1954-07-22 — Page 4

ROUND ABOUT MADRID:

↑ THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, JULY 22. 1954.

NINE MONTHS WINTER, THREE MONTHS HELL

I

By John Culmer

HAVE bought myself trunks,

ice-box AA un automatic refrigerator cool ed by a block of ice bought from the grocer round the

corner.

At £8 it's obviously

to

and

dogs. birdcag and welcomes your patronage,

no nonsenso about not prams, hurtling through the city there's in taxin to the railway stations being allowed

bring your or artling out in their own cars own food. for the

Brava, the Guadarrama Mountains north of Madrid, or the popular and ex- pensive north coast.

CVRED

THE weather provided Spaniards with a ready- Unlike the English, who plan made conversational safety- good investment. For three their holidays months in ad-

valve. Although they have one the vasice, pesetas (about 7d.)

poring JtN colairful, of the world's finest climates,

Trave maid boys a flat slal of ice too-good-to-tx-trim-

Ye Madrilenos discuss and comment folders through the long winter

nter on the weather with vehement each morning which not

evenings, Spanier. muke up extravagance. For them it la only lasts through the night their minds in a

hurry, Here

We always "How hot!" or "How but CoolB the excellant. вствих.

will have cold)" they frantle urgency bottled beer I keep on hand, departed with

But the people who will prob- the farm-fresh to the Pyrenees, Majorca, or une preserves

of Die kantry attractive resorta obly suffer must this summer butter and milk, and ensures lining the north east between are the American servicemen

French and their the

families who a supply of really cold water Corunna

mixed border.

moving into Madrid each week. and cracked ice for

drinks.

I'm also buying an tric fun-18. 10. 0. for

oscillating modej.

THERE'S

the

CLAY

$

WHAT

incl

are

Take Ben Lansing, trausterred ዘን but from Florida at less than a

has Spaniards month's notice.

eler

of

The Spatosh Government, the

Corps, and thaplomatic

wealthy Krup

Ben

I

an spent the summer on San fumished flat in the next block,

Sebastian, but most people must sweat it out in Madrid.

Tr

ways

of

and I see him most days in the dark, cool, curtain-shaded back parlour of El Parque, a modest cafe-bar within hailing distance of my own flat.

several hite benrable A Custlinsking

to rise really soyng that the year vonat. popular recipe is

metathes

carly, he aut of the house by 8 months hell Baker

am, and be back again and has bs 1 pm at the latest. You of such proverbs al', umore B

stay indoors until 7 p.m. at the a little exaggerated In Spuri sa it makes an abusifut Time, earliest, and are then ready to

of the evening. Spend the red probably explains which popularity

This your we've been inv Hey Madland the weather las been fraktslily

friendly, 13

<001 daytime Jat exzess pleasantly chally night

Stindling as the Paseo del Prado or shping a long, cool drink in

4 n-au cun

But withough the oven-hot ONE old Madisieman custom is

summe 15 several weeks sv due an undisguised blessing for foreigners facing their best suum- mer in Spain the advance gurd of the extinated 200,000 propie who leave Madrid euch July has already begun the annual

Ben pays £40 month rent iL wife and three children of kindergarten age He's a sergeant in the U.S. Ale Force and therefore, by British standards, get princely pay. Pu

he For a week lived in a down- town huel, where his wife and his kids a got what he called "dyzoniery," Dzi cxaggerated word for the "Madrid" Tummy" which lays most newcomers low for the belter part of three days.

a

■

most Americans here, 14ke to take your evening meal al

Ben doesn't speak Spanish, and 1 mm sitting beneath the neneia

kind of childish Trees in one of the many bread there's

about him which avenidas that radiate from the helplessness

ely.

Your maid inevitably curns sympathy. centre of the

ahir from your was

tu VATNO

recommend bugs each

takes back Spanish patent medicine which that, serves it, and the disbes and plates. From re-adjusts upset stomacha in trek to the sen or the mountaiES.

Tarray koskwalter brings matter of hours, but I doubt if Every day you are bag family wine, coffre, and whatever else 1' be much help in getting the

He Lansing family acclimatised. parties, had hidden by sultenses, you may care

to drink.

By Appoir tenent Wine Merchants

to The Lou

King George VI

Dry Amontillado

Light Dry Sherry

Sherry

SANDEMAN

Sole Agents:-DODWELL & CO., LTD.

SOUTH

KONG & KOWLOON

heat that IT's not only the

worries them--already, when the summer hasn't even begun, It's the food, and

The water, and the shopping, the unusual hours people keep, and the noise and the olive oil.

