1954-01-30 — Page 13

FIVE WEEKS ago, the letter of Guy Burgess, sent to his mother touched off a new wave of speculation about the missing diplomats, Burgess and Maclean.

BUT what of the missing scientist Bruno Pontecorvo?* it was September 1950 when he vanished with his wife and' children from the stom station at Harwell. He had known Malclean since 1938. It has been suggested that Pontecorvo helped Russia to make her first hydrogen bomb.

TODAY, In Milan, the aged parents of the run; away professor wait for word of their son, Reporter Sam White has flown there to see them. Here is his

report.

PONTECORVO'S MOTHER WAITS

By SAM

MILAN

ter que-room flat in Milan's newest and brassiest hotel, Profes- Pontecorvo's 70-year- mother talked to me about her missing son.

ног

old

"We have not had a scrap of news since he disappear

she er three years ago,” Faid. "Not a word. Not a letter."

Until four months ago Mme. Ponteeory and her 77-year-old hushand had a four-roomed flut with a clerk, Alessandro Tori. his wife and two children in a Milan tenment building. Their

was 10%. a month. rent

Since the Pontecorvos moved to the Hotel Americe, their rent is 13 a week.

that

The room in so small with its two beds and a small table there is scarcely room to lay a sultense Ant. There is n troll. gus ring on which the wispy Mme, Pontecorve cooks Their nightly supper. At mid- day they leave for their daily walk to a small werkmen's res tourzht lumah

Mme. Pontecorvo is a woman of considerable culture and mind, youthful

quickness of She has a deeply lined face with gentle beautiful eyes.

Not a whisper

2

WHITE

inent firm in Scotland. Only one

child is in Italy--Gilberto, who edlinn Communist publication.

19

CX-

Once a year the parenia spend two months in Britain visiting their children there. There an evident and touching Joneli- ness but the old couple's lives

"Threy visitors and their budget,

rarely have

plained Mme. Pontecorvo, too ught for such minor juxur- les us theatres or books. There in an equally evident devotion to each other, and pleasure in rich other's company. Ая £ background to the twilight years of their lives nothing could be thore bizarre than the Hotel America.

Night out

Why, one wonders, did they chose this of all places to live. The garish lobby of this hotel is favourite meeting place of Italian stage and AcTVEN stars.

and of Milan's flashy "younger

And al Ita chromium

PAKISTAN

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1954.

CIRCUS IN ASIA

Eastern side

LOW

Duff Cooper Was Wrong About Munich

which faces the lobby a row of -and the man with the umbrella was right

аге

[ti

*

barmen erg frenzseily shaking cocktails. The hotel, however, bons' a TV set and there riphaly

programmes darkened lobby.

Every evening the two Ponte- corvos walk through trance hall past the bar-he puffing his pipe and she lean- ing on his arm-and settle down before the TV set.

the

en-

go

If they cannot find adjoining they

chairs he suffers until manage to be sented next. each other. This is their nightly "night out" as Papa Pontecorve puts it with a wry smile.

memory.

By LORD HAILSHAM

Munich

was our side.

a

[

near

Pago

GUIDE TO

MISSILES

GUIDED

By Pater Manning

Cha dhandvatzge

*OW is a guided missile controls "ut the missile, the mis-

of the o systems--this guided? It is just that he will then be automatically oblong-range question which lies be- dex to the source of energy. som-native homing and besi

This, in the simplest terms,

that is riding-is

because the hind most of the complicated passive homing, and It is transmiling sources of avergth is technical problems" facing usually a relatively short-range based away from the missile,

the father the technique

-unisɛlio the scientists who today aro

from the kekræmitter, the trying to plan a foolproof To pick up torgats at longer acounte thes Iritornation defensive system against air yangh, "active" homine, is used, which it receives to guidé. It.

