1953-04-07 — Page 4

THE GIRL just went on SINGING

N the Yugoslav town of Pristina, near the troubled frontier of Albania, the muezzins still call the faithful to prayer. And at the sound of their-reedy voices the crowd in the dusty streets below turns obediently east- wards.

The veil has been officially abolished in Tito's Yugo- slavia but here the Moslem women still wear baggy trousers, brilliantly hued jackets.

And the men, tough-looking, hawk-faced, stride along in turbanesque headgear. It could be any bazaar crowd east of Suez.

At night, in the packed, smoke-hazed cafe, a girl singer keeps up

an incessant wall- ing in those minor keys, full

R.M.MacColl's

of melancholy and despair,

characteristic of Oriental COLUMN

singing.

But-modern touch-she

does it

through

* loud-

apeaker, turned right, up. And after four hours straight of this I began to rule.

feel a bit dazed.

Turning to my companion, Moustapha Hassim, presi- dent of the local People's Committee, I asked: "Why

takes a backward glance at Tito-land

centuries it lay under Turkish The Turks were finally

THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1953.

master from the Albanian town of Korja. Tene is the boss of Re- the League of Albanian fugees in Yugoslavia, a political organisation 1.000 strong which aims at the ultimate liberation of Albania from pro-Soviet rule. Tenen's league is a sort of Government-in-exile, and if Hoxhn, the present boss of thrown out, gels Albania, Tenen may be his successor.

He is bectling-browed, hard as nails, and could pass for the twin brother of Freddie stilis.

Slow motion

does nobody ever appland pushed out 10 years ago but in M

respects they might have

"la many

her" leshrugged. bad singing," he explained simply.

Contrasts MOST of my stay in Yugo-

marched away only yesterday.

to

Yet even here, in this most primitive part of Yugoslavia, there is evidence of the big drive which Tito's modernisation Government has pursued, despite many diffculties, since the war.

On the

edge of Pristina tro days in the town

slavia was spent in Bel- spent grade, which forms a consi- shortly before returning home)

ኒፍ

a great new sporla stazłum neais derable contrast to London, gemption. But sanitation

as we know it is non-existent in But that contrast is nothing compared with the Pristina.

border province of Kosmet

the

And when Mr Hassim asked

that I thought of 231C

have ally would hopiene to football,

in the south, of which stadium I replied that I person Pristina is part.

Kosmet is a whole world away from the West. For live long

(BAYER)

Parasitic skin disease, itching

tegema etc.

'Mitigal'

Ou. 5. QUIMENT

»Bayer « LEVERKUSEN

GERMANY,

H

preferred

Hospitality

25, with a

Interviews with Tenef some Albanian refugees who have recently run the gauntlet across the border were a little unwieldy..

First I would ask a question be 111 English. This would

Serbian by a translated into pretty blonde Slovenian girl, who has a Government

job in Someone else would Prirting. translate that Into Albanian.

While the answer was making its way back down the line to me, the refugee, and I would sit miling patiently at one another and sipping plum brandy.

ON

Commotion!

N all the day-long journey from Belgrade I saw not a Finale other private cur on the ront. The only motor traffle consisted of a dozen lorries and ASSIM is a short, dark man

buses.

But mouthful of guld teeth. who wears a well- cut lounge suit and who offered me lavish hospitality when I first called on him in his office. Ture was plum brandy, Turkish colfer, and a heaped dish of stretches of the sketchy Kosmet tuberate cream cakes.

With

us, as we saw the sights, the secretary of the People's Committee, lle migsed very

Was

12.10.

near

When we visited a new cotton

town thread factory (British machinery) we had to wait fr the mannger's office while he was folched.

The secretary filled in the time. reading through the manager's correspondence on the desic

PRISTINA

is the present H.Q. of Apostol Tenefl, the

former 36-year-old

maths

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the appearance of the British car in which travelled a rare commotion. A caused small crowd seemed to spring whenever I out of the ground

And, on the remoler

LION ON YOUR LAP

THE MAN LONDON

By Hazel Cavendish

S

he

IXTY - SEVEN at the Royal Academy of Musle YEAR OLD Eric in London, and then they would If he review the position. Coates is a dapper showed signs of promise little man of ex- could continue; otherwise the

charm traordinary

with Bank. none of the

composers.

eccentricities

World Copyright by arrangement with the Manchester Quardian,

WHO SET

TO

From the beginning, Coates commonly attributed to was successful. In his Arst.

