1954-01-25 — Page 4

Something For The Yahoos

T

By GAVIN MURRAY

London. Look at the fans' faces.

yelling,

HE lunatic fringe will Cheering.

love it. It has every- thing they're look-

ing for. Danger but not

gleaming.

eyes

This is what they came to them. Dirt. Noise, And for. This is what the whole the opportunity for hysteri. promotion aims at provid- cal hero-worship.

ing. They call it "thrill."

No! Stock car racing is It's called stock-car

for genuine racing. And in the United strictly not States where it flourishes, auto-sport followers.

its supporters and pro- moters -- who do very nice- ly, thank you refer to it quaintly as "sport."

If this "sport" is intro- duced from the U.S.A. you'll have to look elsewhere for potential fans. And a couple wants to of good places to start look- ing would be the noisier section of all-in wrestling and speedway nudiences.

Now someone bring it to Britain.

Roughly the idea is this, Young men who like thrills or quick money or bobby-

More Kick

Among the bobby-coxers and escor, their dragro-shape

when jeening

x adulation, strap them- aclves behind the wheels of elderly, everyday automo biles with souped-up e- shuickwur gines. They then proceed in Jostle one another around a dirt track.

The point of the business, however, is the cars

it'

dangerously

1

there isn't enougli “aution'

Among the yahoos who chant ritier "HP" why a speedway thut sicherHLONKAY into the cln- whole ders. (Believe it or not, but I've

that heard them at it).

100 percent

unfitted for much racing, and crashes are fre- either quent and spectacular,

Big Difference

t༩༣་

It's

Ever

*D

Than al-in.

They love it.

spectacular cones

speedway ( There's more kick seeing a bunch blazing of ears piling into a

thom an watching a pyramid fil gent having his legs twisted rider pitched on fouther-clad heking TOSI o cinder-track.

Granted the diventre big

cwest wear crush helmets and

te strapped to their, seats.

thin juncture At might explain that any re- semblance to car-racing is purely coincidental. Grant- thung.

ed, these vehicles have a

3' 4 can't have

But every

Bu dit despair ca scoa.

wheel at each corner al Test one possible ob- least for part of the time take the way of "stock" and are apparently in resing premution over here. competition to get from 'A'

to 'B' in the shortest time, But there the resemblance ends.

The big difference lies in the attitude of the nudi-

to the

ences sports.

In

eldenly cara dibe USA suitable for the game are easy to one by, In Britain, on the

other bund, even

the

most

d depidated jabs den raiso sume

set of palce,

So competitors and promoters fairly certain to be will have

respective that gate-money is going to be

Watch the faces of real car-racing

enthusiasts at

Goodwood, Silverstone

<

4 enough to offset initial out-

jay,

Their Choice

Brands Hatch when a CAN Yet, maybe that isn't really

There's real con- such

obstacle after at crashes.

to be enough cern and horror there. Con- There are bound cern first for the driver. Or cheap-thrill chasers willing to

half-crown with their part

sort that gawk at accidents.

What's more

if he is obviously unhurt, then for the graceful bit of engineering skill that lies wracked and twisted.

the

street

and

THE CHINA

MAIL, MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1954.

SHUFFLING BACK to, Germany comes a strange procession of men and women who have spent Over as prisoners of the Russians. *. years 10,000 have crossed the border. More are expected: 'but nobody knows yet how many,

I've just been over

the border to

pay

the bill for Buchenwald

Moscow

Chmanings

CYRIL AYŃSLEY has spent a week talking to these once-arrogant Germans. From the jig-saw of their stories emerges the pattern of a prisoner's life in the far vastness of Russia.

and the significant changes that are now coming about.

THE HOMECOMING

without

A SMILE

I watched, and I thought:

F

Here is retribution

OR the past week I have been living in a strange world of unreality, with the

people moving slowly like undefined characters in a sick man's dream.

