THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 1954.
The Price Of Sound
Government
By LES ARMOUR
London. In point of fact, many, if not be both civil and servants. They pro- must, at all times, provide the mat, of the bureaucratie nouncements were thin vella citizen with all the information for bull-headed Civll Ser- relevant to any dispute he has with them. They must not vice determination.
between two
Op-
No
one, apparently, had any assume that they are wiser than Intention of giving the former he, unless they are prepared (1) owners a look in.
to tell him why and (2) to
to pro- to mluister responsible Eventually, a group of former vide
in- owrers mado BO much noise Parliament with the samo that an official investigation was formation and the same reasons launched; the whole sordid story and leave the ultimate decision became public property.
with him.
NEW verb passed into the English inn gunge last week-the verb "to crichel."
For a while its meaning teetered posites.
first it looked 18 though it was going to mean "to deceive, to bamboozle, to strangle the rights of citizen
bureaucratic by pomposity."
At
12
Improprieties
There was a rumpus In Par- hament, and another investiga-
this time inta the be bayar of the elvil servants
Now it will mean protect the rights of iL citizen against hureaucratic domination, to restore Con themselves-launched personally
to by the Prime Minister. stitutional procedures, uphold the concept of minis- terial and parliamentary responsibility."
One civil servant was trans- ferred to another post, others were ticked off.
When, (as in this case) these Crichol principles are violated, the Down provides
proper anawer as to the procedure to be followed.
The citizen should protest to If his elected representative.
ទ representative in elected convinced
that there is • CBBC, be can, and should, demand an ofcial inquiry,
If after the inquiry, there is evidence that wrong has been was quite plain that done, it is the responsibility of
minister there were grave improprieties the In involved, and Unt someone resign.
would have to pay the price.
The word comes from o place naine Iniddle-size farm
the south of England called Crichet Down.
In the end, the name involved official investigations. biting blast from the whole at the British press, and this week,
resignation
the
Minister.
of 0
That was when Sir Thomas Dugdale, the Minister for Agri-
nture, resigned.
The significance of the thing in its les purely and simply Cabinet effects on the relations between
นก
ann führer
concerned to
GILES
"Karl must learn that if he isn'
- nood little Gauleiter he'll now..
concentration
mm commander when he grows up
London Express Bervi
No Corruption
servants and the pubi The fact of the story wem relation between the simple-so shuple that they have Service and its political masters, concerned. To mix politics with almost obscures the real ineun fichel Down will go down the Civil Service is ing of the episode.
Bombing Range
the
il
Just before the war, Government, by compulsory purchase, nequired Crichel Down (hen several smalt farms) us
After the war. hombing range.
he land
passed through Commissioner for Crown Lands to the Ministry of Agriculture
The former owners wanted #l back.
Un- They understood.
Ꭹ
officially, that, when its wartime function had passed, they would e given an opportunity to farm
he land again.
The bureaucrata determine
make it into a
and to operate it.
ו!
"model farm"
approved tennant, as
1
finit.
The
ex - owners
through 4013
με single
protested.
They were told that the matter "under consideration," way
being investigated", "was being given thought" and all the other things that bureaucrats are apt to tell unruly citizens.
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Sir The Civil Service, as Thomas Dugdale rightly held. cannot be responsible to Paria- ment but only to the minister
to Invite ernment by pressure group textbooks on political and possible corruption. There
the and an example of
happily, 110 suggestion "pemperty British" way of deal was,
with
such issue.
whatever of corruption attached 1: 1
with to the Crichel Down case. nothing to
But someone must be respon- legal responsibility (the Crown, since it had purchasest the land, sible-both for seeing that the functions and Service perfectly within its rights Civil to do what it pleased with it) behaves properly and for seeing was
of that the will of Parlament question or even with the state versus private ownership carried out. That person is the
department minister. of lanes.
**
If there
It has to do solely with the is any mistake, he must pay the control <f what one newspaper price with his resignation. called "Unpol Napoleons," with the question of ministerial responsibility.
has Crichel Down plain that evil
and
It
anust
made
servants
The resignation of a Cabinet Minister over an affair so small ns Crichel Down may heavy price. It is the price of sund government.
scem
"THE COLDITZ STORY" FOR THE SCREEN
THE CREAM
MONSIEUR MUGGS P
HIS WINE
ENJOYS HIS
tour.
【ONSIEUR
By SYDNEY SMITH
They
Paris.
Fred comings
of
so used to are
goings and
that these days
or
sulte,
OF THE
ESCAPERS
By Peter Lovegrove
ATRICK REID's tress was 400 miles from the until, by muscular control,
"The Colditz Story,' one
38 B
here.
wan
brilliant were
on
ho
chis-
a
wrist-
SOLITARY
·
Ger- nearest frontier post not could raise his blood pressure to
heights. The incredible of
mans finally repatriated him, con- the most controlled by the Nazis.