IS weoks

a musician he was noticed as a young man of ex- He lives in a comfortable ceptional talent. At the age of Mayfair flat, owns a somewhat 22 he was invited to tour South Mries with an orchestra. After suburban seaside house that there was no looking back. enhanced by an artistic, sell- decorated interior driven big American cars, and adorce remaining with him until 1918.

tracks,

driving peasants market Jumped frantically down to grab their horses' bridles in TESSsurance came unexpectedly into sight.

to

taking photographs.

as

I

Rusty relics

COMETIMES, at the side of the

rallway lines, saw the metal skeletons of carriages and the rusty relics of overturned locomotives. Why have these

a

valuable source of scrap been left to moulder since the trains they formed were destroyed by Partisan raiders nearly a decade Because, I was told, it is not economic to send travelling cranca so far to salvage the

scrap.

Security

NEAR her borders Yugoslavia takes no chances. Security

is tight and deep. A belt of territory, sometimes 30 miles wide, is forbidden to anyone except the army and the local Inhabitants.

These intter live a strange isolated existence. They rarely the outside FCC anyone from

And world except the troops.

He joined Sir Henry Wood,

He played under Sir Thomas Beecham. By the time he was written his first His passion 'is London, his 25 he had

heard it work and habit,

tho orchestral musle. Combining two has brought him success. performed.

He began his musical career- at the age of seven, when he composed a number of pieces for the family orchestra.

Dismissed

ERIC COATES

MUSIC

top

he

Coates arrived, was correct in all he did ond cald, and behoved with grace and good manners to everyone present. During ten he was invited to perform 01 the plane. At the end of it Phyllis's mother was compelled lo admit that she had never heard Mozerį played with such feeling.

"But I still think he's Impass)- ble," she added. And she forbade

.

her daughter to see him again,

They were married after Phyllis came of age, but AL great was the family prejudice blthough they

Paribwslottor

From White

MnBonnet Td It One Dog

IN

Paris,

to friends in PaMnie. Bonnet, wife Henri Bonnet, Frendmbassador In Wash tells the har- rowry of a dinner party

Theer for 14 people, was id at the French. Embaently. First course was 'chors speciality- trume

Ony of the dinner the cher

ed to Mme. Bonnet that les had a strange smell. Bonnet disagreed. "Any she added, "give a couple dog and see what happieza, a poodle, ate thes with relisti and with visibio ill-effects,

Adinner the

truffes WETCAL SUCCEST. Mort of for a second the asked

helpen, towards the end of the butler entered

and a message to the

"lead.

Am

The

message:

IMme. Bonnet Belt the tab telephoned the Em- bafor. Would he pleuse suithout alarming the tecautions that night

be

gu

tor

quickly brought anxin powder to add to th (in which it is, tuste-

let

R.I.P.

of

ere was a bitch. One of Kuests refused coffee. Monnet tried to persuade

tink it but falled...

the guests loft with thyers

the Bongela them. lly the Ambassador re- on the disastrous social An Ances

of poisoning

Then his dinner party, Aturned to the dog. Ho me, led the butler. "Tel

did Mirza suffer much?" not think so, your hey," the butler. repiled. Jimpression was that she inned immediately the car

could give no EDS IN TROUBLE reason for it, save that they had not selected the young man

themselves--there was a family Communist Party it the

rift for ten years. At the end is is Stalin's death likely of that time Coates was received ve such repercussions as into the family.

the French"comrades."- party is in a bad way. Its It was from that some

the cir- floor in Hill Street that

"And then it was he who could rship is falling do no wrong, and me who was of its Press is dropping composed "From Meadow to

always at fault," exclaimed his, that one Paris and two Mayfair' (1931)

clal dailles have closed "London wife ruefully. "He became my one of its chiof leaders haa Bridge March" (1034) and mother's favourite, of all the expelled from the party and many others. Although he was femily."

tions.

