1955-06-18 — Page 13

H

APARTMENTS

far AMERICAN JOURNALISTS

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1955,

* He Lived

He Lived A Life

mon RePOS

HOLE IN THE IRON CURTAIN

World Canungks by arrangement with the Manchester Guardian

Of

Deception

N the early days of this **********

century, when London GLORNEY BOLTON

still in half- mourning for Queen Vic TELLS

was.

ANOTHER

toria, a German who called OF THE WORLD'S himself Franz von Veltheim.

married her in London

under

the name of Karl Ludwig you Veltheim.

He found biging so ensy

that he chose another victim, a Greek girl, whom he married under the name of Wilhelm Franz Finten Unfortunately

was basking in the sun- STRANGEST for thien trustees had led up

light of Trieste. The rich STORIES

and sociable Italians of the

city found him entrancing, ......

He had everything in his

favour. He was tall, elegant, and nephew of the fantastically easy-mannered, and though wealthy Barney Barnato

Naturally the shooting of he was approaching the

Barnato's Barney

nephew middle forties and bore the created a stir from one end of scar of a gun shot on his Johannesburg to the other, and Veltheim had to stand his trial face he was still strikingly Velthein

for murder. The jury accepted handsome.

his plen that he had shot Woolf Joel in self-defence and he was acquitted.

"

The sear intrigued, the ladies; for it showed that he had been the hero of a duel. In dazzling

Every man has the right to youth he must have defended defend himself, and the fact that his honour. He was a fighter Veltheim emerged from a mur- and a romantic.

der trial unscathed made him more glamorous than ever in the eyes of the Trieste ladies. But his power rested on some thing far stronger than glamour. He knew how to rouse people's cupidity, and he told a story which the rich Italians of Trieste and their wives could not resist.

Indeed, only a few years be- fore he went to Trieste he had shot a man dead in Johan nesburg. The man was Woolf Joel,

of Solly Joel

a brother

ACCUSE BEVAN

He was worth a million votes to the Tories

T

HE Socialist Party lost the election be- cause it did not de- serve to win.

We had better

ü

-pro- gramme than the Tories but we never hud fime to put it across. We were too busy quarrelling.

Nor did the public "believe that we would be sufficiently uried to put our programme into effect if we were elected. Nye Bevan is worth over one milien, votes to the Tory Party.

was

Butler

The Tories had a good record. Sir Anthony Eden

the Angel of Place... The Chancellor of the Exchequer Was the Bountiful more through luck than skill. The electors seemed somehow to blame the Socialist Party for the strikes- official and unofficial.

Even so, we had a real chance of, winning. Not for nearly a hundred years has a reigning Government increased its 'ma- jority. Britons like new Govern- ments.

The normal swing of the par dulum would have been enough to tip the last Government out. However goed its record, its

majority was too precarious to.

Just without Mr Beva

It is true that we failed to

plug home the discontent among the farmers. Mr Tom Williams, the most popular Minister of

country Agriculture the

ever

had, was not even allowed the briefest of appearances on teje- vision or radio.

Main burden

イト

Says WOODROW WYATT

the former Socialist M.P., who was defeated at Grantham in this election

"NYE" BEVAN

12,671 to 6,104. The majorities of the other two Socialist seats dropped from the combined total of over 10,000 to less than 5,000. One can hardly be sur- prised./

Or take the case of Bevanite Mrs Seers, who stood at Here- ford, supported by prominent Bevanite speakers from outside.

Our policy was never pre- sented in modern terms. There were 100 many antiquated shibboleths to be placated.

dares

to

BARS OF GOLD

the

He said that when the Boers began their war against British, Kruger, the old Boer President, was worried

about some bars of gold which were worth millions of pounds. When the fortune of war turned

aza inst him Kruger asked

Veltheim and a few others to bury the gold bars in a place which the hated British would cever And.

All that Veltheim now needed was some" capital so that he, might recover the gold" and he invited his friends in Trieste to help him in floating com pany.

the girl's money.

In a rage he said that he was a bigamist. He could not unsay the fatal words and he fed trom London. He was traced to Africa, where he had South Joined the Cape Mounted Police. Here was the job which he really wanted, He had strength. nerve and dash. He loved the open air and was a magnificent horseman. But as soon as his record followed him to South Africa he was sacked.

In desperation he went to Woolf Joel's office and when ke left it he had to answer for a man's life.