My job took me to Friedland, a little village on a German railway' crossing not many miles from the Russian zonal border. There, as you may have read, prisoners who have been swallowed up in the Soviet vastness for the past seven. eight, and nine years have been coming home by bus.

It has been my experience to watch other prisoners in other times returning from rigorous captivity; British soldiers sailing up the Mersey from Japan in 1946, when, with bands playing, Liverpool tugs saluting with their sirens, and relatives racked with anxiety, I suddenly wept.

British soldiers returning from Korea last year, when, with a laugh and a hand- shake, I encountered old friends.

by CYRIL AYNSLEY laughs,

who, to write this report, went back to the country where he spent four years as a prisoner of war. He was held in camps in East Prussia, Sagan Breslau, (south of Berlin), Poland, and Hanover,

Remembers a Treaty

STRANGE COURTSHIP OF FRANCE

T

By John Cunliffe

in the process documents indecissessions".

with the

FLATTERY

26

WAA

of

in

camps

But ut Friedland, no they have told seem to suggest of Stalin that since the death ho tears. This

there has been an earnest 'on- something quite deavour to improve the condi- different. An arid, unemo- tions of the many millions tional, shuffling procession slave labourers still living

the vast network of of people whose experiences which are an important part of had turned their souls to the Soviet economy. iron and their minds flinty suspicion. The once be told of post-war hideousness proud, arrogant Germans.

to

Into the village post office, where I was waiting for a telephone call to Lon- don there walked a lttle

But there are still stories

which are hard to bellevo.

In hospital

Russion Secret Police, to nam-

fellow-Germans ing

working to identifying his

for the West, Nazis, and finally to luring own sister, 37-year-old Ria Hunold, across to the Eastern

zono from the West where sho

was working for the British.

The doctor's reply: "I was an

the omeer b

German Army fighting against Russia. I Am noi a traitor."

The Russians almost, it seem- ql, ns it feorful or ashamed of what was to follow turned the the atten- little doctor over to tion of guards from the Baltic State of Latvia, The medieval methods begun,

Shoes of lead

OR 24 hours he was confined alone in a smail barred cago

exposed to the biting January weather. They wished him now to confess to espionage charges,

refused.

to

He

WENT to a hosplial outside Gottingen and sat in a ward man, with a brand new Just as though it were visiting suitcase the trademark of day in any English hospital.

was at the bedside of 40-year- the returned prisoner. He old Dr Ludwig Hunold, came to write a telegram.

he was polite. Nor

He

I had gone to see the doctor

in Vladimir Prison the

sland in

For 36 hours he was made to In a small room up to the knees in ley water. There were

13 now other victims with him. Into this room of frightened would men Jackbooted guards

with stride from time to time

at them whips and strike out Before they were released from of intensely hot water were turned on them this torture taps

from the ceiling.

Again the form of confession was put before him. Again he retused to sign.

1

To make conversation I because he had said he had met

"Getting in touch asked:

Englishman Frank Kelly

In Russia,

He was taken to a small with your wife?"

and that Kelly had been a Good

roam, strapped to a bench, He regarded me stonily. Samaritan to him.

blandet put over his head, and lacked warmth,

We talked indeed His eyes

of Frank

the but It was not their hot sicam piped through friendliness, any sign

blanket. He was neither scorch- of Kelly,

friendship which caught my at- emotion. At the same time tention. It was the doctor's own

ed nor bumed. But for 48 hours the and in two full days he had of suffering story

perform- greatest difficulty in humanity

ing that most elementary func tho This little doctor with

tion

of breathing. intense brown eyes, the signific-

Finally he was put in a amall, ant occasional dry cough, and

vermin-ridden cell, where ho stammer,

до the slight

was made to stand in shoes prisoner of war. He had been a

mado of lead. He could not medical officer with a German battalion on the East Front, truo move. For how long?

