1953-11-03 — Page 4

Page

WHEN THE GIS

MOVE IN..

/

RENE MacCOLL

cables from Malta the tough-talking vlaws of a man who could soon bo Premier on the decision to send in mora. American airmon

VALLETTA.

I

SAT down in the sunshine-splashed hotel courtyard with Dominick ("Dashing Dom") Mintoff, 35-year-old ex-Oxford Rhodes Scholar

· (Hertford College), who is the Opposition leader in Malta's Parlia- ment.

Mintoff (dark glasses, open-necked shirt, Palm Beach slacks, sandals) wanted to discuss the peppery decision to send many more American airmen to Malta without any "by your leave" to the Maltese.

Mintoff has lots to say on the subject, and says it with the deft smoothness of a master-coiffeur giving the favoured client a final "perm" against the clock late on Saturday.

Dom has three points. If the Americans are to build up strength in Malta, then (says hë):~

1

They must come through with some hefty dollar ald to the struggling Maltese economy, "just as they have under the Marshall plan to Britain, France, Germany, and everyone else."

They ought to reconsider America's McCarran Act, which controls the number Moltesc, of European immigrants. This is a considerable grievance with the because up to the end of 1052, when the Act became United States law, nearly 1,000 Maltese emigrated to Amerlen each year.

Nowadays the Act says only 100 can go annually-tough on this over-populated Isle of 312,000,

some

If a war breaks out between East and West, and laboriously rebuilt Malla gets Russinu A-bombs dropped on her because the Americans have a base here, then Malta ought to be given the chance to say whether she really wants to go along or stay clear.

Tough-talking

Mintoff is frank, tough-talking. I remark that the Prime Minister, Dorg Olivier, is already protesting about the US, reinforcements. Mintoff makes a face.

If he were in power (and he may be before very long) he would take "real neilon." "Don't forget," he reminds me, "I have already taken action since the Americans first came here." (An American squadron of 300 men has been at the R.A.F. Laiga airfield for the past two years, )

And what was that action? "I

told our young men not to join

the Terrorials or Civil Defence.

It has had a noticeable effect on recruiting."

Is Mintoff a Action Indeed! Red? He has denied on wuth,

and repeated the

denial In

Parliament. He simply Malta's best interests at heart, he main- tains.

anti-

And Is he "violently Brilish," as I have several times been assured?

ง

"Things would be better you British did not follow palley of race discrimination.

ir

"Oh" (seeing my look Amazement). "1 don't mean the

of

THE "CHINA MAIL," TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1953.

Cummings...

"DAILY SOCIALIST

DAILY SOCIALIST

A SQUARE

DEAL FOR

DAILY

RED

A SQUARE

DEAL FOR GEN. NEGUIB!

A SQUARES

DEAL FOR MAU-MAU!

DE JAGAN!

DOWN

WITH

BRITISM! GIBRALTAR!

'Well, well! Perhaps General Franco's not such a bad chap after all!"

London Express Servier

MR PRIESTLEY MISSES THE POINT

“M

By LES ARMOUR

ASS Communica. (like the sims) it is "parqs!- tion," that fine foal," feeding, vampire=liko, old bogey-man of on the life-blood of the theatre.

Nadio is almost as sinful. 2 the Intellectual," has been taking a frightful drubbing from novelist J. B.. Priest ley.

to

The prons, on the other hand,

achieves raionic status by the rather simple device of gly- ing the public "what il, wani, to hear." It stifies (in. Mr. Unhappily for his victim, Priestley's view) anything

the

reader Mr Priestley chose to start which might stir

opposition, arouse him to the scrap in the somewhat austere columns of the New think, or improve his mind.. Statesman

Over the years it has and Nation, where. would-be defenders getting steadily worse, too. Mr Priestley fondly -recolis the are probably about as wel- happy days when "oven the come as Sir Winston Chur- poorest of papers was somewhat chill at a meeting of the above its readers" and when Cominform.

its prose required "en effort"

comprehend.

