by fierce gales and drenched by torrential rains. Most badly hit, as usual, were the thou- Chinese living in sands of matsheds and other flimsy 1. The crisis is not due to the structures, who

their Socialist programme of the pre- homes smashed into sodden seut government in Great Britain. pulp. With traditional stoic- ism they have airendy start-

ed to rebuild.

A

saw

somewhat similar fate fell to many young soldiers under canvas

New in the Territories. When it became

obvious that the typhoon was nearing,

some camps

were

struck in good order, while in others the men had to be evacuated quickly, to nearest place of shelter.

the

Το America, the principal points which it makes are:

Dollars And

Dodges In Bermuda

By RICHARD GREENOUGH

If Sir Stafford Cripps wants U.S. dollars he should come to Bermuda,

Though official currency in the

The general public has pro- bably not realised how many troops have been living in tents during the rainy season, in spite of the large-scale Bermudian pound, this is a dual

to currency Island, thanks the requisitioning. It has been volume of American tourist stated that it was impossible | traffic.

authorities for the military

to erect even semi-permanent barracks this year, not so much because of lack of mat- erials but of skilled labour and technicians. It is to be hoped that satisfactory ac- commodation, will be ready before next year's wet wea- ther.

Dollars and cents circulate as

freely and as legally, as pounds and shillings, In one shop win- dow articles may be ticketed in dollars and cents, in the next in pounds and shillings.

taxi or buggy driver, or barten- der,

You can, if you seek, find some

or less scrupulous shop- keeper, prepared to sell you dol- lars. You may even find them peddled in the street. All this is strictly illegal; legal for them to sell, fliegal for you to buy. Once again vast numbers

Nevertheless, according to Gov- of people were inconven-ernment estimates, about £750,- lenced by the enforced stop- Colony's anticipated dollar

or one-seventh of the page of the Star Ferries. venue of £5,000,000, will have disappeared in that way by the end of this year.

Official Rate

re-

Some months ago the com- pany announced plans for informing the public about their services in typhoon weather, but they seem to be

You can buy dollars for $5. nt very ineffectively implement- the official rate of four dollars to ed. Admittedly messages were the , though more usually dol- broadcast, and relayed over lar sellers ask 6s. or 7s-despite Rediffusion, but that seemed the fact that even 5s. is a reason- able price, for when they turn are supposed to do, they receive only 43. 118.

By "WINDRUSH”

"It is very difficult to trace any, ports too much and exports too connection between the nation- | little"

alleation schemes and the balance 2, "There is no magle in the

of payments.",

ning

America. It concludes that they nie, both because they see in American aid,the best hope of *cconomie reconstruction, and be- The Gnashionalists are due for

capse, after the

experience of | another crying and kneeling ses- Hiroshimaa, they believe that zion about the end of the mouth, America is by far the strongest but I cantonestly say I care, power in the world, and want in future to be on the winning side.

actions of the slate that can 2. The crisis is "the_ expression guarantee the ordinary man an of volcanis upheavals in the income larger, than he cams..... economy of the whole world".

The Inescapable condition of 3. The crisis cannot be ended escape from the crisis is between simply by "American generosity." the efforts that the British pen- there is devaluation of the ple put Into their economic pound-which the "Economist"

activity and the rewanis that now regards as necessary and they expect to get out of It inevitable-America must not | either an increase in economie complain if America is foodod | eflelency or else a reduction in with cheap British goods.

the standard of living". 4. Closer economic union in The "Tribune" also /h An Europe, though in the long run article on the crisis. It is headed crisis, since the imperative, will not solve the "Private Unenterprise." Its argu- econoraies of ment is that the export difficulties West Europe are competitive, not are due, not only to high British complementary.

costs of production, but to the failure of private business in its marketing methods in the U.S.

All the magazines have articles on the new Stalin-Tilo clash,] The tone of Russia's latest note reminds them unpleasantly of Hitler. There is an uneasy feeling the thuit an upheaval is about to take place in South East Europe which may affect the West. I

5.

So long as dollars are hard currency, sume degree of trade discrimination is unavoldable.