The food is naturally different from what an Englishuman or an American

used to. But taking it all round it costs no does in England, more than it and there's 011 abundance of

GILES AMONG THE GUARDS

According to a War Office spokesman "some confusion among the troops has now been cleared up."

This refers to the order given to sentries of the Royal Horse Guards

and wearing bowler hats

carrying men """Troopers will salute ALL umbrellas," said the order.

Unfortunately A lot of cads who wear bowler hats, although

AN

they

дте

day walk-

altered 10: men with

So to

not actually junior Guards officers, spent the ing up and down Whitehall gelling saintes on the cheap. put a slop to these pirates the order has now been

their 1150

discretion "Trooper will

when saluting bowler bats and umbrellas."

Heigh hol

ARCTIC

OWN

DREAM

CALLS TO THE

T

✪ work in the land

where day is hard

is

to tell from night. where the often so hard you walk on it, and the land so soft you sink in it, you have to be an optimist.

But to live your life there and to nurture the pre- carious breath of civilisation there, you have to

be 1111 incurable optimist.

Take the tiny hamlet where a river empties the dark waters of Dismal Lake into the Arctic Sen, for instance. It has a trading post, a detachment of "the Mounted," two churches, a post office, and a govern- ment radio station.

find it mine."

marked "Copper-

fruit al ridiculously low prices. On the maps, you will The

direct from The water, piped the mountains, is celebrated in Spain for its crystal clarity and tonic purity, but it's "different." It's apt to upset a newcomer.

Yet no one mines copper

The shopping can be fun. Like there. the "extraordinary" hours, you Just have to get used to it. The problem, but with noise is a practice you learn to shut it out automatically.

★☆

Every year

By Les Armour

DUKE

ferta of Western elvilisation: flour. butter. tea. Jam and, sometimes, flowered "Mother Hubbard dresses and zippered from tho "ashion park as centres" of the south.

The Duke of Edinburgh will fly in August across Canada's vast northland, stopping at the fabulous Yellowknife gold mines, the bustling uranium plant at Port Radium, and, finally, at Cop- Ing post they can buy the tools permine, a lonely outpost on the pictures, and words, is the story of that tiny community -the nucleus of a great drea and a crossroad of civilisation.

Arctic Sea.

on

Through the continuous winter nighi, Mounties keep watch

frontier

like Canada's northern

posts,

this Coppermine.

Que

st

when the Even the olive oil, used every-

the which lures a steady stream This summer, it will get into where in Spain In the prepara-glaciers erupt

dash- determined men to the Duke-Britain's solid of there are tion cooking and serving of Arctic,

handsome Duke of food, is something to be faced. chunks of copper in the ice. Canada's barren frontiers. ing. After my first week here I was Somewhere nearby, there is Like most of Canada's wild Edinburgh. convinced that even the wine a rich vein of metal. But dreams, it will one day come tasted of ou.

So 1 nte all my meals in the cost of getting it out true.

its price to they cook would raise everything in butter. It was something like the price of much more expensive than any~ | gold. where else and not much more satisfactory. Now everything 1 Cat cooked in oll

a restaurant

where

In Canada, the Duke is the symbol of "the get-up The dream calls for roads, and-at-it" spirit which has

and canals,

mighty en- brought countless dreams to gineering projects. It calls reality. "Coppermine" for all resources of modern I'd say it is just a dream. Yet it is man.

tiny But maybe it's just that I've got a Canadian dream, &

part of the greater dream

had neither taste nor

used to it.

STILL

odour,

The name

The Duke-by his own re- the rich quest will fly across Goldfields of Yellowknife, into And it called for a Duke. top secret Port Radlum (once

TWENTY-TWO

SHORT OF A

TWENTY-TWO

London. decibels

DECIBELS

EAR

SORE

By ROY RICHARDSON

Here

in

More Important, at the trad- and the motorboots which, to- gether with the government's schemes for preserving and ex- Lending the native animal supplies, have nearly brought to an end centuries of fear and the threat of famine.

called Eldorado), where Can- nda's biggest supply of uranium is mined and

and. processed,

At

the

they Coppermine, too,

government's health the through

meet Services and,

Anally, to the Arctic sea itself churches its educational system. and Coppermine,

He will get a close-up picture of one of the world's tost frontiers--and the northland will be bathed in a glore of publicity. Out (+f that may come a new world understand- ing of the

the treasures north and, because of 1, more men fired with the spirit of odventure and a few men with the necessary capital may be impelled to give It a second look.