It should have been a case of vinced he could
never survive fascinating prisoner-
"abandon hope all ye who enter the excitement of a
a homecoming. books of of-war escapе
But those who entered here."
There
rivalry was
different the
Allied World War Two, is being Colditz were officers British, among
Australian,
being New contingents, the French turned into a thrilling film Canadien.
resourceful and at Shepperton studios which Zealand, Indian, French, Belgian, particularly
Dutch and Polish-who had daring. One, Lt Bouley, should prove one of the Du
to break out guised himself as already attempted
an alluring fraulein, but outstanding British pro- of ordinary camps. They were honey - blonde
the cream of the "profession." fortunately dropped theductions of the year.
the highest possible watch as he was mincing his Outside Colditz, a grim mediaeval men of
morale, courage and resourceful way through the park Mas, television star diplomats Musase was more castle built on a cliff over ness who were prepared at any the camp. A guard picked up between time to risk their lives for fre:- the watch and tried to strike up of less accepted Its another the River Mulde and honorary associate
all that the Germons n conversation with the "girl". Leipsig. Dresden and Chem- dom, and in dog wes to con- but Bouley's knowledge of Ger- the British diplomatic ser- Geneva attache.
A slight tendency on the
thenitz, was used by the Ger- centrate the keenest brains, the man was not good enough to
,,,",;;,,』,, "" *', vice
America's TV part of Monsieur Muggs
punishment most advanced
tech- risk answering. The guard be-.
John Mills, as Captain Patrick' Reid, and Erie Portman, au escaping up and down and grin mans
when and came suspicious Coronation broadcasts, has leap
Colonel Guy Richmond, the Senior British Officer, in a scone broadly arrived in Paris.
confirmed this belief. prison for officer prisoners niques, in one place.
The men of Colditz were in Bouley's blonde hair came awry
from The Coldits Story," one of the most fascinating prisoner. of war in the two World
of-war escape books of World War Two Monsieur Muggs-he will for- The fact that he had absolutely
nothing to say confirmed itWars. The Nazis thought it veterate tummellers-one tunael the game was up.
under Rive me for this-is only u
actually started even further.
information was pooled prisoners played football among elded, occupial 28-year-old monkey
the of
derk the
normally was escape-proof. Finally, the fact that he was
R.S.M. German
the trees. Lebrun was in tho and Instruments were, shared- genus anthropopithecus on the whipped away in private car Surrouded on three sides by
most Another Frenchman, Lebrun, habit of doing exercises with and he spent his time. helping Arst stage of a 23,000-mile world to his waiting sulte nt a Invish
the principle that the
which others to confound their, captors hotel overlooking
Paris by precipices which fall into unlikely places were the safest. a tall cavalry officer, got clean two other Frenchmen, the
bimself forgers,
successfully second, included much leapfrogging..... until he uway to France at the But he is insured for $75,000. Opera House more or less seal deep water, it has outside They
in tho
the German attempt. First, he hid
a couple of ng whic
broke out in 1944. "Out of 23. walls seven feet thick. The turning out perfect replicas and his pois earnings this year ed his diplomatic status.
and other identity rafters of a pavilion in
lolling hguards were
rather British escapees, 11 made home Jure $50,000.
These Impressions were
courtyard is 250 feet above documents, leave and work per- barbed wire compound in
the sleepily outside quide
the wire and runs across the 400 miles to the Wearing black frockcost, swiftly dissolved by the scenes
They picked apparently nearby park which served as a looking at pearl grey
anything but the frontier, waistcoat and tie, in
river level, and the prisoners' mils. the J. Fred Muggs
Beld.
Although all
Lebrun innocently Great care has been taken to striped trousers, and gray spats where the uniformed portar quarters were another 60 thief-proof locks, sealed roofs, playing
with the other strike the authentle note in the and prisoners were counted as they immaculate shoes, he told me jover his
blandly:
"Monsieur feet higher still. Guarda brewed their own beer
the Frenchmen. It all happened in film. A reconstruction of Colditz stepped out of a plane at Orly Muggs is in 504, monsieur."
compound, he was not missed
sed a fash, His French colleague Castle now inaccessible in the Airport to meet the usual bat-
of dry-rot into the woodwork, compo There he was with his staff outnumbered prisoners at distilled spirits, injected cultures went in and came out
Russian Was made
iny Belgian had been stood near the wire and forming
Zone of Germany---has civilian variety of tery of photographers.
his little white cat in the corner all times; the castle of the room, his Uny overnight floodlit at night from every clothes and even wigs of curly smuggled in" by riding pick with his two hands a stirrup into been made in the studio
of a which Lebrun
placed his grounds, an ‚every! détal] was
and bag with his name on it, his angle despite the blackout; blonde hair, and generally gave a-back under the cloak
the German staffs a horassing fellow-prisoner and came out feet,, he catapulted him up approved by the author. Every luggage with 50 suits, a row of
Acrobats can haave incident related in the film is in his own right. When night tiny shoes laid out, his special and the whole camp was and lively time.