For Britain

To the Dritish reader, "Economist" snyk:

On Japan

1. "For a generation past the British people have been paying too little attention to their com petitive position in the world. In general' the doctrine of the Left, with their teaching that the orilinary enan

make less effort to produce and yet consume

have

to a with the contributed situation in which Britain ir-

inore,

can

In an

article on Japan, tire "Econonist" enquires whether the Japanese are really happy virtual allimee now existing between Jovan ared

The "Now Statesman" con- tinues the analysis of the Amer- ican White Paper on China. IL warns America that in ila tuture policies in Asla it must come to terms with the two ideas now dominant, there-Nationalism and Socialism "which are in Asia the only alternatives to disintegra tion".

"Ten Japanese goaled." What's Base for the goose is snse for the propaganda.

Suggesterf name for yesterday's typhoon; "Tugboat Ancie,”

There are great social pro- blems for which the possession of the atom bomb is an irritant, not ble

solution". America cannot fight ideas with dollars. It should have learned this from its experience in China.

Our ferry service is just terry-

Magic carpets, maybe?

•

To bring Butsung Nun's troops the to defend Kunming from

TAILPIECE Gneral Stilwel

Kontú border, we can only sur- American com- "Vinegar Joe".

rise that the Nationalis have mander in China during the wor until Chiang Kalestek demanded rered the secrets of acomie his recall, was not one of Amer power lea's most popular soldiers. But "Time and Tide", reviewing the Stilwell Papers, writes as follows:

"In China, on in Imposable assignment, he did more than any other man could have done and it without help; he made Chinese fight-no inconsiderable feat-an, when the full story is told it will be apparent that he was the greatest single agent in, volding a total continental col- Inpse in the Far East."

A Little Neighbour Put Germans

Rússia

Respects

By G. WARD PRICE

Strongest of all impressions left by my tour of the "Fron- tiers of Fear", of Finland is that of the vást extent and variety of those borderlands on which a potential Soviet menace exists.

"Russia" I have found that word on the lips and in the minds of men all the way from the tropies to the Arctic Circle.

will in

he "You see,"

explained, "if any country invades Finland all

inten our able-bodied stantly take to the woods and start a war of partisans,”

Red Stranglehold

In The British Army

By HOWARD

FRENCH

The coup direct.

said to the As Lu na

Ad- miralissimo over the long-di- tance phone from Chungking to Kunming: "ll be Sion you."

The

1

in

"submarine” seen Lyemun Pars was, 1 gather, pre- ceded by a full squadron of Ily- ing tankards.

So the little Edle is not dernol- lershed after all?

A

Pał, pal, supplies.

The Hankow-Canton line will now be known for stort as the

lenst "How-Can" fine...st

to General Put.

“........Saloon, thoroughly recon- dilloned, new paint scats.....".

Look, chum, it's a private car When the 8th Hussars Jed I'm after, not an interior docçora- the British advance into. Berlin-tor's vari. they found the Russians looting

border.

An amateur chef of my BC- quaintance insists that any piece of tough meat can be cooiced to a tender turn by bossing a rusty nail into the pan.

Some of the steaks I've wrest- led with recently would on this. principle have enjoyed the com- panlastep of a steel girder.

That is all they could do-for, in our sector. A fricas aroPE, in actual fact, the Russians have and eight British soldiers were

On Fin-killed. already a strang?ebold

That night a small body of Hus- land. it is the common preoccupation

Under the peace treaty impos- sars went into the Russian sector. They killed exactly eight Rus- troops

ed upon that country the Soviet of Afghans driving their

out their bodies, camels and of Laplanders Government has been able to sians and laid of

along the zonal tending their herds of reindeer. construct a powerful fortress at head to toe, The anxiety it arouses is felt the very gates of the capital alike on the

Lieutenant-General Sir Giffard Only 10 miles plains sandy

of

the west along Central Asia and in the dark the const from Helsinki is the Martel, head of the British Mil-

"Zone of Porkkala," flr forests of Northern Europe.

about 15tary Mission in Moscow during miles square, which is entirely in the war, uses this bizarre incident Russian military occupation. It in his book "An Outspoken Solters that the new Baodai-operaİ.... cute Finnish rail communications dier" to illustrate the value of Re- ed state may turn into a Soviet- from east to west, and dominates gular forces as opposed to con- the entrance to the Gulf of Fin- scripts, land.

Common Frontier

Yet this visit to four countries having a common frontler with Russia suggests the thought that Bolshevism, like certain physical infections, is generating its own anti-toxin in the political or- ganism of mankind.

There are fears In some quar».

num.

