1951-02-10 — Page 11

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MAO POKER-FACE

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1951.

AMERIC

World Copyright. By arrangement with Dalty Herald.

A TRIBUTE TO THE BIRITISH SOLDIER:

HE'S THE FINEST MAN I KNOW

going to say something about the

soldier greatest

I

have met and known. The funny thing is, I can't tell

bis changes. Sometimes he has

name.

By Field

Marshal

Sir WILLIAM SLIM

Chief of the Imperial General Staff

A

THE LOVE STORY OF

JEAN SIMMONS, STEWARD GRANGER

Best-kept secret of Filmland

By Jan Reid

MAJOR'S son joined And no one doubts that it was the Black Watch as with Wilding that Granger dis- cussed the growing unhapplaces a private, overstayed at homo, Wilding, a good friend, hia leave to be with his sick did not gossip in the film studios, wife, and faced "charges." and fow but their most intimate The privato? Stewart friends knew that the Granger

home was breaking up. Granger. And the wife? His

On April 19, 1948, the case of first, Elspeth March.

Jean Elspeth Stewart, formerly From a private, Granger Mackenzie v. James Lablacho rose to second lieutenant, Stewart, on the undefended list but he hated Army life. He of divorce cases, passed un- notlood, Elspeth was granted a worried about Elspeth. decree nisl on the grounds of her Worry upact his digestion, husband's adultery, and in May and in 1942 he was dis- the decree absolute como charged from the Army as through. medically unfit,

with A But still the

not fans did duodenal ulcer.

'know. A month Inter the story It had been one of the But for the fact that he broke.

best-kept secrets of the m the invalided from

world, Army, he would probably have been killed in the Anzio beachhead, like every man in the platoon he helped to train.

way

Granger stooged round the studios when he was well enough, hoping for a part.

And what was Jean Simmons doing all this "Ume?

Her voice had been trans- formed from the high pitch of a schoolgiri to the tone of an She had learnt adult woman. her "party manners," and the Ronic men no

Jonger watched over her at public functions.

She no longer shared the little at Cricklewood back bedroom with her sister. Edna was mur- the rled. And in her place telephone had gone into the bed- For, like all stars, Jean room. was rung up by, the studio at all

night, hours of the day and

Her fon mail had increased to She could enormous proportions. TWO years later, with more no longer kick off her shoes, the chintz-covered than half a dozen films made, curl up on

More Money IJE. wondered whether to go HE

back to the theatre, where the two years before he joued up he hal met with success, But he told himself there was more money in Alms.

he was earning £3,000 a year. sofa in the back room, and pen Up and up the figure went, her own

letters. She

By 1947 he was into the £20.000 have a secretary, cinas, less than ten years after

had to

Then the time came when she he had been a £3-a-week man, decided to move into a flat of in central London. His first postwar part was in her own "Secret Mission," but he mado Mrs Simmons felt that she was losing her daughter for ever, is name in "Mun In Grey,"

But he did not desert the stage, but Jeart, drove out to Crickle Four years after his first wood two or three times a week, wedding, Granger was on the and the bed in the little back London stage in "Rebecca" as bedroom was always kept ready. Max

As the troops struggled into their equipment an officer said: "Remember, in

this quatre you are neutral" young soklier turned sergeant, "Wat did 'e mean by noolral, sergeant?" he asked.

"Nootral, me lad, replied the N.C.O., "ndotral means that

do Winter, the twice- when you go down the ad-

married man whose first mar- jectival bazaar you're just as likely to be it by a Mo'amaden age with a society woman of his own age proved less success- brick as by a 'Indu brick."

ful than his second, with a young world that Unruffled by brickbats or girl, brought up in

the

country house British soldier knew little name, soldier in adaptability that is bombers Bying sometimes Scottish, Welsh, one of his most valuable as cuns went on firing, five rounds bouquets,

across history, they marches

do-parties and London night clubs.

But in those days Granger were supporting an infantry minating the scene.

Success thal might turn idea that in real life he would In the same way he readily attack.

another's head he greets with have a second wife, He and The weapons. adopts

A stick of bombs fell around studied understatement; disaster Elspeth were very happy

would appal most he Briton fights best when he can

Their first child, "Jamie," was with sce his enemy, and that's why, the gun I was watching. Some that

a jest, for his porn six years ago, I think, his skill has always of its crew were hit. The gun meels

laced with from the been

bigh with his personal vanished

my sight in courage is always

humour., short range weapons. May he smoke and flame. always keep it, for it is the foundation of battle craft.

you

zuri

Englisht

or Irish.

