1953-09-01 — Page 4

Poze

THE CHINA✨ MAIL, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER

The Grecian Isles Will Rise Again, But-

I

"The Flower Of The Levant Is

Broken On Its Stalk"

From PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR

Athens. eleared; field hospitals quakes shook the veel like the

staffed explosion udequately

HAVE spent the last aro week in the ruined and equipped, villages of Ionian Islands, and it tents have been springing has been a chastening ex- up all the week; the water perience. As We peered crisis, acute at first, is over, down last Sunday from a and planks for temporary Grook aircraft there was shelters are piling up. little in the appearance of Three of the islands are, Cephalonia to suggest the in effect, ruined; but of the disaster that had just taken three Ithaca, the Kingdom place.

of Odysseus, suffered least.

of the But as we lost height The destruction

towns of symptoms soon began to Cephalonian show: reddish wounds Argostoli, Lyxouri, Samy of Zakynthos, the seered the steep limestone and

of Xante, is flanks of Mount Ainos, capital,

Out of a total where large masses of rock complete.

had been shaken Joose and population of 120,000 a large of families are fallen- in casendes of majority boulders into the gorges he homeless, and exlat with a few chattels and Tow; isolated ruins of dep only

around them--bed- herds' huts; stone threshing, relies floors

sewing machines, split acroks like steads,

huge family broken coina; them wreekes irdenges,

14240 framed of entire villages, and photographs gypsy-like encampments of wedding wreaths. But the peasants, their pitiful heaps islanders'

tions.

as

plight is not of salvaged property seat- desperate until the winter tered among the olive trees, rains, by which time it is mushroom When we started drop hoped that ping sacks of food tiny town of Nissen huts will figures seemed to spring have sprung up. from the mountainside and Deaths are numbered in come running from all direc- hundreds-no definite figure

be ean

stated yet and every one of the survivors Zigzag Splits

has witnessed horrors ONCE on the ground, how-

terrible and apocalyptic as ever, the tragic com- Judgment Day. Yet morale pleteness of the disaster is astonishingly high. In was overwhelming. In one disasters as complete as this

only pretty village the

fine, Greek spirit house still standing was, has a phoenix-like knack of paradoxically, one built on recovery. It has kept them sand, the elasticity of which afloat on a sea of troubles has absorbed the shock, for 8,000 years and, sur- The Lew modern ferro-

prisingly, the sound of sing concrete buildings on the islands auffered least, how ng can be heard each even- ever. Old bulldings of hewn ing among the trees. stone around Argostoli had

the

Eerie Illusion

collapsed as though they EVERY town will have to

been built

of match-

be razed and rebuilt from

of depth-charges. The Last of tho fires of Zakynthos--rear-guard of a huge conflagration throw

rod

Бо

seawards. At day- break the town gavo an cerie Impression of completeness and the growing light revealed that the walls had nothing hind them and that roofs, ap

were in fact parently intact, scattered across acres of rubblish with no supporting walls. On the jetty a row of ballarda ancient cannon embedded

muzzle Townwards in masonry- pointed in ali directions, and Assures cut the waterfront Into a jigsaw puzzle pattern.

Old Friend

KNEW this beautiful town of Zakynthos well; but so bare of landmarks in the wreckage that now replaces it that I stood for Ien

Among minute

Jorge of blackened struc pyramids

Was before I realised that ! standing in what had once been the lovely baroque main square. On the cliffs above the town I Nought the house of

of an old Eng- ish friend of mine, Miss Isobel cfowe, grand-daughter flend of Byron, whose family established itself in the Leninn Islands during the sixty years of British suzerainty.

floor

of

for

I found the house; in spite of overturned bookcases and chairs secmed miraculously "Infact, Prints still hung on the walls; the book page of n February Sunday Times stared from the

Cause with "No Pessimism"* by Raymond Mortimer and "On Violence" by Cyril Connolly inappropriately catching the eye. But hall the garten, the summer house and

snapped its balustrade, and collapsed into the void,

reck

had

off

in the town the remains of other friends' houses were hard

and.