C

are

But the govemment is cau- tious and the while man's world ja never thrust upon them Laws explained and the Eskimo obeyed them without question, because they can see that their lives and Hivelihood depend them, They welcome education.

upon

But education, unlike tinned poses problems. The

That, at any rate, Is what the Mounties and the traders Eskimo is still a nomad. To and trappera

move Coppermine survive, he must are hoping

stantly.

of

But they will have more than a foretaste of riches to show the Duke.

Coppermine is not only potentially rich, it is a crossroad of civilisations,

For Coppermine stands as an exhibit in human relations-the

con-

Some of the children can bo reached, for brief periods at For settlements. least, in the tho others, mobile schools will be the ultimate answer.

Yet,

to

granting a solution the technical problems, educa- place where another man's age- flon must still face the problem old dreams, the dream of men created by the clash of civilisa- with different WoyB of life ons. living happily side by side, may

Eako education, ple Cian- come true.

*dian Government stands scan- vinced, Emust produce men and A women capable of joining the

་་

It remains to be shen Whether or ot the two dreams will clash

Eskimo world with the white in's world without sing the Eskimo fidelity.

180 4t, the plan, his Sten The sloping tundra albig_tie súćcesäflik. {Most) Eskimos/now Coronation Gulf and the celloes are skilled mechanics, capable of the Arctic are part of the of handling all the modern traditional hunting grounds of equipment which can bo¬of ser- the Fakimp. They are the haunt Vice to him, An increasing Bum» on the uscious while fox. And ber car read and write of

and surrounding waters is the grapple with the problems of an seat which providpat everything atomlogo. tromboots to breaknast,

Around the setleniert we 250 of Canada's '5,000 Exitimos many more pass by the trading post each yeng

At Coppermi's trading they sell the alt of th fox- useless animal to hem

off their

Fewup to now, have shown any desire, to throw traditional way of life.

The second dream, then, is w of the way to comingstike, remains to be seen whether the two dreams vill

not

The helicopter men, then, have history at least on their side. And the sound-meter.

The no-helicopter faction, on The noise, they argue, The same goes for jet air-

their distinctly useful purpose. more than cancels out any craft which enn send the the other hand, are serving and me the tin ce clash. British helicop benefits there might be in sound-meter needles soar For the storm they have raised

from the threshold of pain stands the much- disputed

ter.

taxis.

And now comes the hover-

plane noise as much as possible.

At 120 decibels (sound having helicopter buses and ing to ten decibels beyond has forced the pace in the the point where it starts laboratory battle to cut hover- measures) the human ear starts to ache. Standing Nonsense, say the holi- hurting. next to a revving helicopter copter men. And they point

TOP OF BUILDINGS you may not be able to out that the citizens of plone champions' trump card. to The noise near # helicopter hear yourself speak, but you Britain, have learned

The Ministry of Supply is are still twenty-two de- live with much worse noises revving-up on the ground is not

one whit of a decibel worav, forging ahead with the develop- and to prove their point than what can be heard at any ment of hollcopter silencers cibels short of Д sore

they have records kept by traffic-heavy street Junction. And there is a move to have ear.

And that's more than can sound engineers. be said in respect of tubo

trains, Jet, aircraft or pneu- matic drills.

--

THEY MAY WINCE

What is happening to the

the same growing pains

that beset in their time the rallway

helicopter is that it is suffering building's deed Bound deflectors.

the

aro

and

helldromes on top of hith 'with special

Likely London altes This la going to be the No one, they say, writes locomotive, the horseless carr Waterloo, Charing Cross

heavier-than-air Victoris stations. helicopter an Indignant letter to The machine

A .point

The mainstay of .

and even the humble

to note: helicopter is ill an unecono- champions in the storm Times when a tube train bleycle. over the future of Britain's clocks up more than a hun the last century an enterprising 1059 before the only

When in the early years of inical proposition. It will be twin- hoverplanes.

dred decibels as it roars Scotsman. called Kilpatrick engine British helicopter so far, Ever since the idea was through 'an Underground Maerstilan built the first the Bristol 173, can be flown mooted of helldromes In station. They may wince practical bicycle, there were economically as......a" passenger Britain's principal titles at the 100 plus decibels worthy cillzone who shook their carrier. there have been complaints from a pneumatic drill, head and said the country hat Nevertheless, Britain is press-

one to the dogs. Today, the ing ahead and the hellcopter from one section of the but that's as far as it bike is af much spart of here to stá public.

[11. groes.

Britian Lite as the fraather.

decibels and