That's because the soldier I want to talk about, the greatest soldier I've met--is dinary British soldier.

the or

Think for a mument of British soldier's Job.

What qualities does he need? lie must have courage, lots of endurance, moral and : physical; skili with his wea- pons and at the techniques his trade.

He

must be

of

adoptable and he must have discipline.

A formidable

list that-bul if he falls in one of them he cannot be a good soldier.

sets.

new

Jow, but the

per gun per minute, for

Yet from the very midst that inferno, at the exact in- tervals, came the

na

A

Father Of Two

had

Luxury Flat

CRANGER by this time had

already sold up his Hasle- mere home and moved into a luxurious London Bat-with a

crimson padded hed

WILI

Jean went from one triumph to another. Her first solo star- ring part came in "So Long At cheered The Fair"-she

the she appeared in when studio to begin the filming for that. And when she walked on to the set for "Uncle Silas" she found that the technicians YEAR later the Grangers had decorated the camera with had an enormous bought a 10-acre, property flowers and complete with house, two cot bouquet for her. tages, and stables, at in one of Haslemere.

She made her first stage ap- Living on the cent

estate

"Power the cottages that Granger wanted Pearance at Manchester with show moved to London an employee was an 83-year Granger in Tolstoy's

months He offered her alternative and flopped. But 16 The British soldier has some was own brother to the shivo fold widow, Mrs Harriet' Ander and Darknċss," thirig more. It may ocem ing British fighting man crouch-

ting man and accommodation, the cost of the Tater neither Granger nor Jean strange to talk of gentleness ing under .#

removal, and a year's rent," but was worried about that. They quality, but it who exclaimed: "I wish to Mrs Andersen refused to move.

wat were marrying secretly in the Heaven the Iron Curtain was

To her the name of Stewart front room of a house windproof!"

meant nothing more Well, that's the, British

than that of any other landlord, Tucson, Arizona, officer and man. We do

"Ho's a nice-looking young him for granted a bit,

chup," she told a reporter, "but we?

of THAT'S HIM flash and THE Grenadier, at Fontenoy, An

without army

discip

who, as the French presented line is no more than mob. thud of the gun fring. Never

the Discipline,

British n falter, never a second out their muskets for a devastating discipline volley, intoned, For what we soldier has demonstrated it in No weak link that; peace and war, is the old held.

are about to receive may the Christian

Lord make us truly thankful," virtue of unselfish-

by standing ness, neighbour, your comrade.

of

SACRIFICE

your

Ho

moves amid

assurance

500

Grange

I never go to the pictures, and

as a soldierly is-and he has it. From the days of Joan of T is the sacrifice of a man's

Our bitterest enemies would down to the British Arc

comfort, inclination, safety, rather be occupied by British seldier, today, on a Korean

life.

others, for

for troops than by any. others. hillside, our friends and even

than him- The Briton is, bless him, a grim the something greater what's perhaps more lo

Aghter, but a bad heter.

We have forced on us now

I certainly shouldn't go just to point-our enemies have picked, self.

to the refusal to be It is the

strange the grim necessity to look out the British soldier as. the

see him. That will mean staunchest

comrades and of

weak link in the chain

that races and surroundings with an our defences.

that for all of us. Inconvenience and

"I can ceo quite enough of him most formidable of foas.

unarrogant snaps under strain.

sacrifice,

but before we grum- here. The other day he had a Once from the safety of

radiates confidence,

ble too much let's remember

Det photographer down, he sat on his well-dug command post I look-

First, never was horse for alm and dug in the on a battery of ar- One sweltering afternoon in two things.

untrained man of less value ed down

garden. He changed his clothes tillery in action, It was firing the Red Fort at Delhi a com- an at fve rounds per gun per pany of British infantry was in war than he is today;

for me," and, klly, with

second, if we deny ourselves to x times. That's good enough my hurriedly falling in. When I was a young officer minute,

those armA our Forces, I timed the left-hand There was a riot in the city, urm I wis sent with a couple of watch

Hindu against Moslem. Heads will be going to the greatest of A sun.

fighting men-the British agn to get in touch with

other were being broken, men stab- all which

hoped was Then, dominating all

soldier," unit still on our left,

sound, came the dull drone of bed, shops looted and burned.

isn't The British soldier braver than other soldiers, but he's brave for a hit longer, and it's that bit that counts.

we

we

Worming our way from one bit of cover to the next, eventually

dropped into

trench that had been badly

smashed by shell Are.

