STORM OVER SCOTLAND
By JOHN GORDON
TNTIL I crossed Scotland The prevailing strong winds
UNTY had
1
no compre in the
grea are southwest. Therefore as the pines grow hension of the destruc (00 percent of the trees up- tion wrought there recently rooted were pinea) they develop
with on one day of unparalleled their strongest roots to calamity,
AT EIGHT A.M, on January 31–the day on which the storm overwhelmed
Stranraer the mail-boat and the floods began to pour over East Anglia-a 00 m... wind blew in suddenly frum the Northwest Atlantic Boss Calthness.
By nightfall ot least 0.000,000 trees, nearly all of them 40 to 100 years old, had been sent crashing to the ground,
Can you visualise what 0,000,- 000 trees nan? Set in a strip 50 yards wide, they would ex tend from Aberdeen to Lonilon. The storm swept across Scot- land in a wide are, passing out to sen agala north of Angus,
stand southwest gales,
The north-west-to-north pale caught them on the side where their roads were weakest. And down they went
The money law is computed τις ποτ
not let than £3,500,000, But
value is
not the true money measure of the dimuster.
THE REAL measure is that It has taken from Scotland, already heavily denuded of its timber in two wars, the trees that would ben vital sol if another wat come.
For the trees low were the matured tree which will take much longer than a generation high, heavy to replace. Their foliage took the full force of
The devastation Conte was the gale because the velocity of staggering, Great tracts of the wind was for greater 50f1. forest look as though a tank up than at ground level. battle had been fought астоя
them,
walls
E heaviest sufferer is the TREES LIE heaped liite fog- Marquis of Aberdeen, who gota. Stone
Lord that have at laddo lost 000 acrES, encircled estates for centuries Cowdray at Dunecht and Sir and seemed strong enough to fan Forbes-Letth of Fyvie each withstand the crack of doom had 500 neres destroyed, and itself, are shattered as if they 400 neres belonging to Colonel had been swept by a heavy Nicol at Ballogie, near Banchory,
gunfire. barrage of
are completely devastated, rarely seen such devastation.
LE
I
have
ET me tell you briefly
part of the story of those terrible ten hours.
The wind which came in at eight ... with gusts up to 80
Other substantial losern are Lord Forbes and Lord Glenianur, Each has had at least 200 acres of forest destroyed. The Queen at Balmoral lost 60 acres wood.
of
One unfortunaté consequence n.p.h., rose rapidly ih velocity of that is that Balmomil Castle unlit by
of 102 is now wide open to view from noon gusta m.p.h.
There the road across the Dec. were recorded. are records though not officiul
108 m.p.h.
The tempest continued at foll strength until about six o'clock. Even then gusts of 70 m.ph. were still frequent.
The shriek of the wind was so appalling that men standing close to great trees as they crashed never heard them fall."
Not one human life was lost And hardly an animat was kill. ed. But some strange incidents occurred,
ONE MAN had just com- pleted the building of a modern ileep-litter hen-pen. In it he
had 250 hens,
When tho storm subsided there was nothing left of either the pen or the hens
feld
ANY STROLLER with glasses can soc everything that happens round the castle, which will be rather embarrassing for the Royal Family
mer.
m-
#11
Because of the disaster, tree-felling licences in Scotland have been suspended, It will take the saw mits two years to deal with the fallen trees,
thought that
חח
THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1958.
the United States
and if, as I confidently
rejoins the British The future
RESULTS OF BUTLER MISSION
expect,
How
Empire;
will be before
us.. atc. cit.
World Copyright by arrangement with the Manchester Guardian.
GOTTWALD-he fooled them all..
R
A pioneer of films pioneers
the new Focals
4N a private cinéma in a carpet, dietating a' flood of
Hollywood film studio memes to three secretaries. this week top film mon "Who is Roy Baker who medo from Britain and America the British film 'Morning De- will be greeted by a wiry, parture" Bring him to Helly- lean-faced picture- muker, like the test of British actor
wood for an interview." Or: " Durryl Francis Zanuck,
Michael Rennie-let's build him." (Both Boker and Rennia He will press a button by are now under contract to his desk and the lights in Zanuck's company.) the cinema will, go down. On
He keeps it for his 17 hours' the screen in three dimen- work by taking a two-hour nap sions Jean Simmons and between 6 p.m. and 8 pm, in a Richard Burton
room off will be cond-proofed
bis office. shown in a scene of Zanuck'a first focal film, "The Robt.” Then, after a rub-down by a
It will be the first de- studio with his wife or long-
י
masseur, he usually dines at the
monstration of the 20th time friends. Century Fox three dimen-
About 0 p.m. Zanuck begins sional method of picture viewing the day's filming at making.