The mlasilo attack.

itself ahemiis But the firếc, the missile geta energy anei picks, up the re... to the tuiegel, tivo more it needs Their problem is very dif- flection.or echo from the tar- accurate navigation. ferent from that of the anti- gut, which is in torn used 10 hircraft gunner who, to hit the steer the Inlette on to th. The This is overcome by carrying target relles on the nocuracy inčadhe has therefore to carry yet woother transmitter in

Liselt ma e indomito

This is of his gun and radar prediction b transmitter, a well equipment. The problem for the detector be receiver. A redur switched on until the missile experts is to manoeuvre et would be an obvious method place. This is because, for the the missile after it has been of using this 'techique.

kraber part of his journey, the launched. The object is to de

mallo's course is on rolled by The drawback is the weight the information sign a projectile which can be

picked up by of equipment necessary, and its receiver from the surfaco afmed in the general direction

which will the two the mirile must be it conicol. The receiver to the of the target wal

and a hravy power muscle is common to both the supply ado carried. In other ground and airbornUO tratasinii- swords, though the syafern can be tr

pineclic

subrequently seek it out and t veril

hit it

·LINIC ths been written about a longgo one, in thees problems and, for No balk limits the diskinice over

pos which it can be good. *The guidance

security reasons, it is not sible to go into detail. general principles of syslams ann, however, described.

The India on the tee of

be the transmitter can be

alecraft, or on a ship or

land. In this way, the

the

not

Firmal

To sum up, the missile weeks as follows: It is launched and remotes supersonic speed, its booster rockets fall away, and

come it, iredead of everying # in the miselle Steelf, the trans, mitter is plated somewhere ee for instance, in a larger i dels down to controlled on fight. At this point, the mid- сост

course, semi-active e bem-

devices

tiko The mistics can be of several plete guidance system in a res riding homing mote high power basic types-n to air to with a smaller

crainanitler, over. These transmitter locate and pass the fo- receiver in the the turret, ground, ground to air,

aircrafa.

copabla" of directing formation to receiver in the gerond to grounsk But the

the source of To misera. This in turn operates guidance systems used for them

the controle and kcejja ta 'mis- all have much in common.

rite an courso over the prester part of a jammey.

or

a missile to flected energy.

This is known as the

'eèmi-

A misslo can be honed on to its target either by wtam is Dove homing system, and it le called pensive' or 'activer hom- n present accurate over ranges

the of about 17 miles. ing. In th Arst instant, missde bonnes on to a source, of energy which is reflected back from the target, thus locating its position in space.

Another system of guidance TAM Bource of Chery, which gives about the Bare results as 'sef-active' hondag is betrn-ricking",

the the

system,

shorilly

Finally,

bedore reaching the target, When the outbide transmitter they be ine- sufficiently accurate, Arendelter in the indwe it- self takes over allt Wotively homes on to the yet

en- fore

consist of MSO

If a number of Yaltirès bea radiated or reflected by

Widely being launched for of be tanget,

any

separated points, hay thaT | DİL various forms of energy p:o-

be horded in the: Woerteliste ORD NORWICH will at the time. that the only would not have been present on chacod by a aeroplane in flight,

A rælar beaming device in direction of the tiltage. For thin Malading heat, noise, wake, In- down to history alternative to

Duff Cooper came very

fra-red radiation or static elec- another aircraft or on a ship or reason it le necessary is alive as the man who re second World War.

In his re- to recognising this

the ground locates the

a gathering pha betre, the de CBTL signed over Munich

Even Churchill was not plain signation speech, Hitler had a tricity. Some of these Inlics datectxi y

away, and locks on to it. The missile active homing beginá and made what will long be about this. Right about so much plausible case over the Sudeten others at only quite short, range is ted with a rearward-look- A long-nge

Ing aver which, together guided infaslles poRIŠKA, recalled as the most telling else. Churchill was yet mistaken Germans and, said Duff Cooper: saw that if we were obliged in one important and even car-

By fitting the missile with a with the control resignation speech In living dinal particular. He believed in to go to war it would be hard debcolor on receiver which will sures that the missile tes phase when the

the continued fighting power to have it said against us that pice up responses from the lar dead along the centre of the beaded in

fighting against the get, amplify them, and pass beam. As the bear is located on tion, followed by Opinion has changed since

we were

Information, as to their to the target, the mande will navigation andi, then and will change again,

principle of self-determination." the

the mafely kill 12. This factor alone seems to me directions and strength to At the time the speech was Churchill placed great reliance to justify everything that Neville delivered, while there Was on this, and in the Munich Chamberlain did. To

men no оле to dispute the debate he committed himself of high integrity Chan's with courage and power of the explicitly to the view that a joint of her present straits

guarantee by Britain and France character seems, as it seemed to

Dulf Cooper at the time, be of self the type of patriarchal face re-orator, there were, on

on the Czechoslovak spoke without a traco

frontier smirched by en aura of dingy who of a Rembrandt whole, relatively few

while the matter was being

of betrayal and narrow middle- could be found to accept his examined by League "I wish portrait.