Again one caught the Cats stalked of carrion. among the wreckage, here and there solitary figures delved girl. into the smoking ruins. her face streaming hauled water from one surviv

wall. An old

amily

A

tear

with she und fos: her house and her

whe

"But

"Greccc can

Mes

1953

"Did you win, Bud?”

James Wickenden

WHEN

ENDS,

reports from Indo-China

THE MONSOON WHAT THEN?

under the hard of 54-9cht Fold

catw

Saigon, Aug. 31. crops--because of fertiliser know about it sooner than and-a-half million pounds will be. STRING of Tong provided under American bony-faced 61-year-old sterling worth of opium. cavalry-trained

General Navarre in his first full-scale Indo-Chinese kinese peasants wear- aid. Some swamps have Nguyen ni Hoc, allas Ho He traded it for guns from

One Who China, where opium fetches palgn. Ing long-tailed coats bean sprayed with anti- Chi-minh-"The

ten times the price in Lace small plump General Navarre and saucer shaped malarial oil. Clothing and Shines".

their shoulders.

As leader of the Com- He also gole aid from Com- radiates a socretive, confident, paths. On either side tiny and the villagers have given

Polish smile. He has definite ideas of Europe. From munist Vietminh, his life munist

how to deal with the Vietminh. hats waddle along narrow drugs have been issued, flooded paddy fields reflect thanks in return..

ports, one has been spent in a revolu- and other Satellite

First, he says, there should be every profound transformation of the basket which hang from

But thousands of tons of tionary atmosphere, begin ship has sailed almost

under a week since January with un organisation and thorale of bamboo poles swaying on fertiliser and truckloads of ning at home

French and Vietnam forces. spray pumps soon disappear drunken bully of a father in declared cargo for Red Asia.

Then, Vietminh supply centres Annamese Rich Centre

Smoke from their village, in the expanses of Vietnam. the small north

These ships, some manned by should be attacked, where he Was sullon

Russian crews, have proused curiousity from Suez to burning from Communist For, one of the three states village slene of its kind in Greece,

of Turk shells, hangs behind them. of Indo-China, it is three reared.

ΠΟΥ reports So does seven years of war, times the size of England

indicate that they off-load into **Russian “long-range- submarines- 90,000 casualties and half and Wales, supporting 20 a billion U.S. dollars, the million people. cost of the Indo-Chinese war.

whole

never she said, mind," Wood. Every single one. the ground; there is nothing bed ether children and build Zigzag splits furrowed left to patch up. There have new houses. . But my beautiful the fine roads engineered by, been a few cases of looting.. Zakynthos has gone for ever." Sir Charles Napier, the but the penalty has been conqueror of Sind, when he swift and condign. The reek was Governor of the islands of death from the rubble Is true. For Xante was early In the last century, foretells the

blight danger of spared the But things are improving cholera, and muss inocula- occupation. It was for centuries The fires are out, some of tion will have to be enforced, part of the Venetian Republic the roads repaired, and As we approached Xante by

some

+

of the

streets sca

slight Submarine

Headache

Do not wait patiently for your suffering to end Toke lor2 tablets of CAFASPIN' dissolved in half a glass of water, and headache will soon vanish

GFASPIN

The Small tablet with the big tőlect

earth-

[BAYER}

OVER A 1000 TESTED RECIPES

Frances Dale's

ENJOYABLE COOKERY

*

Outstanding in Presentation, Ideas and Value

palatable and nourishing meals for every tarle and occasion, and to produce them at a minimum of cost. Whether a quick snack, family meal or spectat dinner ta required, this book has the appropriate recipes with cooking Instructions Rimply explained.

Venetian its buildings were and its baroque. The main square was as delicate and beautiful as, casket, the small palaces of the island nobility were fronted with berley-sugar columns and 'armorini pediments, and the

Pelta

In the Red River are over half-a-million other

Makes It Pay

main street was long, show-refugees. The villagers will ONLY drastic

white arcade.

the sintue of the poet

Solomo

+

flelds have been divided so

revision

of their age-old farming

There he saw his brother Singapore, But imprisoned for stealing guns, and his sister arrested. known to bo for sheltering a rebel chief, Later he talked Communism Hainan Island. in atrocious French, posing as a hack journalist in. Paris. From there he went дя a picked student to

operating hear

Outside Aid

this UST what

aict

bas

JUST

amounted to, and how.

