1950-12-21 — Page 6

6

"

To make your max Happy

and typing a pleasure

throughout the

New Your!

For everyone who has letters to write, reports to make, lessons to do - the career girl, business man, doctor, pupil, journalist the HERMES BABY is n gift that will be treasured.

To the important people on your gift list give:-

*

THE PICK OF THE PORTABLES

Spalingers

HERMES Baby

OFFICE EQUIPMENT DEPT.

JA Wyndham Street, (Next To S.C. M. Pust)

Tel. 32783.

Fresh Stock Just Arrived

Of Highest Grade

DUTCH CIGARS

GULDEN VLIES

BRAND

Prices ranging from $15.00

to $30.00 por Box of 25.

O

at

INGENOHL'S

Gloucester Areade.

WOODS

PEPPERMINT CURE

For coughs and colds. indigestion, wind and pains in the stomach, pains around the heart, common diarrhoea and dysentery.

Sole Agents:

SHAKE THE BOTTLE

CREAT

SIPPERMINT?

COUGHS COLDS

Wood

GILMAN & COMPANY LTD.

GIVEN THIS YEAR

- TREASURED ALWAYS

A FINE CARPET FROM

CARPET INDUSTRIES

GZ AUSTIN KO KUWI DON

THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1950.

GERMANY IS ON HER FEET AGAIN

A

By ALEX. M. CASSELS

for

PATHETIC, soli- thirty Deutschmarks in ex-played. The ribbed and ruined Gothic spires of the ancient tary figure picking change.

With this sum in his pocket churches glowed with multi- through the snow to' every German started from coloured, phosphorescent light. the debris beneath; scratch,

One could see the iron cages in gigantic ice-floes hurtling What frantic-but

the the Lambert Church tower, unavailing-efforts where in 1536 the bodies of down the swiftly-flowing most part

were made by black-marketeers John of

Dutch Rhine; black marketeers and others with a super-abu- Anabaptist

Leyden, the

fanatic, and his awaiting on the Schadow dance of Reichsmarks to convert two companions were exposed. atrasse the Church Army their money into goods of any I forget what the visiting burgo-

sort whateverl Canteen's closing

masters of neighbouring cftles time; or

There was an immediate re- said in their speeches. But one emaciated children begging volution in people's attitude to word was longingly, wistfully soldiers to bring them wards work. Hitherto employ uttered, echoed and re-echoed:

except something to

with the occupying "Frieden"-Peace. ment, unt; every-

in where material and moral and who paid largely

had been shunned as un- remunerative. Now to find work

desolution.

Thut was Dusseldorf and Germany-as I saw it in February 1947.

boat to take

became the be-all and end-all of existence,

Almost thirty months have passed, and the inequalities of fate and fortune have had time to reveal themselves."

Mere pittance

Later was to stand on the Rhine embankment in Cologne

and witness EL pathetic side of black- Well-to-do businessmen are driving around in their superb marketing.

Opeis. Those who have had Groups of women awaited the steady employment are begin- coming of little

ning to refurnish their homes. them to Dutch barges riding at The unemployed are cking out anchor. There they bartered a mere existence on a pittance for coffee, anything from their

of A

dole, lantalised by abundance of good things in home that was still precious.

In the shadows policemen shop windows. lurked, ready on their return to pounce upon them and con- fiscate whatever they hack.

No wonder

No wonder that it was said in those days that if a German family could not have a British soldier for a friend, the next bes: acquaintance to have was * German

policeman!

the

But there were other factors contributing-to-Germany's re-

covery.

It was a fortunate coincidence, for instance, that during

putuma

the fol-

tuma and early winter lowing the financial reform thousands of prisoners of war returned.

I used to see them arrive at the the Cromwell 'Barracks, in one occasion I travelled Munster in slogan - bespattered ten miles into Cologne standing trains In

the late afternoons.

On

ing human reunion scenes.

precariously on the running Next morning there were touch- board of a railway train and

fortunate. Within considering Passengers were seated astride

a week they were re- their own and their the buffers; athers were cluster- releabouts scarred homes.

ex in

document

of

of

All restored

the roofs groups on

The German people delight in carriages; still others were pick- making the most of great oc- nicking on dry maize bread on casions, and two I

remember the conl-laden tenders the might be taken as symbolic. two engines.