fell, Lebrun changed Into wards.
each other tremenous distances factual, though, with the ex- travelling case with 21 Arst- surrounded by sentries who
clothes and made for the by this method. Precision cf ception of Patrick Held, all were in turn surrounded by
names have been changed and
Incidents Around him were pretty Marya palisade of barbed wire.
detained there as he tried secret. Lebrun and his friend few
hayo been flway station, only '19' timing of muscular (effort, 13 - 112. One British omeer fooled be Оле Kelly, his personal reporter, his
In addition, tiny micro- Cerman medical. boards for to buy a ticket, with noto personal_photographer,
Balled
headlong owners, Roy Waldrm and Buddy phones were hidden in re- years on end, suffering" from which had just been withdraw managed it, and the form simplied.
ulcers produced from circulation.
dive over the nine-foot wire, Menella, and a host of travel creation rooms, bunkhouses terrible stomach
For this attempt he was sent This was only half the battle. agency and brocdcasting exetu- and cells. Stool pigeons on substitute X-ray plates. He
The Colditz Story" is being the were placed among the pri- lost weight regularly and to an to solitary confinement in the Lebrun ran 20 yards along the
astonishing degree by having castle. But, writes, Reid, "the soners, while guards offered himself weighed, to begin with, solitaries' had dally exercise in fence to the main wall of the produced by Ivan Foxwell and wire, using it as a ladder, in pair who made "The Intruder. to help escape plans for loaded with bags of sand con- the park, during which period park. He had to re-climb the directed by Guy Hamilton the under his pyjamas. they could mix freely. Being order to hoist himself on to the John Mills, who served in the
Monmouthshira na the table Was a Mugg bribes so that they could re. cealed
playa Another guarded, though confined to one
Tar Two procedure. World Tour progmmme, which lay the information to the after, weight losing was only a few, they were sparacly top of the wall which was at Royal
Lebrun
Reid.
and Erie Portman is the deliberately included his International Commandant. And the for- practised Yoga for a long time, end of the compound where the this point, about 18 feet high. Huring World Wat
the fire
the two
Bentor British Officer | b
In thes sentries war is the wall
forwards beside the wall. Service-flavour about the rest Their carbines once fired (an of the cast, which includes Ian having missel), the reloading
major in he gave him the extra seconds he 2nd predons in World War ncoded. He was on top of the Two) Christopher
Rhodes wall by the Imex they are (Easy Regiment and Special again and dropped to the chord with (RAMC)
groun bulists as the more distant. Ya cas (Royal Armoured: Corps) sentrios joined in the fusillade. Bryan Forbes (Intelligence He disappeared and was, never Corps);}
and Lionel femties
INVASION!
The D-DAY story
JUNE 6. 1 9 4 4
$7.50
Now Available
Limited issue only. Buy Now!
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
TIELD MARSHAL LORD "MONIGQMERY, fa a forward ommending the holocrát “Tome picéncia' fit the whay về the
2nd
aid items.
tives.
They wcro discussing Muggs visi to Paris,
On
his two
Health Certificate, lotters of Introduction written in every- thing from Arable to Japanese, and permits for him to enter countries variously sa a pot, an aninial, baggage, or just a plain human air passenger.
Owner Roy took Monsieur Muggs out on to the balcony overlooking the heart of Paris. "Wave, Mungry he p2d. MUNDRY
waved. "Wave
some
Ald Roy, Mugguy momo more.
orange
They look Muggay Inside for his lunch-vitaminised Juice, vitaminised apricot fulce, vitaminized concentrated veget able soup, which Muggay spat out rapidly.
But he knocked back pearly, half a glass of vintage Chateau- neuf du Pape and reached heavily for the bottle.
Said
Mary Kelly
*w* pass through
Rangoon. Do you the Britan diplomat who appeared with him on thd Coronation TV show would meet us at the Airport: If cabled him!! DES VERSTAAN
we
Monsieur Murts desply in- dideroni e ka khe Tour of Paris confererics going on round him,
simple
RIVALRY
!
of
sky
in
on the other side in a hail
PLAYERS
MANHOLE! The leading four
artlats all fought with 'he Polth In the middle of the football Forces In the Middle East end
was a manhole out awarded the Polish equivale
two Thom's bein
pitch
The
secured by a single, thick bolt.
Found
Dutchmen, used to gather of the Victoria
and hold
classos Deckers andame
Tugen
a. Frenchiman 'ands:
during which led who play sunctivaly.2 made.
the from bolt by
mash Dutchman..
of glass with a boden ton, the Peter Kurtinov's famous o
top. their names on the London D Imension, in
During another rolle
med
hid inalde the man of Four Colonos and kitér dark milly lifted
the covers secured it with an IND
Tony Ja
esproper of the
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