Not true three Fox, calling for producers and dimensions but giving the directors as he needs them.
audience that effect without the necessity of wearing glasses.
I have met him in France when he has been on holiday
still watching at Antibes, on
and he
films. Either
the Riviera, or in Parts, he will hire morning to
Zanuck, the production a cinema in
the
chief at Fox and the com- watch the rushes down trom
pany's vice-presi-
dent, has invited a
special audience to
the system
which he will use
Bee
for his pictures in,
the future.
by. DAVID LEWIN
It is typical of 51-year
Hollywood, dictate
his opinkes, and then relax for the rest of the day.
Says Ben Lyon, who was his Britishi casting chief: "His memory is minute.
I used to try just to remember a story after A first showing;
old. 5ft. Gins. tall Darryl Darryl knew where every close-
F. Zanuck that, while his
сац
tious, he should go all out
EMEMBER the five Arst two years of peace. Sair Five days after Stalin's funeral another competitors are more
bewildering days in Benes: "Gottwald is a moderate
with whom we can co-operate" Red leader died suddenly. Here, written in the new film-making style Prague in 1948 when the world "But he fooled Benes," Sir by a man. who knew many of the and spend 5,000,000 dol Gottwald He men
is liquidated, and the younger Masaryk fooled our umbassador, and he authoritative assessment of the Czech were swept aside?
Robert Bruce Lockhart told me.
figures of President Benes "He fooled Jan Masaryk.
A new fooled me too, a little bit. He
an
enemies
German-sounding name gave us
being a moderate."
node that impression of dictator who purged both his
and his friends without scruple.
came to the fore — that of Klement Gottwald.
the
SN'T it rather awesome
a disaster tremendous can occur 500 miles from London and hardly be mentioned in the newspapers of the south?
Those it happened in the re-
who remembered Had motest island in the South Seas
burly Gottwald before the war Who was he? At first sight knew that he was always all the resources and enterprise a stolid-looking Moravian type frequent visitor to Moscow. af journalism would have been with a pipe and a glass of WHAT peculiar quality made trained to record te fullest de- wine, or vodka, and apparently Back in prewar days u
tall the terrifying steary,
bourgeois tastes one of those question was hurled at him in Can you wonder that the old Communists who seemed the Prague House of Parlia- reasonable and earnest in the ment: "What are you doing in Scots feel a little peeved?
Moscow all the time?" The most outspoken of the Com- munist oratory fired back: "WG go to Moscow to learn how to wring your capitalist necks!"
gule cause this unpre cedented dumage? It came from an unusual quarter,
Printing of Distinction
ALIX ROSS & CO (CHINA) $ID
Oriental
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. C. LEUNG &
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upati ale polianças gʻale songames of
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by
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OVERSEAS ENQUIRIES INVITED
Ruthless
as
a confort, and ате alternately Benes signed away the Slate
cold and draughty and scorch- and died soon afterwards. ingly hot.
Gottwald was left supreme Ten doctors could not help with his comrade Slansky. But him once heart trouble and the dragon could not live with pneumonia had set in. In two the anake. Gottwald feared the days it was over.
orthodox Communist mind of Sansity.
Czechoslovakia, with her vast industrial and Armament potential, is the prize satellite of Gottwald was the last to de- Moscow. But she is also nounce Tito for breaking with the greatest problem chlid. Moscow and the Cominform He did so because Slansky held This was partly thanks to him to it, and even then he Gottwald, who at one time did it in most uncertain terms.
DEOPLE seemed to forget that showed the most serious signs behind the fron answer when, after the war. of deviation he posed
reformed Curtain next to Tito. B
In the case of the Marshall character,
plan, Stalin himself had to pre- The Czech nation now knows vent Gottwald from accepting him-for-what-he--was:-one-of-dollar-aid.
the most ruth-
less men In
their history.
