1955-03-09 — Page 4

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Ostaldable, from

THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9,

Flying Officer T. Bato stands by the stone caim memorial to the crew of the Baron Inverdale who were massacred on the island of Masirah in 1984.

T

"Ghost

Ferment In The Middle East

STRATEGIC

OF

Part 7

VALUE

JERRY-CAN ISLAND

Masirah Island By Harold

HIS desert island, at the entrance to the

many names.

Island,'

Gulf of Oman, has It lo "Jerry- Can Island," and "Mae- Island." A loss habitable place could not be ancient imagined, ret

sacre

pirates and

modern

have made it important.

wars

Guard

În a ghost-infested dosart island where Captain Kidd may have ́ ́buried pirato treasure, a young › Arab oxplains his countryman's mistrust of "Imperialiste." The military value of this island, a World War II air base, probably depends, In

of another conflict,

this mistrust

deepening.

On

сако

not

the

Londoner despite his thick Irish brogue. He told me he lives in Baker Street, "next door to Sherlock Holmes."

Although the himen havo seen neither ghosts, nor treasure, the Arabs tell of certain seasons when giant turtles, come in from the sea to lay their eggs on the Masirah beaches, and how one of them enco uncovered burled, hoard of Maria Theresa silver dollars.

The Islanders gazed with wonderment at the beach next Once Mastrah Island. Near the southern tip of day. Strewn over a large ares It is only forty miles lang and 16 wide at its broadest which belongs to the Sul- the island, there is a grim were shining dollars, and every- one started algging for nære. point. Western military ex- tanate of Muscat and Oman, reminder of the days when They dug deep and come to a seas and British visitorsa were less hard underlayer like limestone, perta have been giving it was part of the

coastline controlled by welcome. A small cross and "They believe there is a stone long looka ав ↓ possible

pirates, and local legend tablet stop a mound, of building beneath the sands." second-line defence

point

Moore explained. is engraved to

"They have backing up the long stretch has it as a lair of Captain stones

asked us to wao dynamite to blast Kidd.

memory of the crew of the it up, but we have no permis- of Russian border between

The Royal Navy tamed sa Baron Inverdale, who slon for that sort of thing." Turkey and Pakistan.

the pirate coxat 85 years were massacred in 1904 by ago. It became the Trucial Masirah istanders when Coast, taking its name from they landed for water sup the perpetual truce im- plies.

It was on Masirah that I met posed on the warring

Masirch today has a bearded a 20-year-old Arab born in rulers of the shelkdums dot- neblina who emembers the England of a Yemenite father ting the vast and track- massiere and the equally bloody and a Northumberland mother.

desert

taken by the of southern reprisals

Royal The young man, Norman Abdo, Navy Ind the

by Sultan of left England when he was 14 Arabia.

Muscat himself, The old man and went to the Yemen with his The Royal Air

Force cannot remember how

many father.

entering the country as

national. maintains a staging post on Britons were butchered--neither a Yemeni

He felt the island, commanded can he remember exactly when completely at home in "langungo

it last rained on the island. by

Welsh

and customs, and brought out a A 21-year-old

Fund of stories of life in the flying officer, Terence There art other stories the orbkiden kingdom,”

Arabs tell which have led alr Bate.

arews stationed here to remote Yemen just like England," he "It is always raining in The "This is why we call it

of the island to dig for said. parts

"But it is a lush and young buried treasure. 'Jerry-Can Island","

None has been warm country,

growing every kind of fruit. My father has a

farm. He grows coffee and. qut-a very expensive leat which the Arcbs chow to give them a "lift."

Nathaniel Gubbins

Root Of

not

All Evil

WHIFF of cheap caused by the east wind blowing stale bread and biscuits and a

happy New Year to you, A suddenly up from the sea and and' perfume Squeaky little voice catching livers unawares.

The wind from the sea "Good saying

ordinary win- told dhly penetrates morning, Sourpussy,"

dows and front

It doors. penetrates double windows and me that the Fairy Wishful

with

doors, me double front

#! even Thinking

penetralas scaled double win- scaled double front dows and

again.

wus

The tiny pest was sitting doors. on the end of the typewriter It howls carriage swinging her legs trebles and dabbing at her

ita

Rome

TAVER since financler Gub

bins risked savings in Stock Exchango Kittle round corners, gambles he has lost the calm, force funneling unruffled manner so much en- unhappy and blows people vied by the nervous, down side streets. rich

rich. Army mxn with

Jivern

usually over-someitive stay at home at this 1me of the But they will tell you year. iha the wind penetrates brick walls and octches them at night un they lie cursing in bed.

nose down alleys, with a grubby little powder helplessly puff.

"Stil that twenty past eight "You had a month," she said, twenty past eight mouth the last time I saw you,"

was

was a

I reminded her there. war on then.

"Yes, I remember," said the veru Fairy. "Sourpussy unhappy about the war, but i told him it would be all right in the end. And it was all right, wasn't it?"