Mr Priestley, ot course. directs the mass of his fire power at the "Popular Press" (nol, presumably, to be trastod with the Unpopular | Press").

con-

Television rates as a scourge on the cbscure ground that

CONTINUING ANTONY TERRY'S SPECIAL DISPATCH FROM BERLIN, THE STORY OF A RED DUPE. HANS BARTSCHAT YESTERDAY TOLD OF HIS CHILDHOOD, HOW HE JOINED THE COMMUNIST EAST GERMAN ARMY AND HOW HE WAS SENT TO THE POLITKULtur school. he met and fell in LOVE WITH A GIRL, CHRISTA, BUT THIS THE COMMUNISTS DIDN'T LIKE. IN TODAY'S NARRATIVE, HE DESCRIBES

THE

"F

We

OR a while

kept our affair dark. I made various excuses

crude social stuff as in South to get away at weekends.

Africa, No, ecbuomic.

ת!

Malta

it's but with the efficient spy and informer network which exists in East Germany It was not long before we were found out.

his

"You hit us here, my friend" and with that he slaps

pocket and sets the trousera

contains British

it coppers Jingling In sympathetic protest. for the

"Ono ente of pay Britis. Quite another for the Maltese." (Around Valletta you can get a very nice furnished Few house for £10 a month. Maltese can manage that.)

"I was 18, she was 21. Wo were committing the terrible crime of being two young people in love. my case the offence was even worse than that.

In

"I had committed the.

BEGINNING

THE

commanding officer in the

BREAK

outside sples,. informers, and could

orders of any company com-

OF

thunned. This meant, of cours?, that he was useless and had to be transferred to another unit where his steret job was not known.

are

"If one fails to remove the

they sple when

first then their fellow "It was only a part of his for. I started secretly to listen leutenant. I had the right to suspected,

the soldiers will sooner or later plek to read illegal anti-Communist 120 men under my control and a quarrel with them and start e to Westens radio programmer, snoop, sneak and spy on

who fight. fellow officers, propaganda literature. I began on my

afraid of me. a world were mostly

also

"When this happens they Are countermand the

oflen half murdered, Next day mander for political reasons. no one knows anything about it. "It was a risky business. It

In one or two enses I had some

clever

who Informers one is caught in East Germany

very "When I was posted to the with an anl-Communist news- Headquarters Signals Unit of managed to stay in the job for

Division of the six months paper, the average sentence is the Zittau 12 years in prison. But I used East German Army, I up found out, but they

sot to get hold of a weekly paper the kind of internal spying and exception. eniled Tarantula, which is

which we had published in the British sector been

been taught at the Politkultur in Torgau. This loys of Berlin and smuggled into scho East Germany. Its dry sarcastic down

among one Informer humour struck a chord in my every 10 men, or even two or three where the men were new-found critical faculties.

known or suspected of being anu-Communist.

woman

without

getting were the

Bad Enough

Politkultur school. Moscow- plan. He summoned me to trained Lt. Colonel Dietrich his office and, after ac- Nebrich.

to realise there was. Thirty-five-year cusing me of forgetting my old Nebrich was a dyed-in- duty by falling in love with the-wool Red. He had at a "class enemy," started to Marxist history.

the reeducation' storm and shout. tended classes set up inside Russia

"You have allowed your for prisoners of war by the "Free Germany Committer" self to become the prey of

a loose of German Communists.

any waitress who works in a Trigger-quick crime of falling in love with

"Nebrich made up his public restaurant is beneath laughs, a girl who came from a mind to break my engage- the notice of one of Stalin's Minlol! talks,

And middle-class family, and ment, my affection for my Polit officers! he bellowed. Resticulates trigger-quick. then off we go through those who had never belenged to fiancee, or me. He set about

the where all

"I cannot remember what British Servicemen wear shorts any Communist Party or it in a diabolical way. My

ganisation. Her father own- fiancee was working as a happened after that except

"Christa's parents, who also cd a small engineering fac- waitress at the time. Her that I saw red for about

hated the Red regime, helped being dis- five minutes. I have a re- me to keep in touch with what "The job of these spies was 'political tory. He worked in it him- father was Where the White Ensign a self-but in the eyes of possessed from his factory collection of Nebrich re was going on in the free world, to report to me every remark dared to try and think for them- their fellow soldiers selves Was confinement to want their daughter which might even remotely be barracks. soaring high the Communists he was a by the Reds, and she was treating behind his desk They frankly admitted that they made by

and threatening me with married to one of Stalin's secret regarded as subversive. so was forced to keep her family.

chair, while I tried to get agente. at his throat.

tawny streets

and even the postman beknickered,

Earl

Mount-

above Admiral "batten's HQ:

above the Grand Harbour.

class enemy, Christa.

and

Where the gigantic impos- sibly thick walls of the fortress "From the moment it was

cily were built around 1,000 to known that we were in love, make Malta impregnable-only,

of course, then no one Invented an aeroplane.