· by ·
He killed his JOSEPH JOSTEN
enemies and then he killed his colleagues.
Once I asked Gottwald's for- mer Deputy Premier, Pro- fessor Jaroslav Stransky.
who
A former official of Czech Foreign Omice. Joseph Josten joined the the Free Czech forces at the outbreak of war. A colleague
Jan Masaryk and Dr Cle mentis, ke was forced to flee from Prague when the Communists gained control.
To gallows
lars on "The Robe."
Zanuck quite directly
up came."
His enthusinam for focal alma,
Na-
made by the system his studla has bought, is enormous, turally he worked on the oarly talklee "The Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson-and before that hu
says: "This system is not was a writer assigned to provide a trick or a novelty. I believe stres for dog star Rin Tin Tin, it will supplant all other types of film.
"It would have been easy fo
try to cash in on the us to
Zanuck likes
to take
public's interest in new devices stories from newspaper hand-** by making a couple of inexpen- lines ("I am a Fugitive from a eve films, such as are now ap: Chain Gong"), we're spending a lot of dollars
and ploncesed pearing on the serveII. But
the Hollywood fashion for on our first film to show our making a film on location over- faith in the technique we use to seas. make it."
Now "The Robe" gives Zanuck Darryl F. Zanuck will always another chance to get ahead of spend big money to back some- thing in which ho believes. Ho Hollywood. Jean Simmons told had faith in "Wilson," his film him after the first day's work: in 1944, which argued against "I felt as if I were on a theatre American isolationisin. The film singe-the camera does not made'a hefty loss.
have to follow your movements. : It remains motionless and at- tentive."
YET-it-was-Gottwald-who-put
---And-Zanuck,-an-export cutter. At the begin- Slansky on trial, quickly, Zanuck stil believed that of films himself, agrees with one
of July before Slansky, could turn Hing
the pictures with an argument would of
men hla production
who 1947 the Cze- tables on him, before Beria make money, so ho plunged says: "With this new technique "Gentleman's scenes in films will run longer, "The Snako have fewer cuts and close-ups."
with
choslovak Gov- could intervene. He crowded ahead
the same dock with Agreement" and crnment decld him into
Western Pit," and proved himself right. ed unanimous Clementis and other
Zanuck the man is insured by / sympathisers, ly to accept an
Today he runs 20th Century- his studio for £300,000: he is Invitation to
Fox studios, maiding 30 pictures paid about £130,000 a year. attend the talks
a year. By working from am until 4 am every day he
He likes big-game hunting aves every foot of film his pro- (trophy room is next to his ducers and directors
are office sulle), plays polo, and shooting-all over the world. .
walks around the studio with a
It was: nonsense to pretend In Pariz on that Slansky too had sympathies Marshall ald. with the West like Clementis, But he went to the gallows with Gottwald, the rest. then Premier,
So Gottwald in the end · had was immediate-
summoned no rival in Prague. He was a Moscow
ruler on the pattern of Stalin. where he went accompanied by
1y
to
And hardly a week afler the
Is now an exile in London, how Gottwald could hang so many of his close friends.
Jan Masaryk. death of Stalin the Russian Stransky repeated a comment Through a clever device Gott winter caught up with the Red he had made to Gottwald wold saw Stalin Arst, Jan President of Czechoslovakia too himself: If one anake does not Masaryk later put the matter in on his last retreat from Moscow, cet another, he will not become a nutshell: "I went to Moscow
a dragon!" And Gottwald had smiled, and said, "Interesting."
Gottwald stood in the
as a Foreign Minister, and camo back as Stalin's henchman."
During Stalin's. funeral And the Prague Government mausoleum in the Red Square was obliged to reject the Mar-
shall plan.
nt the extreme left wing of all the satellite leaders, next to
middle of the picture.
11
It
When they film in Britain sawn-off polo stick in his hand ("The Mudlark," "No High-
like an army officer's cane. way") he follows the progress of the pictures every day just croquet. Right in character the
Today his favourite game
plays it on a floodlit lawn next In his air-conditioned working to his house after dinner office, painted pale green, he Sunday night. Quite a focal strides up and down on a bolgo effect.
the semne.