I said, "It depends on what you mean by all right"

ezpect Sourpussy's worry. ""] Ing about another war now. said the Fairy. "But he needn't because there won't be one,"

I

sald, "Then why am I pay- ing outrageous taxes for arma- mente?

That's because people won't that kimi Mr Bulganin," Bald the Fairy, "and that kind Mr Molotov and all the other kind Russians."

ᎦᏚᎢ

I said, "Molotov looks about

Find

As a crocodlie."

want ta world "All they peace," said the Fairy, "and so

ittle do

dear, funny those

Chinese.

Ex-Indian

The wind from the sea affects livers male and female, young and pld, making them argu- mentative and vile tempered. If men who have fled the elboy too often recently marl at each other about labour disputes and Communist swine, women who have been eating too much for

AL

the

the beginning of winter he used to wake up in the morning worrying about Test matches. It no Test match was being played he would sleep late but if the con- lesi to retain the Ashes Wi being fought in Australia (10 hours ahead of our time) he would wake at 6.30 a.m., rush downstairs, make some tea, and switch on to the Light Pro- grumme for the broadcast, at 7 a.m.

Linually the voices BO far like drowning away sounded

Tast men coming up for the

care- a fortnight mari at each other time, but by listening

the fully

of about the cost of living.

through the howls and Lottle the Devil Cat demand- Insolence of shop gels,"

breakfast he could the reintroduction of food con- ing her

Iden how some trols it the Labour Government usually forNTY

Even the match is elected again.

going. Was when the fortunes of the game Little children, their choco were against us he was not late hangovers revived by the frightened, even if be was weather, quarrot at parties and furious, His money punch each other's noses in the staked on the result,

who street, and even doggies have caten too many biscuits ате more Bovage than lately usual.

and

a

But with the Stock Exchange know what's game you never

FAX-

Вена

diesel

.

(All

found

big

Truth Hidden

"I have met the Imam, King Abmed, and have drunk coffee with him, and his son Badr Is

my friend.

minded

"The Imam himself is a fair- man He has absolute rule but does not seek lo oppress the people,. It is his subordi- rates who are corrupt. They hide the truth from the Imam. Thero have

been many heads

cut off in The Yomen in recent months as the Imam dispers those around him who are Idise.

"The Imam Just does not trust. tho British. He belleves they are like a

man you invite to your house to take to; he stays to dimmer, then he sleeps In your house, and after a while you cannot get rid of him. Ahmed will not allow Britons Into The Yemen, and even tho

One of the petrol drum villages on Masirah,

Photos By Charles Dawson) was not Bate said as he showed us found, but both Arabs and air. Governor of Aden cannot enter. graveyard of derelict men are convinced that many the kingdom easily," Abdo sald. vehicles and hundreds of under the sand.

a pirate board remains hidden

No Solution thousands of rusted gasoline

They tell also of ghostly, ginents going on. Gains and losses can drums relics of World stalking the island and walk. He discloted that the Imam Brought into bara by furious be affected by strikes, exports, War 11, when the United ing into the sea to disappear, of is currently employing German

headless

Cemet men and women suffering from rumours, and a lot of half-mad States Air Force shared the a

wandering and Italian technicians 的 and of a fearsome development the local malaise, the fiverish people in Wall Street, now

aimlessly; base.

schemes because at each the middle of a sellin

a selling wave,

wraith which has been seen by he feels he will be able to clear, I said, "If the funny lits doggies leap barking

There are the rusted re- the village headman himself. them out of the country when Chinese ever manufactured other, biting cars, noser,

tain about Is the Stock

13 tails as they roll on the floor The only thing you can be cer guided missiles with a range of

In mortal combat, while the change game is not clean and mains of expensive trucks The adventurous airmen have it pleases of th

and organised hunts locomotives, nothing, but they still recount there was no solution to King 28 Abdo could see, 10,000 miles, they would think

men and women are obliged to manly like the game of cricket. and It very funny to fire them at

a suspicious person like mounds of aeroplane parts the stories with more than a little Ahmed's hatred of the British, anybody. That's the Chinese shout louder about strikers and To

"shop geis" to be heard above Gubbins everybody in Throg- and centrifugal pumps, and conviction.

"He looks on the British as usur- schise of humour."

the noise of the doggies,

morton Street is suspect,

dump after dump of gaso- In the officer's mess are two pers in Arabla. He claims the Therefore on mornings

being line jerry-cans which once in all paintings executed British-administered Protectorate the wind blows much Test matches are not

by an Italian prisoner of war. to be longer and livers are strained played, and Gubbins might cost £2 each. They are still They depict a beautiful girl, re- darbe Pare of the Yemen king- He thinks the British too hard it won't be long before sleep, he now wakes thinking valuable to the native putedly the artist's idealisation effort to make a federation In the inen and women give up about Bats, Imps, Gussies, Can islanders, who have for. of his wife, Offers to purchase the Protectorate is an imperialist argument and will soon be roll- Pacs, and some mysterious per-

them have been rejected; the mous the son called Buffles who appears saken their goatskin tents offers feel they are a part of move. ing

on the floors doggies, biting care and noses. to awn mines

in for hovels built from somewhere South Africa. So far Gubbins cans stacked end on end. too. has had nothing to do with A

is either Buffles or Gussio because

huge hangar still pictures," said the afficer why state, it has influence with the he thinks they have trivolous, houses the ghosts of air. "Her eyes follow you. Some of influence eruid make or break unbusinesslike names, but he craft, and the identifiable the chaps stationed here for Westerfi plans gels into a terrible flap about remains of a Liberator long time have talked to her", East" Imps, Bats, and Can Pacs.