Acquittal did not bring him esse The Boers expelled him from the Transvaal, and when he

him

tried to return they sent to prison; He was stil

Von Veltheim

there when the British first en- tered Pretoria, Veltheim rose brazenly to the occasion. He demanded to see Kitchener and offered to capture Kruger for him, Kitchener

refuged the offer with contempt,

Why

If any Socialist propose that there may be al ternative methods of public ownership, up goes the cry of He offered them such attrac- Traitor!" from the Bevanites, tive terms that in gratitude they How can a great party invite commissioned a famous sculptor the public to look calmly and to carve his statue.. soberly at its policy with a They gave him a wonderful

So, when he got to Trieste in lunatic fringe at its elbow? send-off, but he took care neve

British ingratitude and The yells and shrieks from the to set foot in Trieste again. 1902, he had his tales to tell of

of the year some

Kitchener's stupidity. Bevanites are enough to distract Year after

shareholders kept up their belief

would should Kruger's gold go to the the most concentrated guze.

that one day Veltheim

when he could help his British millions and Whenever I was asked recover the Kruger In 1951 the anti-Bevarite" whether Mr Bevan would be turn to Trieste to make them friends in Trieste to get it for Alderman Pigott polled 13.396. leader of the Socialist Party all richer. They were amazed themselves?

While the Itallars were wait This time Mrs Seers was pushed explained

the Perlia when in 1908, he sat in the

with

blackmail. ing for Kruger's gold Veltheim deceived at least two other into third place by the Liberal mentary Socialist Party would dock charged

His would-be victim was none candidate Frank Owen, and the never make him its head.

women into marriage and took other than Solly Joel.

He went Socialist poll crashed to 8,154.

For Franz von Veltheim was their money off them. not a romantic at all. Even his back, as he had promised, to the aristocratic name was false. He Black Forest, and there the inn

daughter recognised was born Karl Ludwig Kurtze, keeper's the son of a humble forester, him as the man whom she had once known and loved as Cap tain Oliver Jackson, Though she was NOW middle-aged Before he was 12 he stole a widow she parted with all her watch from his dying father and money, and when she realised ran away from home. A guar- that her children had been dian sent bim to 1 boarding robbed

inheritance of their

More chaos

NO, the cracks in party unity

could not be papered ovET.

No Socialist could honestly de- clare on past experience that a Socialist Government with Nye

that

Even when in the last Parlia ment he stood for the deputy leadership against Mr Morrison did not get more than 60 votes out of a possible 294.

he

Missing words

CABIN BOY

Bevan in the Cabinet would have RUT it is hard for the general|chool, where he stole a pistol she took her life.

worked harmoniously,

public to realise that. There from a master and shot himself was no statement from Mr in the face. (That gave him the With Mr Bean not in the Bevan throughout the whole scar which the ladies of Trieste Cabinet, and with the Socialists election campaign to repudiate took to be evidence of a duel), holding only a small majority the charge that he was aiming

In despair the guardian found

in the House, chaos would have for the leadership and that his him a rough job as a cabin boy been even more certain.

supporters were doing their best

to change the composition of Parliamentary Socialist

14

Healthy discussion and argu- the ment in a party is one thing. Party Determined attempts by a reso- fute minority to seize power for One short speech from Mr personal reasons, although few Bevan making clear his loyalty policy issues are involved, is to the Socialist Party as

and renouncing his another. The electorate may not whole. Sir Frank has loyally worked follow all the details of the in- disruptive tactles of the past would have been enough. It but they never came. CONCEDE that the conduct his heart out or the Socialist ternecine struggle, of our campaign lacked zip Party, and. the public knows it. understand the significance of it. from the start. Only Mr Gait- skell increased his stature, He carried the main burden of an- swering and challenging Torics.

the ef

But despite the defects in our cloctioneering we still

could

have won if we had not carried the weight of Bevanism

קטי

Everywhere I went in

come

That is why, in what should have been the safe Socialist seat Mr Gorton, Manchester, Ziliacus scraped home with a majority of only 2€9.

the dock

marginal constituency I fought, the question-What Bevan and Attlee? All doubtful voters had it in the front of their minds.

about the

The smears

(

1jp

a

PRISON MUTINY

Veltheim's greed of money became insatiable, and late in 1907 he dared to blackmail Soily Joel for £16,000. But Solly

mayor

in a German sailing ship.

He did not trouble his Joel was standing no nonsense the man who shot his and without any Guardian again until, at 21, he from. asked for his little patrimony of brother,

called in the £40. As soon as the money hesitation he was spent he joined the Ger- police. Veltheim was extradited man Navy and served under an from Paris, where be thought

called Freitherr von he

was, safe, At the Old officer Veltheim

Bailey he was found guilty and Veltheim sentenced to 20 years' imprison From the real von the young sailor stole a gold ment, watch, a diamond ring and a The story of his misdeeds was seal on which the arms of the now known all over the world, Veltheim family were cograved, and the people whom he had It is no good our complaining Then as quickly as possible he duped in Trieste asised their that the

deserted. Tory Press built

what they should do the Bevan "scare,"