Where they have a big minated notice

board

had I

was watched day and

His Plan

·

ald-not

.

"It was about this time that began to suspect that the Red version of things was not is reliable as I had previously

believed.

of Port

}

The Reports

"Before a man was sent to a nunishment camp I used to give him a final chance. The only milder weapon I had against the undesirables" who

punishmenti

to

been

Downright Odd

These may be obscure virtues. to begin with, but they bo- come downright odd with Mr Priestley as their champion. Mr Priestley, after all, achloved his fame as a provider of ex- callent entertainment and he has

never been accused of aspiring to deep thought or desiring to take upon himself The role of pubile educator.

There

may, of

COUTET, reasons: Mr Priestley also notes that his books are selling badly these days ("One has to be a young man on a raft...to sell...") and he confesses that he was recently snubbed by an ditor when he sent his agent to offer a esrles of articles coll- ed "Unpopular Opiniona,”-

ba

But that is hardly the point. So what, after all, is all this bowling la the wildemess

about?

Casting aside the allegation that newspapers are 100 соку to read (this is a

rugged doctrine walch argues that | value and incomprehensibility go hand in hand), is it truo that the press is an organised conspiracy to stifle opinion and thought and reduce the reader's mind to Jelly?

London has eight morning nowspapers and three evening They range from paperz. the io highlighting sexy stories to papers devoted mainly to national and international poli- tice.

They reflect every shade of opinion from arch-Tory to violent Communist. They cru- . sade for everything from Em- pire trade to kindners to snails.

•

Differing Views

certainly be

The

would policy ›

be very dif-

Nowe Chronicle

Their prose runs from fast con- and zippy to slow and templative;-- occasionally--they roach the extremes of · plain "This was bad enough. Four-

silliness and dull' stedginess. teen days CB in the East Ger-

And there is no reason to be- man Army

something Leve that means

every editor is, in "It all passed as suddenly

special. It means the man can- rict leave barracks for three agreement with all his readers: "This fact was known to as it had begun. But it re.

Daily "I kept what was known as menths, as he only gets one day if the four million who buy the Express all supported night. Although I still be- Nebrich. He went out of sulted in my getting a week

Indication "Tendency

Re- oft a week and it takes him Lord Beaverbrook's Empire the his way to visit the restaur- in a cell on bread and water

national for every man in the fourteen weeks to work off his Lord liu-lieved fanatically in

"As future instructors above ideals of Communism, it ant where my fiancee work the normal German army

unit. In it I kept his personni his and particularly the main outdoor cafe giving was beginning to dawn on od, and to make improper punishment for the dis- East German Youth, we were details,

given a fantastic picture of the political history. I also recorded widespread crimes in the Fast

"As a result one of the mest ferent from what it is today. fotball pools forckusis and me that here was a system advances to Christa. On one obedient soldier.

Western world, Britain, Wo results (the Government is in which would stop at nothing occasion she was forced to

German Army is the forging of Icave phases. The only diffleul- to gain its ends.

"This incident was though were taught at the Pollukultur, any anti-Communist I hardly realised it at the time school, is a minor nation which "One of the instruments

the beginning of my break with has lost its power and now "This record was constantly ty is the stamp which has to be role in brought up to date by the re- on each one to make it valid. was my

Communism the system used

and all it stands plays an insignificant

This is usually obtained by world affairs..

parts of my informers.

tranferring it onto the forged "The picture of Britain 03 "TI I got

an unfavourable leavo pass from an expired one, taught by the inside circle of

using a hat fresh-boiled egg just Communists is that the workers Sport on a mun I had him up out of its shell as a 'stamp. there are all seething with dis- and talked to him. I tried to content and just about to start find out whether he had more- ly let fall a casual comment A bloody revolution.

was really against the Communist system.

the lottery game here). -

and What with one thing another Moliese history keeps

en rolling along.

lenve

the

restaurant to

escape from him. I only dis- covered this later.