"I fainted," said the doctor, Chough. But the war had been

"I don't know. Tho 18

guards finished

months, ho had

nad said it was 80 hours," settled down to a private prac-

Finally he was sentenced in Schwerin in the East 15 years'

Imprisonment In Russia,

"My wite?" shrugged. she couldn't walt nine years to perhaps recover my children from her. She can go to hell."

for me, I hope

I'll remember since 1940 and violated

sal culture.

this

the

little

speech

was

de-

Lice in

was

zone of Germany. A severe war

and wound,

the threat of

any country.

East German

So ordinary

10

HE advent of the New On the other hand, acceptance the French papers have treated

often affords of the European Army would it coldly and sceptically. Year

lead to the loss of France's are the demands for support in enough leisure to en-

the interests of European peace national army, and to the trans- able one to go through old

into and security any more impres formation of the country

Five when they come from a drawers and sort out their an American vassal.

has broken 12 contents. It is astonishing United States "not losing much country which

ilme in

France's treaties capturing what one

can come across time,

10 non-aggression pacts (It must list 18 years. be an important occu-

the fact Hivered in such cold mat- All this emphasises and articles one had almost sion which causes the USSR

that Russia fears the growing

IT- be so solicitous forgotten, some of them of 10

about the

Even If considerable nostalgic inter- loss of someone else's colonial strength of the West in Europe. ter of fact topes that its

she cannot

pact was as abrupt as if I had disrupt possessions"),

been hit across the face by one NATU

she is prepared to go to est.

Pravda, more solicitous still, almost any length

to prevent of the 18-inch leicles hanging epilepsy, made him a pretty Something of the sort has

said that the United States was the European Army from taking from the caves outside I should ineffective disruptive influence evidently been happening in trying 10 destroy France's

a brief encounter which shape or arms being given to the pity is the Russia, and someone in the position Is a great Power, Western Germany.

Hence the prefer to forget, and never can

But on a cold January morn-

LL this I heard in the rc- fact that there will be no dearth Kremlin has re-discovered though the French role as Intensive wooing of France; forget.

ing in 1947, just as he finished A of gallant, foolhardy young men

of course, is a

spectable quiet of a hospit- European and world Power had hence elso

sudden end

(wo Nine years,

breakfast, the Franco-Soviet Treaty ready to risk their necks. After

in fact increased.

long time for a woman to wait somewhat crude flattery of the Then watch the "stock" all the Caesers never had much which General de Gaulle

French contribution to univers for her man; particularly when police called at his surgery and a ward. Other patients were sold: "Come along. The Fifth in the same ward, men who had doctor's difficulty keeping their circuso:

concluded when he visited fans.

she has had no sign that he is Commissariat wants to ste you," suffered too. It the Kladiators

alive any more, and when her stocked with

tale had been exaggerated they Moscow in December 1944.

It is all too

There easy to play on

followed what the might well have shown surprise French fears of a German re-

own country has been disrupt- doctor, in between bouts DI of From behind the safety charictuers.

Against these youths I have He would be a bold man who CIDE by side with this

voiced scepticism. ed in defeat and cut in two coughing, termed: vival, but France does not need

"An Inver-r vol asserted that much had discovers of the greatness of dubious aid of this kind in her

They just of sand-bagged palisades

and a strange world built round tigation by medieval methods," listened. It seemed that it was no kick at all. The choice is up If they want to get

about her.

all ro ordinary to them. they hold their breaths as to them.

been heard of this pact in France, has run an anxiety that

He was received by the Fifth very reat dilemma. Friendship

Things have happened while Commissariat with

As T the last nine years but her membership of the Lit is, after all, a matter of deeds,

came out, walking along politeness, the ancient cars screech hub into the car-demolition business

Europe" dederation, she might

these men have been one never knows what may find hergelt reduced to the status not words; and in that respect working under slave conditions, of him. He was asked to sign it I recalled the horror tales of the the corridor where the smell of away A slip of paper was put in front antiseptle hung heavy in the air, the hard way, that's their look- to hub into a corner. Two

the French have nothing for "But isn't it a plly they are happen. More and more at of Beds, Holland or Luxem- which to thank the Russians. of the cars lock together

Hundreds have now returned His signature would have com- German home to And that home no mitted him to working for the to to pander and topple helplessly off the available

tention is now being paid to bourg-rother a quick transition

What, one wonders, will be thought

Little wonder

Buchenwald, Auschwitz, truck, crunching sickening. sensation lust of the "fans?"