Mine was the privilege of Travel was open to all who being in Cologne when the could produce any official-look- seven hundredth anniversary of ing

in English. A the Cathedral's foundation was Glasgow student doing post celebrated. graduate work in 'Munster told me in the spring of 1949 that he had just

A year before, all that re- ust travelled from Hamm to Frankfurt

turt and back mained of the Domplatz and without any di

difficulty by show the neighbouring streels was a debris, ing to German ticket-collectors pathway through the and inspectors his

the Glasgow But for the big occasion University matriculation card! streets were restored, tramcars Money meant nothing. Far- were running, and the Cathedral

Itself be hoard-

restored mers were reputed

the from ing. Yet eggs, potatoes, bacon.

damage It had received from milk, flour, were all to be had blast. for shoe-laces, boot-polish, reels

was

I looked at the floodlit Cathe-

of thread, socks, soup, cocoa, dral from дегова the Rhine. tea, coffee, cigarettes--for almost Traffic moved once more over anything sold by NAAFI.

.

Black market

ALI BEN

SOUVENIRS

SAID ม

AKIM (SOUVENIR

"If we insist on British troops leaving Egypt, who's going to buy all this junk?”

FLIGHT-LIEUT. JOHN DRIVER, D.F.C., FLIES HOME

TO TELL HIS OWN STORY OF CAPTIVITY

81 Days-of

vodka

HOME AGAIN la Church-

150

Delda Road, Beckenham, Flight- 38-year-old

WUllam Lieutenant John Driver, D.F.C., after 81 days in Russian Jall, and his wife Joy, the 24-year- old kiri who would not consider the Soviet head- quarters terms for his re- lease. The two were treat- ed like V.LPS at Harwich, Customs officials went to their cabin in the R.A.O.R. troopship Empire Parkeston ....senior officers of Move- ment Control took them to breakfast while

their papers were being cleared ....at Liverpool Street an Air Ministry car walted to take them to Beckenham. And those B1 days? Here is the flight-lieutenant's Own account of them...

as told to GEORGE JOYCE

T

and chess

lenging me to a game of chess. His way of telling me to he more tactful than to ask ques- tions. At the end of the game, more vodka.

Eighty-one days of chess and vodka, and it was not until I was handed over to the Bri- Aish in Berlin that I was told I had been....a

diplomatic pawn.

the hairdress-

There was no opportunity speak to anyone,

10

For weeks I paced that room . .

..I

'in

years.

began to think terms of It was solitary con- finement, but with luxury...

a Dickens book

read...

to

cigarettes

50

at a time as often as I ask- ed for them. The anxiety to make me com- fortable made ceritala

me

I had no Idea that I had that I was to the Russian zone be there for a HERE is one Russian crashed in

word that I never - not until Russian infantry- very long time. want to Бее again. back of a truck and surround- The word is......

men scrambled out of

ed me.

I was taken

the

to Ludwiglust

The weeks of boredom

were

broken only onco

when commanTM

Дипломатической and quartered with six Russian mor

pronounced diploma- .and it

officers in a large house.

The radio was taken RWLY. No newspapers were allowed.

For four days I was under suspicion. An interpreter kept close on my heels everywhere I went. He walked trom room

to room with me.

-the

dant

handed

ine a letter from rcad

Joy. it many

I

times. told I

I was

could

reply.

The Com-

up Ono

the brilliantly lighted, newly-teachers-coy. restored Suspension Bridge, and means "diplomatic.” over the recently-raised Hohen- One

still obtain eight zollern Bridge trains ran again. Can

For more than 11 weeks Deutschmarks (almost 14 Shill- I knew where the ruined city that was the only reason the ings) for a pound of coffee. lay, but only beauty was Russians ever gave for hold- I had my meals with

the mandant woke Otherwise the black market is Illumined around the Cathedral. ing me as a bostage.

officers. The food was

good, pro dead.

So it was again in Munster. Sanity has returned to

At times the word haunted but I managed to The ruins there were a byword. mc. When I tried to quiz my them that an Englishman could he had got in- persuade evening to say fe in Germany.

Now the tables are turned. Army drivers often lost their guards there was silence in not eat black bread. From structions from British familles and British way among them.

talk then on the room. They

was there

always Berlin troops. tired at times of their On October 24, 1048, I shared

Russian, white bread on the table. NAAFI rations, frequent, when in the celebrations marking the ong themselves in

and then one would hand me their purses allow it, German three hundredth anniversary of

la glass of vodica, hotels and restaurants.

the signing of the Treaty of

There was one that brought the Germany's recovery began, it

Years' War to an end. nicknamed him has been rightly claimed, when Thirty y In June 1948 the old Reichs- The streets and squares ad-bear-who would slap me on marks ceased to be legal tender. Joining the Munster Rathaus the back....he became felend- All who had more than 300 had been cleared and throngs ly only when I was moody... Reichsmarks were issued with crowded them and brass bands and that was his way of chal-

would

fellow I "the

woolliy

Vodka again

freed.

-In the firelight glow at the Beckenham

home of Mrs Driver's parents.

that I

Was

to be.

