1953-01-31 — Page 6

This is

ANCO

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1958.

MAUVE-HAIRED COLETTE IS 80

the Gin The Grand Old Girl

GORDONS

DRY GIN

DISTILAZNY,

BY APPOINTMENT

GIN, DISTILLERS TO THE LATE KINO ORORGE VI Tanqueray Ourdon & Co, 140.

Quality Incomparable

Gordon's

Stands Supreme

Distributors:—

PODWELL & CO., LTD.

S.E.C.

RAD

Three-speed Auto matic record chan. ger with light. weight pick-up for both standard and the latest high fidelity long-playing records.

High efficlancy nine- waveband super-

heterodyne receiver With exceptional range,

Cabinet of cholca

walnut veneers with

amplo record

storage space.

OVERSEAS

AUTO-RADIOGRAM

THE GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. LIB.UF ENGLAND.

ALYA KIENSED BY

*THE BRIJSH GENERAL ELECTRIÒ, CO, LTD

At sea

ACCURATE

TIME-KEEPING is vital

CCURATE time-keeping is essen. tial at sea, for determining longitude and fixing a ships position. Tho' chronometer on board a ship is carefully main•; tained and protected, and is under the charge' of a senior officer. • Vacheron & Constan tin have had the privilege of supplying the British Admiralty with a large number of chronometers. The same time-keeping apparą. tus was selected by the experts of the Nation al College of Horology as a prototype for purposes of instruction. These truly excep. tional distinctions set their seal upon the value of the intensive research — aimed at ever increasing perfection -on which our horo logists have been engaged for nearly centuries,

CHEMEA GU

OLDEST IN TRADITION FOREMOST IN PROGRESS

VACHERON

ET

CONSTANTIN

GENÉVE

is still Chérie

¡OLETTE was 80 last contribution to the literatura at 'Schcol" and "Claudine." Wednesday; but all of the world? What is she Then he signed them with France celebrated like?

his own name. the birthday of the Mistinguett of literature a week before.

All the ladies and gentle men of the French Academy of Letters honoured Colette, their president, with a birth- day luncheon.

Well, Sidonie-Gabriello Then she was married Colette was born in 1873 in again—this time at the age a little village in Burgundy. of 39-to Henry de Jouvenal, whom she had her Sho was educated perfunc- by torily at the village school. adored daughter.

She adored her mother And finally she married and, sho observed her Maurice Goudeket, 15 years romantic goldier-papa from a her junior, with whom she distance.

has lived in close harmony

Nothing could be more appropriate for of all things that this Grand Old She has married three for 80 years.

Girl of letters loves, it is a times ... and hera

| jolly, good feed,

When I saw her

legend begins.

recently, caged in Paris Fronte her room in Paria

(she has not left

her bed since last NANCY SP

October because of arthritis), she greeted me with Well, what did you have for lunch?""

the

For first, nt 20, sho married Henry Gauthier- Villars Willy, aged antyr of satires, who couldn't write Thon she listened, his own books, mude bis entranced, to every detail of friends write them for him, the menu and commented: "I and eventually made Colette had pig's trotters with a write them too. vinegar sauce."

Who is Coletto? Why does it matter whether she is 80, 18, or eight? What is her

He inserted terrible blue patches of his own, and locked her in the attic until she had produced "Claudino

But Colette has been many other things besides a wife und novelist. She is an ex- pert wine-taster, and has adored enta. She has been a journalist, a music-hall star, and an actress."

She can divino, water in.... the most obstinate country-

COLETTE AND FRIEND

With her a British actress Audrey Hepburn, who played in Colette's "Gigi" on Broadway last year.

Japs Put Squeeze On Foreigners

T

From

Russell Spurr

Tokyo, Jan. 80,- THE Japanese Govern- mont has begun Ita long-expected crackdown on Twelvo foreign business.

firms five of them British - are being rationed or de- prived of the foreign cur- rency they need to keep going...