This has been accompanied by the next treaty to be taken out longer exists, Yes. For my money, stock-it in the Soviet press and

that their expression of feelings

I thought that here indeedi of the drawer, dusted and ly as they roll over und

over Moscow Radio.

was retribution, dealt out in full is uninspired. car racing is strictly for

respetuful flattery of France as a Izvestin on December 10, cukral Power. The Moscow examined with a view to pos-

measure and with awful fury, Yahoos,

declared that the treaty papers corried most appreciative sible future use? There is, of 1953,

Tomorrow: real guarantees for artistes to mark the 150th anni course, the Anglo-Soviet Treaty were French security, and real con- sensary of the birth of Berlioz, of 1942, of which remarkably

HUNGER STRIKE dillons for the restoration of that "rebellious gerius, whose le has been heard since. But France. The

security

of musk was inspired by a the- perhaps more interesting, be-

Izvestia

cause it seems to be so long for- France,

as that of them struggle." other countries of Western phasised particularly the great gotten in Russia, might be the

and

Soviet German Treaty of Europe, could be lasting if it importance of the friendly were based, not on opposition site ties between Berllox and August 1939, which was imme-

the Russian composers,

diately followed by Hitler's in- This in towards

of

vasion of Poland. Ensterts

the countries

રા distinct represents Europe, but on the co-ordinated efforts ot

change from the usual Soviet oll *** attālside towards "bourgeois art." European countries to establish

Bull lest thore should be any

over.

Colds

out.

Even the slightest cold is to be feared Do not let it spread! Defeat it from the start by taking 1 or 2 CAFASPINS

CAFASPIN

BAYER

PHOTOGRAPHS

by our Staff Photographers

H.K. Annual Motor Rally.

King's College Old Boys Dance,

Union Insurance Cocktail Party. Rural Training College Speech Day.

Confirmation at St.

Andrew's Church:

the

the

Opening of Boy Scouts Association HQ at Chatham Road, St. Joseph's College Annual Sports at Carolina Hill. St. Joseph's Old Boys Association Dinner. Annual Bisley Meeting at Kai Tak. Inter-school Table Tennis Finals, Opening of the Assizes,

Available at

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, LTD.

Wyndham | Stroot

"created

as well

POCKET CARTOON

by OSBERT LANCASTER

of

pesce

DIFFICULTIES

cm-

-on

PECULIAR

Those Germans, rduming Russia, have strange, hesllant stories to, from the mystery of

tell. But in general the tales

*PRIVATE FRANK KELLY, 36-year-old R.A.M.C. para- trooper, arrived kome in time for Christmas, after even years in a Russian gaol,

camps

of

Belsen,

DONALD LUDLOW ON THE AMERICAN SCENE

Shoeshines To Riches

in his shoes as happened to concerned must go on the farms. risk The Czechs dare not Adlai Stevenson, or to turn up wearing unmatched shoes, as cancelled orders and Idlo hands. happened to Allorney-Generat the Herbert Brownell,"

THE BIKINI took bathing Mrs Eisenhower likes shoes sults just about as far as they to match her dress. If she can- could go. not find the right shade sho Now designers are increasing dyed." buya white ones and has them coverage by restoring high yoke necks, long sleeves, and bloomer pants. NO MORE night basketball Some of the most glamorous games for the

will bo teenagers of models

worn with Detmolt City authorities made jewelled belts. this decision "reluctantly after

security in Europe...This is a donbts as to Russian intentions TRUE, the Russians have said path along which Franco could in reviving the 1944 pact, Moscow play a role worthy of her as a proclaimed i December 1953: very nasty things about their great, strong Power."