Each day he stops at a cafe sentiments, at least to

the Nations Commission would have class complacency. buy his day's supply of

the humiliation of cheap cigars and pipe tobacco extent of expressing plain- avoided

that it would and have a glass of white wine. ly the belief

She was convinced I was "policeman"

and I never suc- cceded in dispelling her suspi- clons. Until three years BRO she

English spoke excellent without trace of accent, but now prefers to speak in equally excellent French.

Cigars and wine

At 77 he is sturdy, but slight-

grey-haired, she ly slooped.

pity and of her missing son with calm dignity.

miniscent

above anything vise in the world to have news of him and tu of his wife and the

the

and military efficiency of France even as late as 1939.

Munich. beautiful

children," she told me. And

so far, not a

she added, But so

word, not a whisper."

Of her son's politics, she sald, "I detest all polities. 1 do not discuss them. All I know of Bruno's views was that he was flercely unti-Fascist."

Too old to care

She told me she and her hus- band preferred to live in Milan because they were born there und had lived most of their lives there. Before the war the family were prosperous textile manufacturers and had owned a house in Milan which had been destroyed by Allied bomb-

in;

As for their financial means, she said: "Bruno only sent us money when he was in America. He could not send us any money from Britain because of rency restrictions.

"We have not received any from him since he money vanished. Our needs are modest and We are too old to care

about being poor.

We

children,

have other

and they help to sup-

however port

The children are widely dis- perted daughters Laura and Anna, 20

and 20, are In England, one a nurse, the other a schoolteacher.

a

The old men is gregarious and have been better to fight Other critics were far wider

In the restaurant, where he is then and there rather than of the mark. The popular view well known, he likes to strike

agree- among the opponents of Munich up conversation with anybody accept the Munich

was the misorable self-deception scated at his table, even total ment. strangers.

bluffing."

He usually talks about world affairs and his views are mildly Socialist. His favourite theme is lo contrast the ordered pro- ress towards “social justice” in leges of the rich in Italy and Britain with the "feudal privi- France.

but

I wondered if the Italian police were interested in the possibility that Bruno might try to contact his parents. 1 call- ed on Dr Taddey, head of the political police in Milon,, found

at my first call that though the doors of his office were wide open and his table laden with documents, there was no one about to tell mo whether he was in or not.

It is impossible!

1 returned

two hours later and waited in the ramshackle reception room with its two with springs pop- ping out and a third chair with its legs and back tied together with string.

armchairs

that "the dictators are only

Today there would probably would need be few, and these

Valike Churchill, Noville courage equal to his own, who would venture to dispute his Chamberlain did not believe in France and he knew that the opinion.

Lesz

To me, and I believe to count

others, he appeared and appears as clearly now la a wholly different light.

He was indeed, as he claimed to be, "a man of peace to the depths of his soul."

Not a coward

A man of peace is not neces "Yet it is doubtful M this dictators were not bluffing. In sarily coward. As we came to opinion will be accepted as the clntrast to Dur Cooper, he did hate Hitler more and more and final verdict of history. The not wish to bring the Empire to realise more and more clearly difference between Duff Cooper into war in September 1930. and Neville Chamberlain was narrow but decisive.

His mistake

Which of the two men WDB right on this point is by no means so clear a question as is commonly supposed, and has been largely obscured by the unfortunate $190 by Nevillo

of the Chamberlain

phrases "Peace in our time" and "Peace with honour" on his return.

Justification

that it might be a fight to the death between his Germany and

** our Britain, to many of us there come the determination that war broke out it should not bo our fault or for want of any effort, however extreme, on our own part.

This is not the attitude of the of a traitor. It is the attitude Christian preparing to draw his sword and it was the altitude of Neville Chamberlain,

That game old man with his pathetic umbrella had no inter- tion of yielding another inch atter Munich and he never did yield another inch.