Seven years later he was in with his statue. With typically They were bound to do so, particularly as the Black Forest where he posed Itailan humour he offered to sell

it to Sally Joel. they received no discourage as Captain. Oliver Jackson,

British naval officer, and made Eight years later Veltheim's NOR over four years now the ment from the Bevanites,

innkeeper's name rang once more round the Laughter. Though be lett, world. In a prison xisting at thout marrying her he vowed Partland he went to a warder's.

he would return."-

rescue, and for his bravery he He took to the son again, had the rest of his sentence re and when he reached Australii mitted. It

was a a shadowy free- be assumed the name of Franz dom, for Britain was at war with

Kaiser's Veltheim

Germany. By showing the them the seal of the Veltheim Veltheim left prison for the in- ons and claiming that they ternment campin

After the war he got back to were his own he impressed the

South Africa again The Kruger Yearsley, Sou Mary parents

millions, he now admitted, were a myth. But he had a new and, whom he married

more convincing perhaps, A

South African: irius- story

Fevantes have been welling

How

love

That the Bevanites have no

Mr Bevan grumbles that the support frem loyal Socialists is the country that the Sodalist Tories don't love him,

that proved by the case of Mrs Brad- Party leadership is no 999 wrong he is. They adore him, They have smeared the trade and wouldn't be without bim union leaders. They have bowled for worlds, First her Bevanite party, the at the refusal of the Parliament." Exchange division of Liverpool ary Socialist Party to make Mr tried to reject her altogether. Bevan leader, Forced back by Transport

When Tribune,

the Beyanite

Why should middle-of-the- House, and compelled to take. road voters back a party that

Mrs Braddock, the Bevanites ran weekly, has taken a moment offered the divided spectacle we

an unofficial Socialist candidate, or two to look at Labour policy did?

they Particularly when see that a small minority of Coundllor Murphy, who was it has been to condamn il Bévanites had the decisive formerly a member of the local

control in so many exmslituency Socialist committee. parties.

I

With only 2,906 votes he lost have never seen a public his deposit. Mrs Braddock opinion poll give Mr Bevan

20 percent support collected 19,500 to romp home more than

his with a substantial majority. from Socialist voters; yet backers have an utterly dispro- portionate say in the affairs of The Serialist Party.

Consider the preliminaries to the election

Vou

Relegate it!

THE Tories give the utmost prominence to the idiocies

of Mr Bevan, and then try to prove that he is about to tak over the Socialist Party,

.

to В

of

HIS WEAKNESS

-1

"

HIS POWER

Food

In some ways Mary was na trialista, be said, had set aside. In their endeavour to deni-

better than her German two bars of gold worth £100,000 a to be used for activities against husbandil She lived for grate the Socialist Party the

Kruger; and he knew just where and If the Socialist Party is ever while with another man, amply Bevanites have been

to come into power again it when she rejoined Veltheim in they were buried, Assisted by the B.B.C. For over must persuade not only, the one London the conspired with hia four years they have had space and a half million veters it lost to blackmail her former lover. on the air and television quite this time to come back but also The victim was mulched of

He was hawking this story around Germany when, in 1923, their catch another million from the £750. Look at what the antics of disproportionate to

Later Veltheim worked as * he was arrested for fraud and shipping agent in New Orleans, sent to prison for three and a the pacifist city council did to strength in the Sopplist Party, middle of the road. “

We shall never do that so and when he went to Sania half years. Som after his re- the Socialist majorities in

Why should the public vote long 23 Mr Bevan and his Martha as American Consul be lease, when he was 70, he died. Coventry, The Coventry coun- dl regard Civil Defence as war for a party, when a vociferous friends appear to be near the seemed to be corning on cut. Death should have ended his

life.

Yet, just be

batore strange sky. respectable mongering They look. to minority in it keeps saying it centre of power, If we are to wardly

World War began, a lady one strange

in South Stalingrad for their salvation is no good? "After all, the public form another Government then Bevanism must be relegated to the past, together with Tony Mr Crossman, the most might well

#eathbed her is the electorate to brilliant and dominating of the should know,

Hand my ma Thirties,

wspaper after another. Among thed party which

tromy answers to me from a shout the place where the tro That is the reason why sfacts Mr Zilliache die Bevanites after Mr Bevan, cam-

As she had chose was mayes to belyse his best for five years in Farias nigred almost exclusively on the Tories were able to enlist Today the Tories look like a girl in the Repelend called bars of gold was buried. She

modern party. We will not be Paula Schifter,

her own with the digging, egood to apathy on their ride isThat is

able" to paint to the future, about £3,000

To the end Veltheim had kept result? Mr why a milline and a half fewer until the Bevante antediluvians Velheim crowed the Atlantic

to take a Ink at her. He is power to deceive. from people voted Bodfallst this time, let go of our throaty

Who is better?

ment to discredit the focialist the H-bomb issue, Party leadership and boost the v

Contrainists--in place of Sir

Frank Session

What to the

cossman's majo

They

pazdy and the Nineteen

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