"You cannot tell a conscript who has never seen a corpsc to do time the Adjutant-General told me that no Communist organisa- likewise," he says.

What else has this outspoken i toa could possibly exis; because it soldier to say?

would be discovered by the con- mrship, but I have reason to be- lieve that communications to and from the Communistic party in

Not a sigle· Finn is left in Porkkala-or in any other terri- tory that Russia took from Fin- land; 400,000 of them forsook their homes rather than become Churchill: It was the custom of the Prime Minister to go to bed Russian, and have had to be set- led in other parts of the country. In the afternoon so as to be fresh

Trains on their way to Western for the night sittings, but his Cairo were carried in the pockets Finland have their

windows Chiefs of Staff could not do like- of junior officers in one Service, shuttered with iron plates as they wise. Whoever heard of the First

Martel Lieutenant-General through this pass

mysterious Sea Lord being in his pyjamas in argues that the best way to keep Soviet

which base,

is within the afternoon?

the peace is to have a highly "shellrange" of "the Finnish capital,

Stalin: -I am inclined to think trained, mobile Regular Army to and constitutes the same sort of

that on the conclusion of the war replace the conscripta threat to Helsinki

"We should enlist mercenaries as London he was anxious to establish more The Soviet Government's ac-

friendly relations with the rest of from the Germans and displaced the identity would be under if Chatham were a former enemy

the world......but the Commun- people to serve in the British Re- that she has overrun seems, in-nation with of the Eastern European nations occupied by.

which we might lat Party seems determined to take gular Army. This was carried out different line. It may, well be with great success in the days of that this has caused a rift among} King George III, when he used the leaders and that Stalin now Hanoverians.

None those States Afghani- stan, Iran, Turkey and Finland is materially capable of resist ing a Russian attack, but all of them strongly assert their deter their inde mination to defend pendence, and betray by no-out- ward sign their uneasiness about Russia's possiblo, intentions. tion in suppressing

to be all. Trams or buses did dollars into the banks, which they deed, to have acted as a stimulant / again And ourselves at war.

not carry signs, and the usual crowd of thousands milled around the Kowloon pier for hours without news of when ferries would recommence.

There have been one or two

prosecutions recently of people hoarding dollars, or carrying aut dollar-sterling fiddles, and all have had stiff fries.

I discussed the matter with Mr. Horace James Fitzpatrick, forner bank manager in India. who's now in charge of Bermuda's

to the nationalist spirit of those that still lie outside its grasp.

Of these the 4,000,000 Finns are the smallest and perhaps the toughest.

In the last decade Finland has fought two wars with and lost both-but she put up so Flussla, fierce a resistance that the Rus- sians seem have developed a

Building Pens

what goes on No one knows at Porkkala. Blasting is some- times heard, And leads to the supposition that submarine pens are being built under the cliffs.

The Russian garrison and its supplies are taken there, either

Currency and Exchange Control Bort of tolerant respect for her. by sea' or in sealed rallway

He said: "Nobody not entitled to have dollars is allowed to keep them-Into the bank they must go. If he does keep them and fa found out the penalties are severe."

To help him, Mr. Fitzpatrick has a couple of British Treasury "sleuths." Colonel Leslie Brighton and Mr. Richard Fleming.

mild in

They have been

exacting

We Judge

the

Com-

arc

It would seem to be an easy matter to exhibit large signs intimating that servites can- not be resumed for a certain number of hours, and allow

surprisingly wagons. fulfilment of Porkkala is by no means the return people to

home to

the peace treaty, and in the only imminent Russian danger wait in comfort. It would

spring of last year Goliath irt to Finland. Soviet bombers sisted on taking David into part from the not do any harm, either, to

airfields of Estonia nership by inviting the Finns to across the Baltic, or those round have bulletins posted in such

sign a pact for mutual aid in the Leningrad, are only an hour's centres OS the Peninsula

event of foreign attack.

fight from the capital. Hotel. One cannot escape the

Yet so firmly does Finland hold conclusion that were two or

to her freedom that not more than 30,000 of her 4,000,000 In- three companies in competi- Task of these two genial gentle-

habitants belong to the tion on adjacent parallel men, appointed last autumn, and Imprudent us it might have munist Party.