throughout

ler awaits Expulsion. Ice's best Stalinist," The Coates have one sonice Thorez, is a paralysed Austin, who is in the Coloniad In Russia. Service in Hongkong. They them the moment the French the vitality of may be summed up as being elves have younger generation, They any 2 sick man drawing lively

animatedration from a dead one. interested Intensely

But while he remained as a composing steadily Like his brothers and sisters, member of an orchestra he the twenties, his greatest output -Coates-was-brought up to love composed. comparatively little was in the thirties. Every year music. Each of the five children A disagreement resulted in his there was something new, seme- of Nottingham surgeon W. being abruptly dismissed at the times two and three scenposl- Harrison Coates were encour age of 32. At the time t aged to play at lens! one In- seemed a disaster. But his wife

othe Malenkov the party knows pointed out that for the first strument.

In 1932 ho time,

had leisure lo

wrote his ballet, people. he now

of their people. One

mutu Only two party leaders Jester at the Wedding". family.

the In the

orchestra write

music that was "The down

Interests is ballroom dancing. A met him, and one of them Mother

his head-the The middle and latter thirties least twice a week they go the expelled veteran, Andre played the piano, surging through

saw three more suites, "The Savoy dinner

er dances, "becausy, one of the few French Father the Bute, and a sister melodies that he thought of on

"London Again" London buses, Three Men," the violin. Another the tops of

still enjoy dancing with ermumists who used to count and Eric

"Springtime," and another another so much.” They

a Kromlin favourite, plane, sister strummed on the banjo, hummed while he walked to a and

Enchanted Gar- scribbled on odd ballet, rehearsal and and the second

always eager to ask youry waverings in the Russion con sang. A

"The suite, "Four Cen- colliery Jocal

was bits of paper on, the way home. den." mantger

turies," was composed in 1942, people: "Do you know any neprship will be reflected a called in to play the cornet,

and

was followed in 1944 by places where they have a godredioid in the French party ng its little Malenkove, and and an aged aunt performed For unlike most composers

dance orchestra?" prophetic "The Three

plovs. on the cello but BO im and authors, to whom peace and a

certain to be a perfectly that she could only quiet aré as essential paper Elizabeths,"

and Ink, Coates preferred to favourite in Coronation year. manage the simplest of parts.

clamour work amidst all the and bustle

of mid-week Lon- don. London, in fact, is his inspiration.

Early Pieces

Coates' music L broadcast over the BBC more often than composer. that of any other Snatches from his works are as signature tunes for

Main Hobby

1.

great purge of the French enunist Party Immediately pwed the death of Lenin. This a purge has preceded Stalin's sh by only a few weeks, In Who's Who Conter gine man whose position la "nottering with a camera" as angered is the titular head of principal hobby. He spends me party, tubby ex-pastry cook, He likes to stand at the open used Coates' earliest

happy hours taking photos of ques· Duelos. He had a pieces were windows of his top-floor May- programmes.

house and therefore composed with

garden at Bogancholy story to tell when he his fair flat and let the sights and family's individua) Imitations sounds

Liko alt sink deep of the cily

successful artists, Regis, or posing friends for the annual report to the which valuable into his subconscious.

Strident Coates works hard and pains formal portralls, But the vy's national congress musleat discipline, horn and noisy gear-change takingly over composition, professional results he obtapurned when news of Stalin's

all the.

could scarcely be time, and composer must are, literally, muske in his ears, revising

working for long hours at a pottering. stretch. He never composes at

if they want to journey away from their village for any rea- son they can only to it with a pass. For them the cold war is

in mind the Arsi a sad and constant reality.

Iesson the As with Albania, so on

which borders with Hungary, Bulgaria,

Icarn. Rumania constant and

jance, and often a litle shout. ing a border guards sake pat slots at each other,

Danube borne

THE

THE cold war produces a novel form of propaganda infiltra- tion. Down the broad Docube nearly every day come floating big bottles and waterproofed boxes, stuffed with pro-Soviet Ilterature. These have beenE tossed into the stream where it passes satellite-held banks.

Arabian nights

Born in back the prest

DUT that is back in Belgrade. dent of the People's Committee proposed a wine doast. to "the mighty Churchil," raising his

In

every

At first they were mainly derivative, but soon he began to Interpret his own ideas and im- pressions in music. By the time he was eleven, he had quite an impressive collection of his own compositions,

П

#

canth was received. With his me they associated the recent line of the party and with his

London Suite piano. He lets the melody Their seaside house warley"excessive

week-end there.