"Nine years ago on December the records, they will be able to 10. partners, but if they look up

NEW YORK. 1944, the Soviet Union

DICHEST shoeshine boy, R alliance with Fronce cet an find speeches which may alone

now 72, has no inten agreement on emilual estance, for these unpleasantnesses and The Soviet Union consiskotly even show that true love ran tion of retiring on supported, and continues to sup-

more smoothly than wo Imag-| 150,000 dollars (£58,000) he ined, port, nôt efforts directed to the

has tucked away in a bank solutions of the problems con-

For instance, on October 30, nected with the national resur. 1930, Stalin said: "It cannot be vault near his stand.

But then John de Napoli reation of France and with the denied that it was not Germany | slængthening of

and who attacked France and Bri-Pelegrino, of Boston, who has fain, but France, and Britain been shining shoes since he security in Eurobe."

who attacked Germany, thus came from Naples 51 year ago, assuming responsibility for the is used to wealth. present war,

He had made 400,000 dollars WELL, the Soviet Union côr-

The following day Molotov before the Wall Street crash of tainly has its own methods of thought that "It was not only 1929 left him penniless. He was a match between two schools A NASTY BLOCK

had ended with the winning York's "ecofflawn" manifesting friendship. Who is senseless, but criminal, to wage soon back in the market.

Pelegrino, who makes three team being mobbed and its star motorists who pile up parking It who, ever since the treaty of a war for the destruction

18-year-old camouflaged as dollars a day at 15 cents A scorer, 1944, has consistently opposed Hitlerism

de summonses on the theory that the re-emergence of France as fight for democracy. He added: shine, became rich by talking Boskey, being stabbed.

"We

have always thought that to his wealthy ellents and get- He is on the danger list. a Great Power? Who prevent- od France from being repre dispensable condition of the

strong Gormany was the in- ting tips from them. sented at Potsdam? Who mado

Ho-bas seven chlidren and six establishment of lasting peace.” untold' duBoulties about the

grandchildren, All- are poor. If these

Russia's real "They don't know how to were allocation of French zonos In

towards Hiflorito · make money,” he says⠀ Germany and Austria Russia sentiments in each case, Only twelve Germany, which oven then had months have elapsed since the everrin a considerable part of eighth

anniversary of the Europe, then obviously.

which views about the pecurity of "Naw, Juan sa step fou

Franco-Soviet 1912mina press was saluted in the

ress Europe and a lasting pance are siking, whether Fen:seen

by articles Pu· On French a little peculiar in the present Benor:Rabirosa Lately," Let

ellatrocities in North Africa, circumstances; if they are not The whole Soviet manoeuvre peculler, they all form a useful is a little too obvious, and one guide to the sincerity of Ruslan is not surpripada that most oE, SOMMERIKOS.

A

of

20

.

Rom

A STORM is brewing hoto klo, over baubles from Czechoslova-

for Now thosa

It is cheaper than paying park- ing fees.

Now chief traffic magistrate Murtagh warms that wherever their cars are found in future- they will be, towed away and impounded.

There are some 3,700 flagrant offendors

HORSE RACING fan in

A two-man missloci from Prague-Karel Ctvoracek and "MOST" "THON" " "CONSCIOUS. Jaroslav Hanys-ngs been die

in folk ever to occupy the White creetly offering bargains House, the description given artificial jewellery and beads. to President" and "Mry Eisen- But Mews and H. muke an howering the trade journal unusual conditions orders must service to the famous HIM KAN Leather and Shoes,

be irrevocabled that produc- A frackay This cuts down a lot Lions can be planned for the tramd-Jammad" drive, to a tat BINO CON

spring - Oibawlaw); Los: Workeen. minuta: nito

ever expert And the Frendenti? with a hole

.... Miami ́now, have' helloopter