who first "worked" the Bahamas been routes, very much more con-

to rcluse,

Finnish The mass of the people sideration would be shown to

before coming to Bermuda, is to Government turdily stipulated determined to maintain their try to track down the currency that it must be the judge of national traditions of democratic the long-suffering public. swindlers and their agents, a few whether danger of such attack liberty, or fight to the last

of whom manage.to live quite existed. It was not prepared to their defence. Their self-confl-i Α more serious sidelight comfortably out of what they sign away to Moscow the right dence would be surprising but on the typhoon was noted make on the deals.

to send troops into Finland on for the fact that they have fought Though it is rather a needle- the pretext that action by some by the

Observatory, which

the Russians before, su that they In-a-haystock

job,

the alun- stated that no warning of heavenly twins,"

onemy was imminent.

know the risks they are taking. us the local "Your position seems news of weather conditions sharpers have dubbed them, have like that of a mouse in a lion's and innumerable Inkes, guerilla In this land of dense.. forests was received from the Pratas had quite a salutary effect. Not cage," I said to a Finn,

tactics. practised by a high- Islands station. Advice from a few native taxi-drivers have

spirited and athletic nation like this important base, South decided to stick to chauf-

the Finas, might make a formid- feuring.

dable defense. East of the Colohy, is vital in About 15 per cent of the the case of a typhoon, and Colony's economy comes from one cannot understand, the tourists, and more than 65 per silence, which seems wilful cent of these are Americans. negligence and failure of 'Package' Tours

duty,

Ordinary middle-class Ameri- This station was rehabil cans from all over the States itated by UNRRA funds, yet small business

men,

to me

"We're more like a hedgehog than a mouse," he said. "Every time the lion tries to swallow us he gets a very sore mouth."

It is on the sword of the spirit rather than on material weapons that Finland relies for her de

fence.

in

Here, as in the States of the Middle East, recognition of that fact seems to be leading the Soviet Government to prefer in- ternal agitation to direct attack

Her armed forces were reduced as a means of achieving its aims.

BRITISH JEEP DETAINED

to insignificance by the perce treaty of 1947. The army is limited to 34,400 mon; the navy to a total tonnage of, 10,000; and teachers, it shows no sign of inter-small-town, shopkeepers are for the air force to 80 machines.

the first time taking a look at a

By resisting Russia's attempts

Vienna, September 7. national appreciation, and bit of the British Empire.

to..seize naval and air bases in A British Jeep, driven by an the omission is particularly

found Austrian and which was return- They are making all-in tours, their country, the Finns

in the British culpable in view of the fact ranging from one to two weeks themselves, from June 22, 1041, ing from Graz,

with air trips both ways and onwards, fighting on the side of Zone of Austria, to Vierina on that it lies directly in the hotels included, for as, Uttio as Germany; and so- forcited the Monday evening, was seized by. usual belt of typhoons £42 108. Or they can come for high esteem in whicif they had the Russians, as it crossed the travelling from North Luzon 13-day trip, by boat each way been held by the Western Powers Schoering border into the Soviet and the Carolines. This could from New York, for 2581 - when they

stoutly résisted hqvé.

"Winter This is certainly rolling: In dol- Russian attack. In the the gravest conse

Despite official Inquiries," thi quences for Hong Kong, and rs. Trouble is to prevent them War of 1939-40.

How long would you need to soviet hands,

and the driver are still in rolling out again through the It is to be hoped the au hands of taxi-drivers who won't mobilse?" the Chief of the Fin- thorities here will take what stick to driving, through the nish Cieneral Staff

was asked The vehicle was used to take ever steps are possible, al hands of bartenders, "and shop during the negotiations for the coples of the British-sponsored though it will be difficult to keepers who won't stay above the mutual ald pact in Moscow last newspaper. "Wallpreme from Vienna to Graz, and the driver, counter in their dealings. 1 capis achieve much result in this

derwenty-four, hours,” he said.

Wilhelm Richter, was making the "The. dollars are - In-Bermuda, "time of "eriaDC

Bit-Blafford

"Imposible," was thin answer. trip for the first time

Zone.

has less power.

Why should we not do the Communiets in the Army: As same today?" says General Martel. the War Office sat still and watch "I suggest they would best be An in- ed the spread of Communism in used in complete units. the Army it was surely up to the fantry brigade might consist of Army to cleanse itself, but I fail- two German battalions ed to get any action taken. At onel British."

WHAT'S HAPPENED

and one"

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