A series of Crippslan controls is channelling the money to the don' Japanese competitors. Several concerra will be forced out of business,

An American with a station- ery diop he started 30 years ago has been told he can have no more pounds or dollars for foreign purchases, Fis three Japanese competitors have been granted an ample allowance,

“Everyone realises Japan has dollar gop as bad as Britain's," a member of a British trading firm said today. "Wo realise motor cars, drugs, clothes, and luxury goods .: } must be strictly controlled.

"What we object to i the

appor The

are getting

of

side. She can cook, garder, therefore of life; then Colette. of the Legion of Honour, that money for mor she has even-speaking not For these

two things, as she a word of English-been to would be the first to point out, New York.

are really the same thing.

Colette loves everything that lives. Death bores her.

But this has not stopped her from writing books, acknow- ledged masterpieces of that narrow life of the heart and mind that people still call "The, Woman's Point of View." who knows more of love,

There can be no one living

CASE: PRIVATE EYE

In London anyone can set himself up as a detective-a fact that troubles Mr. Wyatt and 200 fellow sleuths

REY HAIRED, 67- year-old Frank Wyatt,

one of London's top

private detectives, stands

by

John Waterman

Her room is witness of this Immense vitality. Facing he bed in the new TV set that has and replaced several boxes of bright South American butterales in lier affections. The butterflies, alas, were dead.)

the

which she is innocently proud.

Adi France honours Colette. When she goes out In her

mency being unfairly wheel-chair people mob her or tloned. call out, in excitement and preference all pleasure: "Go lo it, old girl"

Nell Buchanan, ex-Australlan- Air Force pilot who started a "Why, why?" asks Colette, British export shop in postwar bewildered that

she inspires Tokyo is being forced to close such affection.

Idowth

It is not difficult to find the The Government has grudging- answer. Colette's love of life is ly granted him £4,000 worth as the of exchange in the next quarter something ng eternal 、.

stones of Paris, infinitely more to buy Brekord woollens for worthy of Immortality, for his exclusive tailoring business.

Last year ho above mere language.

got £50,000, We are simply being forced Yet Colette tells with a grace out of business," said Buchanan, that I cannot hope to recapture "Four thousand sterling's worth how she and her husband of stock would not keep us

And on a crimson bed, sur rounded by yellow and scarlet blankets, is Colette, the person quito distinct from Colette, the legend. Her hair is mouve, loosely brushed out into a fleece. Her eyes are enormous-tiger's Maurice Goudeket went to New supplied a fortnight. It wouldn't

earn enough to eyes enlarged with long blue York on the maiden voyage, of the liner Normandie and walk- lines until they absorb half her

staff."

He has protested face. They blaze with excite ed the length of mighty Fifth

anybody mentions Avenue. And there encountered British Embassy. But It has ment when

a little cat,

not done any good. The Japan-

· "Ah,” cried Colette, "Thank exe Finance Minister: hás rés

unlike a great many of Britain's cuts. "private cycs" pallermen.

aro ex-

Nearly all Wyatt's business comes directly or indirectly the fact. Today about 50 per- from solicitors. He is proud of

work concerns

astride the fireplace in his 1030s. Then 200 MPs were will office, smokes several cigar- ing to support a Private Member's cent of his ettes, and talks about the Bill to enforce registration of divorce evidence. During 1940- Case of the Tarnished Re

British Inquiry agents. It came 48 the proportion was as high to nothing, but was revived after as 90 percent, but the divorce putation.

the war. A deputation from the

boom has slackened. Wyatt is. Vice-president of the Federation visited Mr Chuter

Insurance firms are becoming British Detectives' Association Ede, then Home Secretary, more wary of fire and larceny which has decided on action to Nothing came of that. One of claims and Wyatt handles clean up the private detective the difficulties was the lack of lot of this business. business Britain. They are an adequate definition of deals with fraud, disputed wills,

concerned at the bad name the "Private detective, business has been given by

unscrupulous people practising as inquiry agents.