Difficulties

DEGINNING "with morale; General Navarre, wants in- dependence for the three states of Indo-China. He thinks this would win over many more of the politically conscious Indo- Chinese youth to the anti- Cemmunist camp.

Then he wants to expand the Indo Chinese French-trained

BOON join them. Many are The town was a rich centre of hoping to find an American methods could feed the Moscow. literature, and it has fostered an

ald post where they can people, but little can be done individual type of singing re-

Now, as an able strategist, much it will be increased, must

bc a problem to French In armies so that local troops can sembling the Neapolitan Car- queue for a squeeze of oint- while the war is on. And

which has he may believe the time telligence. For outside aid wilt ke over guard and other rear free aren duties. This would caroles, accompanied by guitars ment in their eyes, red and the same war

held up

a deglaive factor in progress has, by ripe for swaying the masses be

the all the French troops - for front The palaces of aore from the endemic com- devastation and extension in the Red River delta to balance of the and mandolins

campaign in line duty. the Roma and Lunzi and Mercati

plaint of trachoma.

of Communist rule over half Communism.

Indo-Chinn, which is likely w familles were filled with treasures,

There are two difficultfen, To Nothing but broken pillars now Many in the party are the population, made that

Unlike the French and start again when the monsoon

slop up the training of the marks their whereabouts, and thin and the children pot, vory progress most neces-

rains end in September.

Navarre needs Vietnamese who

Indo-Chinese, oppose leans headless against Its smash-bellied, because their paddy sary.

him. Họ thị minh makes

Recent supplies at any rate, more U.S. ald and 20,000 extra If some of the peasants the war pay. From the land appear to have sufficed Ho Chi- French troops. And to keep direct at the war going at all, Navarro sons that they no longer of the free half of the Viet of Ten Thousand Elephants minh to contemplatz

the French, if the prestat dis Government and people. grow, enough rice for all ginning to feel they have Laos which the Vietminh position of Viotminh

namese people are now be and the Golden Umbrella tack on the delta, stronghold of needs the support of the French The U.S. appears ready to in- Some Vietnam paddy nothing to lose under Com- occupied in April this year, gives any indication.

crease this year's grant of £143. fields have produced bigger munist rule, no one will Ho Chi-minh looted one-

Chinese anti-aircraft gunners milon to aid the development are known to harve boom posted of a strong Indo-Chinese force. recently to guard Vietminh-But what of France?.

and, out of The Communists in France eight known Vietminh, divisjons,

and have provided. Alve are polsed round the deta. Pro strong,

the leaders of recent If they

in capturing strikes. succeed

French Hanoi In the expected

cd pedestal.

The old woman

하 right.

The towi will rise again; but

the aesthetic loss enn never bo made good. "The flower of the Levant," as pects call Xunte, "is broken on its stalk"

(WORLD COPYRIGHT)

often between succeeding

MILTON SHULMAN again picks from the vivid books of the past upply carg

.FOREVER AMBER'S

12

MOTHER

and

|

troops

Cam-

paign, they might succeed in In the last great shut-down ending

effective French ro-

one common. argument was thiệ Kistasice north of Cambodia.

there would be no need to cut War petalons, raise house rents 2nd sack civil servante if tho verament saved money by ending the Indo-Chinese war

+

pl volunteers,

has

art

host of the 183,000 French troops, torming up in the delta to meet the threat of Ho's attack. There in the plains they can Oght Western-blyle, selions that fuit them and their weapons,

Best Card

lie was written when

Bui Bret Ho Cht-minh. a secret agent, both FTER Casablanca in erary pedigree back to Moll Ing politician,

She could well · be and a rowdy Non-Conformal over 80, int his reputation as to reckon with the French Ex- the hard 1943 Winston Churchill Flanders.

core of the free forces of Indo was ill with pneumonin. To the patron saint of the circulat, and Dissenter. He was the per- à great. English novelist de peditionary Forces,

ing libraries

feet Journalist who could write perda.