"Oh, what a sad Sourpussy it said the Fairy, "always looking on the gloomy side. Think of the boom that's com- ing this year."

I sold "Boom!"

"yes, boom," said the Fatry, "My newspaper asked: Is there bom coming?' and the happy, Jolly editor shouted back in lovely big type, “Yes, yes, yes!

just round

I

the

sald:

they "That's what told each other in America be-

crash foro the Wall Street 1020,"

in

The Stock Exchange is

booming," said the

Fairy.

If

with

Yes, and maybe talls, Sometimes the conversation Indistinguishable from the chat-

tering of monkeys,

Thanks, No

Custard

"Of course," Abdo concluded, the the eerie Island.

"The Yemen is nothing as a "They are like a ghost, those millary power. But as an Arab

The

Oman Levics. other Moslem rations, and this

commands.

Instond of rushing down-bomber and a P38 fighter The officer, David Moore, 19 a (Copyright, All stairs to switch on the cricket indicate the type of war-

news he grabs the papers look at the financial columns,

not understanding a word mote spot.

them

to fare waged from this re-

of

Uneasy Truce

but running a feverish cya down "Closing Prices and becoming increasingly. Changes,"

"Boom, boom, boom, Trade is a beat the problem about If Imps are up 3d. he feels

booming, Boom boom, boom, Exports are booming. boom, boom.”

Boom,

cald: "Stop that. rounds like the beginning of

another war."

"Stockbrokers

сто

making

piles of money,” said the Fairy.

I said: "Bless 'em all."

"And soon the horrid snow

world population outpacing like having a couple

of eggs world food supplies will soon be for breakfast. He also feels ho

Even today the island It settled because people will be can afford them. But when he

finds that Bats are down 44d.must rank high among the frightened to eat anything.

he changes his mind and setties most expensive bases to In the Jolly little B.B.C. for one egg. On one occasion maintain. Every drop of series about ottantiary in the when Bate, imps, and Can Pacs kitchen We were laformed were all down he felt he was water must be distilled, at about hairy legs of filles,

full of microbes, walking across the facing ruin, and the sight of an a cost of one gallon of petrol

egg made him feel sick.

for eight gallons of fresh will melt away," said the Fair sugar and doing the breast "The spring will be here and stroke in the milk, mother blue-

water, to fill the needs of that clever: Mr Butler will take bottles using the Sunday Joint Sometimes when Bats, Irops, 28 airmen, a garrison of 46 five shillings off income tax in as a maternity ward, and the and Con Pacs are all up, Gub-Oman Levice and hundreds the next Budget."

love that, all germs cherish for bins tecla clever and important. of Arab labourers who I had nothing to say to that, warm custard.

A telephone call to the broker “Iữa, going to be a year of

wil make him a little money come to work at Masirah that the gormg free of tax and rid him of his from the mainland of miracies. waited until the custard had undaties. But when he rings Muscat, nine miles ↑ "dis- of prosperity,

cooled to the, right temperature, the broker he finds that either In fact, it's going to be so won swooped on it, and were so he owns the wrong stock ("It's tant, derful that epen old Sourplusy couraged by its warmth and shares that have gone

miracles," sald the Fairi It seemed

of-trade, mllence.·

"Miracles of

will cheer up. He might even believe in fairion41.

I said: "I would be onster to believe in fairies than that bit about Income tax."

Livers In

Torment

Whatever the expense,

nourishment that an unmarried says the broker. Yours have officials in this, area: sny garm could and himself a wife, gone do

"down"")) or the broker bets

in

Se

and become a great-grandfather him passionately not to sell as Britain must hang on to its before the custard was cold. everybody expects a bonus Imus treaty rights for its strate But there was one gleam of Gobbles is left bewildered value in Middle East hope for those who thought of and helpie with the burdens defence; and insofs fasting to save the who is not allowed to sell; a pawn Western plans depend on Germs, like 't, don't like stald in the financial, game, bis the good will of the local broad and biscuits/~

dreame, haunted by vinden of rulere, it la BAF polley

laughing⠀⠀ #lookbrokers cynical

So there you are. No kippel no fruit, no sugar, ng mil2 (mu escaping abroad, with his money, and meat, no vegetables, and Peers Tile zorning Impe and Can Pace were downSSUE IN BLU ∙tainly no custard)| (1059) were up Gubbisis Hamadand

CL you want to live Ime for choke down

responsibility to help

the uneasy truce God feuds which

resto

in the Middle

uhts Reser

Rights Reserved)

wind-the Kent / cone