Parliameo:cupation

tho

form in his head, and then necessity for his health. drafts it on to a score,

they seldom stay longer thany's present helplessnes

His self-criticism of "right wing Knights-

lations" may save bkn from Sophisticated, busy

In his wife Phyllis he found bridge Inspired the most stirring an ally and a critic. Theirs

"If I persuade him to pulsion: It is unlikely to ensure survival as the party's effec- passages of the "London Suite,'

story-book longer than a few days he ce leader. the work which in 1933 brought romance, a talo of love-at- plains that the abceninable

acclaim, first-night. international

Then the concerts came to an him abrupt end. With his increasing There is something about this. talent Erle developed a tem-

The perament,

musle which has a tremendous hecking

to people of every some elderly relatives one day appeal provoked such a scene that papa nationality, It is frequently | Coates, shocked by his son's bad heard from radio stations all

manners, refused to allow them over Europe. to continue.

A

was

almost

+

a

Fell In Love

Баур is driving him mad." wife.

QUITE SIMPLE

The most surprising SKED in Parliament

Government about Eric Contes is his aber disobeyed Jack of conceit or affectailers to fly Bags at half-roast This little man with twink honour of Stalin, the Air Coates, a nonchalant young bird-like суса and fricinister, M. Montel, replied: musician who "professed him- manner might almost be was most unfortunate, but I

disinterested in women, trod bank worker

our fags to the wash was propping up a pillar at a family wanted him to be,tly the day before.” dramatic school performance

his wife, Ho has neve out secret when he first saw

never courted per

Delf

The Dancs chose it as their But the idea of a musical Resistance tune during the war. career had begun to grow in the Its triumph chords defled the

QUOTES baadae | boy's hend and, by the time his Occupation, best

education Wis complete, his massages to the Danish Under then aged 19. She sang a song publicity. His name mind was set on it.

ground. The Germans made its, at the plane, and he promptly appears in the social diariesARSHAL JUIN (on the out-

his face in the shiny week)!" performance

look after Stalin's death); punishable fell in love. This decision was hot

The enemy moves steadily East. offence. After the, war Contes Well

He arranged to be Introduced.

For some years Coatesst it was Napoleon, then received by his parents, who went to Denmark and conducted urged him to take up a steady his Sulte at a concert attended As they met and shook hands posed no great works filler, then Stalin, and hence-

thought: "I shall marry his latest---possibly his grearth it will be Mao Tec-fung. profession. They were support by thousands of Scandinavians, cach

will be heard soon. · For voice to

compete with the ed by the local bank manager, He has never forgotten that this person."

months he has been h sorrowful tones

who of the giri

sternly

night. At the end the audience them advised

work on the music fo Unfortunately all did not go. Rhodes, Centenary in No GENERAL DE GAULLE (on singer.

against letting their son enter cheered themselves hoarse.

smoothly at first. Phyllis' Rhodesia. Bearded Karl Marx” (beno- the ranks of "shiftless music.

Ho WILS a Parliamentary followers): volent), and

lang." alit-cyod Lenin

"They just went berserk," parents were Victorian in their honoured by the invitatiimbitious, unsure of thems Ho recommended bank post, offering to start the says Coates, who remembers It Ideas, The young man was (sinister) stored down from the

jand wall. Outside in the moon-young man

the most emotional summoned to tes, Phyllis having Nothing could be better onerally, stupid, carceriais. as ́a declark. Tho, as one of light it was sheer Arabian family throstened, cajoled, per moments of his life. He is still given her family some.

the way shg zel£;. Nights, y

minded, promised, but young, mystined.

Bulawayo will be the Erie would not budge.

musiclant

crfod her hear what may prove

Josephine Baker's "burband." seems mother: "But " then "he will the most interesina co OE BOUILLON: I know my

bo impossible!". certai

tions of Coronation your placo. It is in the home,

Looks as though Mars and

· Lenin will have the company of

All Bada for a few vËRSE VED

"Why was so succesful!!! At last his father compro- the seism. "One Lover mised. He plotąd do stix months to know 'inestif”!

-in that part of the world, s

compote

Idon of.

19

for

this