"The trouble," says Wyatt, "s that it is all too easy to become a privato inquiry agent,"

on

NO FEE

have Some have fleeced their clitnis

RED CARPET

} He also

missing persons, blackmail,

What are the rewards for this

pay

rent

to the

or

And in her buttonhole Is Heavens. Here is someone who fused even to meet an Embassy the scarlet tuft of the Chevalier can speak French!"

representative

MG and B

work? For those at the top it BOTH HAD CLAIMED THEY can be lucrative. Some.-

perhaps. 19 or 20-carn at least WERE 'COMMUNIST AGENTS'

Whatever that definition might £2,000-£3,000 a year.

be, it is sad to report that today Fees-are-not--disclosed, but

it would not embrace any one of the figure usually accepted for E characters of the the flamboyant sleuths of detec- divorce evidence is two guineas missing diplomats, Bur- tive fiction, Holmca, Poirot, Sex- a day plus expenses. A great

CYRIL CONNOLLY

porientous man of letters, once described as a “Third Programme cat concealing the spit of a puma," today makes the first nosessment of Maclean and Burgess as a man who knew them both before they became Tho Mining Diplomais.

secret organizations, uni11 Wän able to represent. the Foreign Ofce.

"He helped to remove the anil-Russian bias from Poles training for sabotage, and _An__ 1042. he attempted a mission to Moscow which got no further than Washington.""

A 'white hope

MACLEAN, seldom heard to

Anyone can set up in the ton Blake-any resemblance be- deal of Wyatt's business is in gas and Maclean, come business, provided he has a

tween them and the modern investigations costing about under the public micro sullable room and a plate to nail private detective is purely as 10, and involving about two scope again today—but with

the door. No qualideations coincidental as their authors' days. Some cases, however, needed, no fee,

a difference. have been on no registration plats,

The books for much. longer:

Now they are assessed by with the authorities...

one started in In fact it would

still take a 1951, Many started thus; many have battalion of these fictional heroes investigators have worked

talk about politics, joked KOCS "on, and three a man who knew them for

about his Marxist tendencies in quickly gone out of business; in their most brilliant form to it at

on years before they disappear- times. It

1030. Ho. "was a strong sup sono stin survive. Among them decide Wyatt's profession from earned

has already the

and was "extro porter of the Spanish Republic, severuled on the night of May 25, swiper," been known criminals, his appearance and surroundings,

agency thousand pounds,

1951.

vert, exhibitionist, maniae, seemed Buddenly to have

acquired a backbone.". by extortionate fees, by dragging His nith four offer faces the

And for those who seek and cynical." out unnecessarily and, eminently respectable backdrop

an answer to the question:

Yet, at the beginning of the... Now the Connolly Jar war, sometimes, by blackmail

of the Law Courts. Not a sign

How could the promotion dossier on the two men famous

"one of our most It is impossible to estimate the of

diplomatic representa- magnifying glass any Today, private sgents arsand aubsequent defection of sizo of the shady triage in where; no violin.

tives" told Connolly Mackcan Britain. The only figures are pendrous leather-topped desk, cases like that

Instead: A teldom involved in bir public such men be possible? the Before the

Burgers was. "a white hope of the of Mr Tom facts set down by Cyril confided thaso

of the more reputable red Persian carpet.

In friend un- Service." stacks of Jacks, an

and the East Riding, who, investi- Connolly point the sharp was not only a member but a counseller to Cairo. What hap

ex-policeman from agents. There are more than 200 files,

telephones,

named in the book "that he of them. All, with one or two dictaphone.

gated the Arundel Park: mur-finger of incompetence at secret agent of the Communist pened? It's friends believed he notable exceptions, belong either In this setting slis Wyatt, in der in 1080. Two aunts of

Foreign Office security. the tie, und engaged him, normal-size shoes. Nothing

casca

two

PATIENCE

to the British 'Detectives Asse- dark null, white cuffs and Jour

Joan Woodhouse,

on, or the Federation of handkerchief, grey

Detectives.