Duff Cooper had not, like the present Prime Minister, been a constant critic of British foreign polley from 1032 onwards. He had not even, like Mr Eden or the

Salisbury, present Lord resigned in February 1938 owing to the Italian conversations. He a member of every

These did not reflect his con- had been administration under Baldwin sidered judgment in the matter, and Neville Chamberlain, and but were the emotional ejacula had therefore accepted every set tans

overwrought and and om!asion up to and including wenty man who, as he put it Berchtesgaden on September 15. shootsy

The result was that he was afterward, had had a able to lead an absolutely united Only Munich, to quote his own "leg and exhausting day and country into the most terrible of phrase, "stuck in my throat" driven through miles of excited; all wars, which would have been and the test therefore of his cheering people."

Impossible a year before, question whether we should have Munich was in fact a much more Dominions resignation is simply the crucial

Chamberlain'a choice at With Britain

all the (South save Eire for official

fought in September 1938 instead

closely reasoned plece of policy. Africa by called firmally

the narrowest of of September 1930. dossier.

Yet oddly enough the two worth while to buy one more monwealth

The question was whether it was margins), and behind the Com

stood American Bruno Pontecorve, Italian-born,

Ha glanced through it, then people who were most nearly British naturallard, was 37 and had "But this

with

largely air of Reality wald, right about Munich wore, respec respite and to have one more public. opinion, Itself £30-1-week job at Harweil stom

is impossible. Our tively, Duff Cooper and Neville chance or avoiding World War II, made up of men and women of station in 1950. He had left Italy information 1s that

Alone Bruno Chamberlain. for America

Gotman and Italian origin. during the war And

The military arguments were parents are in Munich critics, Duff Cooper saw and remain nicely balançou. what the others would not face But two factors seem to me to tip this balance in favour of Chamberlain. The first in that Lafter the

rapo of Austris, Czechoslovakia was indefensible,

The youngest son, David, runs

a small poultry farming equip

In

An office messenger lounged

corner reading.

by my inquiry, cnited in another Dr Taddey appeared puzzled consultation and for Pontecorvo's

an

tater worked at Canada Challe Pontecorvo's

Ridge atomic energy station.

Cherrill

Britain."

looks back

UPERINTENDENT only clue we had to catch the

FREDERICK CHER- murderer,” he recalls.

RILL, who retired from

Cherrill has been telling me

Scotland Yard last January, that he first became interested

is writing his reminiscences. in fingerprints one night in his

It should be a first-rate atory. Cherrill was the world's greatest fingerprint expert, g

Which was 'Cherriff's hit exclung case? He tells in it why the Maidenhead tauna ama der in 1948; Gore Ruwell Jelbchen portar, was esienied for MANDY Mr Traders Lee, elderly wintaati fukkune

father's four alt He emight with his hands a number of eels washed up by flood water.

"I thanked to look at the Bour chute which I had touched with may ricky Hands, in the Šilin layer of four. I saw, w perfect set of Brints

iprinta shd” their

From that moment, Angides

detecting crim

of the

of Munich

came

"There is peace'

The day came when Britain and that therefore the ach was isolated and bombs rained. vantages

When that time arrived men to Hitler would have been won in any might say "Britain was event within a month.

prepared," but they never sald ! "This could have, been avoided

The second docisive factor is if we had made just one mon that during the respite, we did effort for peace! This could

Bou

at least have time to establish haye Hoppenes but for Munich. our front line strength of

In perhaps the most beautiful

Hurricanos anti Spitfires and speech of his life, on the morn our Naval escort vessels on the Ing war began, I heard Winston minimum sole needmary to Churchill, survive in 1040

But there was a much mor

Timportant factor: "thin “filê

"Which - Nejilla/Grafol

Coca Coll

Coca

Serve delicious

Serve

Coca-Cola

at home

Coca-Cola

to your family and friends

Having Coon-Cola at home is a happy custom. With plenty of Coca-Cola in thè

(pantry there's alway's a treat in store for your family and friend

“unity, declares

But

kiita Cóca-Cola pleasant company.

war. Servi

Gola with