+
IKE WELCOMES BEAUTIES
EISENHOWER
Gottwald was wily. He saw Bulganin, Molotov, Voroshilov, what way the wind blew. He and Malenkov, and right in the knew when to change his time. PRESIDENT
may have raised the dignity. From moderation he switched to of his great office above the In several reports issued by extremism. He schemed against level of hot-tempered, wise- Moscow he headed the 1st of the centre of his Coalition and cracking Harry Truman. satelite visitors (for he certainly broke the power of Benes end ranked second to Mao Tse-tung Masaryk in those five days In of China, who was absent).
health.
Drank vodka
February 1048,
through
AMERICA COLUMN
from
HEWELL ROGERS:
on
· Eritons and Americans. Their dally
Intake averages 3,600 calories, compared to 3,100 for Britons and 3,210 fon Americans.
But New Zealand and Australla and Canada uphold the Empire's hearty eating tradi- tions, They are in second, third, and fifth places respec- fively behind Ireland.
Britain is 13th.
But on one fair U.S. tradition he has had to bow and admit defeat: he has failed in his Secretly Gottwald and fludolf hope of barring beauty contest,
"French and British reactions Stansky, the secretary-general of winners from the White House to President Elsenhower's For- the Czech Communist Party,when escorted by senators, mosa policy indicate that those [OTTWALD, imew Moscow mustered the action committees
countries are less interested in (VONTROLS", report! Removal especially well from his war of the Communist trade unions. In way the President has time stay, when he was so They called out their militia and been beaten by spring, which winning the global conflict with of wage and most price con
Communism than In protecting seriously ill from heart trouble marched them
the brings out Washington's famous their colonial interests.
trols last month did not produco that he almost diod, His bullish streets.
cherry blossoms-miles of them
any upward price movement. af "In Britain tho" attitudo physique pulled him through,
In the parks. And always, a
· HAPPY · WOMAN' in 'Mrd" and he went back to enjoying The students of Prague, cherry blossom gjenn to
Left-wing Socialists is one of osca
A
Drabik, Her Rosemary Aneurin vodka
which moderates, in quantities
were taken
appeasement by after hot rivalry
open between certainly did not improve his surprise. They rallied and beauties, from the 48 States, Bevan is the leader of this bloc. dream, shared by husband
were dispersed with brutality,
"His apponsement position is Henry, is already better than Always the senator, from the
shared by The police called at
many Conservative two-thirds true. Itin odd how many old. Masaryk's fa!.
Jan winning State squired her to the Britons to whom trade is trade When they married in 1941–
they wanted 'a family of ten White House for a picture with without respect to these girls. Nonsense, sold the bright, the President.
Hot course, if the It was announced afterwards
mathematical boys; the odds ata;" tomorrow he had committed suicide. But So now he has relented, Reds
In should intervozky
the United
Slates 1,024 to one against a family of some people bellave that he was quietly, word has been sent to Malaya
expected to apport
ten children without a boy, L Gottwald's own
cholee of thrown to his death. from the Congress that he will be glad would be
But now she has had her fair Betain there just as we are sup» senators-with- medicine-vodka and the brisk window by police thugs.
#CC Moscow
porting the French in Indo- seventh girl baby, Odds against, weather,
damsels." with snow So,
China,
three more girls bre' only eight and winds, foid heavily on him.
ten years after 'Hitler's conquest of Czechoslovakia,
"It all depends on whose ox to one now. The new baby is of that, Gottwald Golwald triumphed by theme New Isolationists," a [NDER THE HEADLINE On top
is being gorod, "?"
named Marymone. Her sisters: Marybeth, Marykay,; nine; travelled from Moscow back same methods, by pressure of
Marysue, soyon; sterylynn sic RISHMEN, are the world's Marylan, three and a half, and I heaviest enters, far outchewing "Marypat, 21 montir
return to
ес
Communists Moscow. and die-Dimitrov; now Gottwald
Thorez?
to
forced
to Prague in one of the Soviet foreign armies, putsch, and a leading article in the Scripps-
transport jushkin
the Howard chain of newspapers to- planes, signature
from which его not famed for President of Czechoslovaids, day says in part:--
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