Both

Panicctive against

pulous. formed

יי,

LUCK-PLUS

A secret agent'

Party,"

•

wer

#

from

At 35 Maclean was" mádo

was "go- disheartened by the poverty and, corruption of tho Middle East that he had a and "when night fell his now. breakdown. He drank heavily, the zelf took possession."

Another curious secret the past of Guy Burgess leaks out: While he worked for

'victim, da you find mysterious bodies were set

up to betrays him. He looks a little advertisements placed by pri interests of the reputable like a successful solicitor, but vato detectives in the agony

the unseru- most of all like a successful column of The Times. Poliaky "POLITICS begin in the BBC before the war he joined The Association was business man. Which is what a

a rolourful agent of the 1870s; 21 years ago, the he is.

used to advertise frequently:

nursery.

Ho; ocized. a says Mr the Fascist Party...

rifle from: Federation only three years

"Marquise, have patience; ten Conriolly. Consider

sentry on à Nile boating trip. A the ngo. Now the Association wants

minutes

Why? An midnight... piter

diplomats in their political talented and beautiful woman, vened; "slipped and broke a unnamed but fecretary at the Embassy inter- amalgamation.

Pollaky"

But if glamour has departed, nursery: Cambridge.

a novelist, who Together, says Vice-president

learned of leg." Wyatt, they will make a strong detective most of his life. He main.

Wyatt has been private ingenuity and thoroughness re

D

MACLEAN drank like a

Burgess's Communist allegiance, 'We and that at the end of body to stamp out the mushroom started before the 1014-18 war vestigate a case of ghoyhound was Loft in his views, "in- gate the British Fascists."

Wyatt once hatt to in- feckless undergradante," he felt that "as a secret agent he 1080 Maclean told a friend he must have been told to investi- was a Communist agent, The organisations and unsavoury in a big London agency, ngents.

In doping. He bought some dous

diffident,

friend dismissed this "confor sion as "a loyalty test "with" a' Wyatt's recipe if they became victims.

When we come to the war high alcoholle content." given to, sudden bursts of establishing private detectives on for-quccess 14: "Luck and

time He would not, however, admit aggression." A

Burgess, there» emerges one fact of tremendous sign- ficance.

To do this they want a Charter, in part up his own agency and raced them himself to aceroverted and

in partnership.

a professional basis--"liko law tenacity." It has apparently that this touch might be worthy

yers or doctors." They want worked. Now he handles 1,000 of Holmes Poirot or, Sexton BURGESS drank "like

official status and qualifications...

entrance cases a year. The agency is a Blake. Wyatt never reads de soma Rabelaislan bottle-

limited company employing 20 teelive stories. "I'va' written A movement in this direction other detectives, including three one or two he says, "but has been going on since the or four women. None of them there the matter stops.

The "The Missing Diplomats,"

Queen Anne Preas, 48.

JOHNNY HAZARD

YOU SEE, HAZARD... BY. CONCEALING HIMSELF HERE, AND WAITING THE UNIKNOWN SNIPER HAD A BEAUTIFUL”

TARGET!

FIT WAS A SIMPLE

MATTER FOR ALBERICH TO BE KILLED...

By Frank Robbins

***ALMOST AS SIMPLE

AÐ IT WILL BE FOR ME. TO

(KILL YOU JU

TUE

The lesson

"His position became ane that greatly appealed to him, ni: involving him eventually in Tule book ends with a gentlo Hatson work, with the most. dig at the many reports of te diplomats appearances since they vanished. It proves nothing. It helps no one,

Castrol

MATCH DILA

THE MASTERPIECEJA

ZIN/ÖILS.

Yet, if we turn back ta Hansard, June 11, 1931, and read Mr Herbert Morrison's words in reply to a questiba

"I did not imply that there is a regular and systematic. week-by-week check-up of all, Foreign Office officials and should not like it to have 10 come to that. Indeed, I do not think that them deserves such a check-ups i

depar

riment Then,

The Miring

Diplompis" must, gó ön, resora naa frightening Indicimede, or the Foreign Oreo, escurtly

DONALD SEAMAN