Costs so little...always so welcome

so delicious,

anytime, any Season.

so welcome.

Coca-Cola

AAA WAWE

Serve

Coca-Cola

at home

under authority at The Coca-Cola Company HONGKONG BOTTLERS.' Fatal bak, I. $. As

All Nonsense

+

he might make.

20

remarks

"If he was a "hard caso" I had the power to order him to be transferred to a punishment "The only things that slov battalion. These are held camps them, according to the official where the men are bullied and Party version, are the bayonets tortured by, brutal officers until and truncheons

many commit tulolde. Each

'Im- of the

".

"Later, when I needed to get away urgently from the upit to be with Christa while we were planning our escape, I used the came method, so I know it works.

Spying Net

"All the spying which goes on perialist British Government." punishment battalion had 100 to inside one small unit in the batallen in the ordinary tenso nothing to the great informing 120 men, so it hardly Communist German Army is

of Kie word.

Today I have been in the West long enoughi to realise that this, like so many other things we were taught, is just nonsence. But at the time it was told with such conviction that it seemed to make sense.

network which covers and per vades everything in East Ger- many,

"Men sent. there seldom live. long. They, work in the open from 8 am to 8 pm, and ilve "Though. I was the 'senior in- In unbested tents summer and former in my own unit, I know "Once this version of things winter. The officers who are that my spies were being spied was established. It meant that picked for their brutality are on by counter check' sples set everything which happened had themselves punished if they do to catch them to be nited "Into the Com- not maltreat the class enemies anoping organisations outside munist picture. For instance, in their charge..

we were taught that Sir Win aton Churchill's speech in the House of Commons. last May was not really Fenuine. was, wa› wero tought, an

· at-

Bullying

my own.

out by

paper

Liberal-yet there are two readers of the convinced for every

Liberal in the country.

The Dally: Herald is the offelal voice of the trade utlen movement, yet it is under coh- other stant Bre from every Socialist and Labour paper in the country.

Anyhow, how much..does "policy" really affect what, appears in a paper?;

In the news columns, the Is probably only answer

lightly,"

Every newspaper has the ser- vlees of three or four hotly-' competing how agencies, in addition to its own battery of reporters and correspondents.

Facts Are Facts &

Facts are facts, and a reporter who distorts story will b found out with alarming speed. Moreover, an editor must as-, sume that his readers tako sorho of the opposition papers, and readers are more alert that, Mr

Priestley would like us to

other complete

3

objectivity amyth; background "Check and counter check, relection of facts, and stylo affect, even the spy and counter spy. The nodsarily whole rotten and degrading simplest story, But there, is no system is based on one thing evidence that today's reporters the powerlessness of the. In aro not telling their stories tempt "to reduce the

"I have spoken to many of dividual to object or defend honestly the

they volutionary foyer of the British these officers, who boasted that himself.

them. workers by offering them "fake in the punishment battalions

Nor

any avidence that is there any concesions" to the Soviet they had the privilege" and "I soon discovered that I 100 editors are suppressing stories, Union which the British Gov pleasure of bullying the men to was being pled on. I never reporting unpopular" opípione, ernment never intends to carry the point where they committed discovered who was doing it but Stories hit the waste-bucket out

suicide, Ometally, the higheit realised one of the other officers because, editare do not consider with Praize, for Buch an officer was in the mess was watching and them pews. Thus, a speech by "Despite the TOW

wh Nobrich I received my com- that he was hard listening when I found my re-a pacist to an audience of 12

marks.béiné:"reported back to mission as an officer and fully soon found that the men in me by my superiore"?”. hedged Palit Kommissar," withd the army rank of Lieutenant in the unit were quick to discover the East German fores On an average, an informer that they were being spied on.

My power was far greater leated thiroo months before he than that of any ordinary was found out. After that he was

prava

„(Hans concludes hir story tomorrow)

is not likely to make the head- Miesten But: los "ten':'thotisands paciónka pot together and march Lon" Parliament, and theyżs

Hold their own. In the ne columnis against, two-aze turn decurs and is prime, milgistarade