WENT ON

PISTOL in hand

I scrambled

over the fallen carth, through bay after bay, Anding nothing but wreckage and the dead.

I think I would have turned

back then, but I

મ

I

OR Was

a

BILLY ROSE says good-bye

★ Now Billy Rose, the great Broadway showman, has decided to stop writing. Here in his own words is the reason why:

"

MAY feel differently cerned a week ago when I found about it one of these that for the first time in my 51 Novembers I wasn't snapping

frightened to go back as to go days, but as of this writing back the way I should that the

on.

So I went on.

I

to

At last, round a traverse, heard voices. My heart in my mouth, I strained my ears Histen. An agitated voice was proclaiming that another attack was coming and they'd all be - killed.

• Ont

-propped up in bed and over-lovin' elustle wasn't there with a magnum of morphine any more, sloshing around in my veins

A few years ago I would have I've about made up my boon yelling for timin and tele mind to stop writing this phone before the anaesthetic wore off, but today, three weeks column.

and,

after the patch-up job, I've still give out with a few thank-you's

who have put

up with got a headful of fog and a skin to the gentlemen of the Press ful of ache.

verbal vorarles for the past fifty-odd months.

For the past year my doctor

at me, and cardiograms

and There was a pause and then has been waving blood counts

The decision to say good-bye those creamy of

West

hinting that all work and no to my by-line has been a tough Country voices drawled, "Aw,

one to make. For almost five Us'n beat play makes Jack a dead boy. don' 'ce worry,

years now this column has pro- they!" I'd found the Glosters.

vided most of the fun and focus of my life, and emotionally it hos meant more to me than any thing I ever tackled.

his

50

The British soldier in long carcer has suffered -many disasters, won ko niany Victories, that neither the one nor the other unduly depresses or clates him.

Come what may, he holds to his inflexible confidence ultimate victory.

He's been telling me that I no longer had the bounce to cope with all the chores and deadlines breathing down my neck-that the day was past when I could dance at half a dozen weddings simultaneously.

I've watched it grow from a

my

Most of all, though, I want to and dear hearts thank the gentle people who now and then have made room for me at their doubt I've left any deep or

if breakfast and dinner tables. I consequential thoughts in their minds but my popcorn pale- mles have occasionally

taken

their minds off their im-jams, It's been worth all the troubic

Up to now I paid ad, in a New York dally to and typewriter ribbon.

haven't paid him much mind, a feature appearing in moro It may take a long time, it but my current bout with the than 2,000 papers, and naturally mean all sorts of grim miseries has anally brought me an old show-off like me doesn't bul-"Us'n heat around to his way of thinking: Like to leave the stage with that

*11

isn't because the big audience in the house. the And It

Unlike

most others, British Army has to be ready operation, I recently underwent But if it has to be a choice

hyper to fight, or servo anywhere, was much matter of fact, it was between hoopla and

pretty much run of the scalpel tension, i gun I know which, and outside of the pain involved, side my bed is buttered on nothing to be too concerned

Westem Extropo or furthest Asin, desert or Jungle, it's all

in the day's work,

of

about,

A few hundred year's Rat have bred in the British

*

(Before slashing my typewriter But I began to got plenty cons wwny, inwayer, I'd loo10

And now, as the sun sinks in the west and the nurse shoves a thermometer my face, reluctantly say farewell to the lovely land of Green Eyeslmades and Pekater's Ink.

It's been a real nice clambake. and-who knows?--maybe we'll' bump into eaċli other again.

World Copyright London Express Buretor.)

By now Granger was the father of two children. For, on January 20, 1948, the birth of "a daughter, Lindsay, sister for Jamic" was announced,

She was christened at Lynch- mare, Sussex. Fans climbed the. porch roof, peered through win down, and crowded round the door of the little 11th-century church to see the stare.

Mrs Granger pushed her way through the crowd with Lindsay her arms. Granger handed Jamlo over the heads of the crowd.

Michael Wilding, who was at the christening, struck up a great friendship with Granger.

when it's

The

POCKET CARTOON

by OSBERT LANCASTER

"Does this man clearly understand, sergeant, that his function is purely decorative!"

"WHAT WILL

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