China. Atoll Flanders plunges us Chin keep his notoriously dimeult. patient in bell Dr Geoffrey five times (once to her brother

Beto is a heroine who married on anything, either side.

Quarrelsome and venal, him to a world of low life and high

excitement in which vice Marshall warned him that are thrice bigamously), who ironie writing brought him sanctimony tusste for supremacy pneumonia was "the old had

children (mostly the pillory, and oven on

the

on 'every page. man's friend-because it illegitimate), who was 12 years day he was exposed to the mob takes them off so quietly." a thior and became the most his bling, Hann to

flolent pickpocket of her day. Pittory Was selling on the The doctor advised M and B, who was transported to Virginia street. His audacity made him. Behind this

"I chose an a felon, and who tells it all a popular hers and instead of moralising Defoe tries to con- The men are glad to be from savernment the temptation to rest and a novel. Molt Flanders, writes Chit with detailed simplicity and being pummelled by eggs and vince us his book is designed of the state comment smell of sign aiment any trace with, the

war memoirs, uninhibited candour.

stinking, fish, his health was as a warning to others con- forta loat in hia chill

the expense "about which I had heard ex-

pillory, decorated with flowers. Moli callent accounts, but had 'not found time to test them."

When he had finished the

Though facest,

veneer

taking up where

ANIEL'S® righ-wing"" govern- Lment knows this is true. Neur- bankrupt France is spending 12 percent of her annual revenue on the war. To a tottering

mountain and Vietminh and end the

I drunk in Vie-streets and his cry Flanders: left off; Title, aral. the depressing latest and strong RACE CREA The only description we have there is no doubt what he and strategy of defence in place; of Bo his Expedillonary Forco

altack! Their spirits havo aeduction,

Assuring us, that one of the swinging back their brict cord. By playing for a spec The aim of this new Daily Express Cookery Book has been to design / book he gave it to Dr Marshall adultery, and crime wore Moli of Defoe is. to be found on Mali bellevo will sell the story, | risen,, and the columns of man, remains General. -Navarro's best

'Flanders' almost exclusive alice offering £50 roward for

khaki shorts, roar out buch indylar wictory as soon be the to cheer him up. "Tho treat-

with information leading to his characters la a reformed man,

"Aupres do ma catpaign chould open," he can ment was successful," reports Interests, aho, reminisces

quch naive frankness that ber arrest. "He Is a middle-sized she tells us "I could fill a larger songs a

phopo" to restore confidence in the Prime Ministér

story Le never obscene or shock man," it reads, "about 40 years history than this with the blonde

France and bolster * ={\ndow of

old, of a brown "Excellent accounts"

complexion, evidence of this truth, and "but Dariel. Defoe's Moll Flanders

and dark-brown-coloured hair, that I doubt that part of the They look forward to a spell Chinese morale, pisang

in open-air cafes Hanoi, It was not until he wae 60 but wears a weer hooked.net, diverting as the wloked party exis, and sightly dreamy Alice Comminister as Chirice wi will not be equally the opened one of But the wonders if France' have been current since it was written in 1722. Not only is it that Daniel Defoe discovered a sharp chin, grey eyes, and Ten full-colour plates, more than 70 other Ullustrations: one of the first great English the iterary gold to be found in large moir nasr his

PRICE $15

novels, but every English slut mattresses Botore then he had. Yet despite the millions of Forever Amber shows that in Wonderland atmosphere of let him play & his clade. Aino and trollop flouncing through lived a turbulent existence se aangry words he wrote in bis Daniel Defoe's formula for a town life in Indo-Chinese wondering whale chow-ta: koira has not changed If fighting starts in carnest at setabbling - in gitanolé ausbién Betion from Diclose to busineen man, a bankrupt, en pamphlets, it is upon. Roßlason, best-seller

ths and of the grains, they thumps Kathleen Winsor very trace bar pamphleteer, an editór, a sabems. Crusos and Moll - Flanders, much in over 200 years

`Speclatised chapters on Invalid ducking. Chinese dista

· recipée, ↑ slimming oeaking," old-time and etiquette.

HONGKONG AND KOWLOON

mouth

success of books like

L