The Russians have nothing to show for keeping me Al

WAS

I waited for three hours and these weeks. I had no military they told me Joy was waiting secrets to offer. And the only in Berlin-they must have souvenir I brought back

week purple woollen underwear.

Now Joy and I are return-

before.

my

THEY interrogated me--asking known she was there a

mo many questions about why I crashed on their terri- That was Friday. It was ing to our cottage in Minchin-. tory-it was done pleasantly, not until midnight that I got hampton, on the Cotswolds. but they seemed to doubt my

over the line and British off-

have 14 days to forget story.

cers told me how the Russians

Russian "holiday." me for Gradually they

had tried to barter softened up

leutenant. I am glad (World Copyright Reserved-Londoa so-called ....the

interpreter Soviet

the Foreign Office said "No."

Express Service. was replaced by n woman. By Christmas Eve he and his equipment

will total over Then the chess board Was helpers will have mailed out £1,700,000,000.

given to me. The Russians DINNER: An advertisement taught me to play. The vodka 2,000,000 gifts for children,

But not direct to the boys and calls attention to the British flowed when I won. girls. Parcels go to the fathers Food Ministry's ment ration cut

Santa To Forgotten Children

From NEWELL ROGERS NEW YORK. TURN from the war head- lines for a minute today

T

+

in the prisons. And the fathers And It offers a 131b. ham, for On September 20 the Rus- 1.9 though air delivery to Britain in time slons. played their mcanest send them on just they came from them.

for Christmas dinner. Price: trick.

25 138, 100, FOR MEN ONLY: New moth.

FOR WOMEN

to the man who is playing Father Christmas to the

A Mercedes-Benz forgotten children of for-

limousine stopped outside the gotten men.

house. The officers got very Jolly

ONLY: On excited. They made me under- salesman proof, shrink-proof, sweat-proot, 60-year-old "Uncle Dan" Vinson-who would long-wearing socks made of Fifth Avenue you know the stand that I was going to Ber even look like Father Christmas

Fibre V-nylon's drink she wants from the hat in. We celebrated, I drank if he had whiskers-asked him- younger brother-sell for half she weara. A now fashion rules their vodka. I hated it. self:

the price of imported British that for a Scotch she puts on a

of mauve cap Who are the most neglected wool socks, children at Christmas?

"miracio"

and pink plaid, But the car stopped in Pots- MUTTONHEADS: Denouncing with pearl-studded streamers to dam....another Russian head-

ise the Scots mist. For quarters....This symbolise

time I The children of felons, he bureaucrats for failing to stock Martial cocktail-on inverted conflued to one room,

enough woot for winter army cons adorned with an

an over-sizo

decided.

Out to 400 prisons all over the U.S. went letters. Vinson invited convict fathers to tell him the names and ages of their children. Months ago he started stock- ing material to make toy alumi for the stockpile". nlum airplanes, Jigsaw puzzles, balloons, hair-ribbons, rearves,

cloth

dolls, He accepta money-anly materials.

For months volunteers have been working in their free time to make the Vinson gifts.

POR

whs

I could walk in the garden only under escort. More guards and no one who spoke English.

Why had I been moved?

just. shrugged

their

uniforms, an official Senate olive. For a Manhattan-black

proper bonnet. dịch. report says: "While the board

вкурстарст

Irene SHOW BUSINESS: was obviously doing plenty of wool-gathering, none of it was Dunne's picture "The Mudlark

is to have its U.S. premiere in a now super-cinema on Florida's They BOOM: Fyre-enterprise in Riviera. The 3,500 guests will shoulders dustry plans is greatest expau- stroll through a lobby openMore chess, but no more vod- alon in history during the first to the sun (sliding glass root ka....Instead they gave

outside the quarter br 1951. Non-Govern- for rainy days), and go to brandy. I went ment Investments - in cow their 23 11x scats up

an hour only twice....cach time tá factories, machinery, and other escalator..

under guard....cach time

ANOTHER NEW PAR

ANYONE WOULD

THINK

and ignored me.

De

Amazing feat :

Ib märrIEDA

CENTIPEDE!

A FAVOURITE ON ALL TABLES

TAIKOO

HALF CUBES

Whiteness

Sweetness

Purity!

CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME

BY THE

“SINBAD THE SAILOR""

DRAMATIC CLUB OF THE Y.M.C.A.

(Tuesday to Saturday Inclusive) at 8 p.m.

A December 19th to 23rd 1950

Als MATINEES at 3 p.m. on Thursday and Saturday. LOUNCE, Y MCA” Salisbury Road, Kowloon

TAIKOO SUGAR

15 General Apts: BUTT SU

ELD 4 SWILK