'Page 4
THEY NEED MR
E
THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, JULY 18, 1955.
FAIRBANKS
AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE
OFTEN
ROYALTY'S PUBLIC RELATIONS ARE TO0 BUNGLED. THE QUEEN SHOULD HAVE AN OFFICIAL WHO IS EXPERT AT THE JOB, SAYS IAN COLVIN
New York newspaperman Mr
ng his James C. Hagerty
per- romal Pros Secretory.
London. If proof of Mis is needed, look tish Empire. So there are ob- advice and engaging that tough
arx state jections against him, VERY year the Lord at the royal tourn
planned vista. They are
and Chamberlain timed magnifeently. The royal publishes EL small pair do superbly well, but there green booklet-the List of is almost always some needless Her Majesty's Household. Incident,
It contains 300 resplendent
names.
Perusing these Tudor titles, f Plantagenet forcibly struck that Royal Household has
They will not be absolutely the young Queen
The Duke of Edinburgh has in 1837, Victoris, valid. For
took on a
reminded us that royalty cannot foreigner as her private se afford to make mistakes. It can
the .tary,
periinacions Dr to sense Stockmar, He too gol discreetly also not afford to have mistakes mixed up in the Fleet Street of made on its behalf, his day, and finally ran foul
of the Tou of the speaker That choice set a precedent.
I recall the failuru the delicate colour problem on
the part of those planning the and Commonwealth tour.
recall am the loyal Jamaican who spread In the the his coat over a puddle
path of the Queen, and Waa not treated by officials like a mis-
yet added one appointment creant. which every industry and government department thinks indispensable today.
rela-
In this age of publie tions. The green list shows that the Queen has no royal public relations officer.
F
प
In Oslo
had
Of course that precedent will not be accepted today, #o let us
Ilke somebody hope that
Mr Fairbanks can be found. Do not
shudder at
let
118
the
thought of a former film actor in such a high appointment. President Eisentower hus set us a practical example.
.
Sure way
A sure way to avoid that would be to 'ndd one more modern port to the Illustrious 300 In the Lord Chamberlain's little green list. Thot could prevent so much needless harm being done.
And recently in Osto we
more a repetition 01
Ard if nobody else seems to the hieldent that ought not to
At 50 worl In this obvimis luppen. Norwegian photo-
He chose a pressmed and a vacancy, it mit be that My graphers were brusquely de- Now many will say what barred by British diplomat film actor to assist him in his Fairbanks would think of tak
ing out British papers. we from
Mr Robert Mont-
As u good thing that is! For
Joining their British publie life,
he would cease Обатель
that
public relations collengues and photographing Homery was invaluable at tele- British subject
the vision appearances during
to be Knight Errant and become officers are usually an abomina- the Queen.
Bul he presidentin elections. And the a Knight ordinary. tion. Their prime purpose seems
has never regretted would do the Job splendidly- President
Governor Dewey's well, following
to be to keep information away I recall also some unsuitable from the publle and to make publicity stunts, which got past sure that their department The high Household, but would receives nothing but favourable not have escaped an eye train- publicity, Usually they are to the Job, unnecessary. But to every rule
there can be on exception. And
It may be that the Palace is one place where
can be made,
an exception
Hard-worked
dignitaries
will
It needs someone who can take a situation out of the hands
official. of the higitest Someone who understands the protocol without being Over- awed by it, who has a sense for Opportunities and can trouble ahead.
.
smelt
Who is there who could take on a job like that? 11 calls for extraordinary qualities, not all of them the product of English public school education,
The Painee reply that a line of eminent private secretaries have in their discreet way fullled this want,
that there They will add now u Press Secretary in Palace
well-Commander 119 Richard Colville.
is
the
DID IT
HAPPEN?
T
"W
The TOUGH
GUY
HESE Australian police are pretty tough and, when you look at the kind of criminal they some- times have to deal with,
I think he foo hot to move in comfort. you know they need to be. Bryce's sergeant. If I were looking for the man
I write crime was an inch taller than Bryce, Then picture a drab house at a with every win- and at least two inches broad- drab corner, who has those qualities I would Although
dow
shuttered not only
but The admirable Colville is one name Mr Dougins Fairbanks stories I'm not particularly e. Colossal.
said, barred. worked of the hardest
"Lead me to him," I mem- jun. He is exactly the sort of tough, and it didn't take
"Where-where are we?" I bers of the Royal Household. man I mean.
the CIB, men long to realise it. Trust an Australian to
Bryce and the sergeant look- find a man's weak spot. ed at each other and grinned.
What There is no personality in the
I didn't know at That was the moment when I began to feel uneasy. But I d Palace
the rank, the with
He has everything else, that the time, of course, is that the honour of Old England and nuthority, Rnd
the free hand goes with success in public life. they're the biggest leg- all that kind of thing that goes with top public le is a good mixer. a tireless
Keller-about, and smoother-cut pullers in the world. That
дл
but his is
He has all the qualities of excellent secretary.
not the job I mean.
relations work..
not easily found
official-a seilse of contact.
Easy manner
Chief
It needs too a special flair of trouble, He has done far didn't occur to me when
it Pakwe more good for the relations, of public Britaint with America than a batch of diplomats. To Judge has by his blography. Knight the Errant, he has a fine war record
and
The Queen undoubtedly that sense of contact Duke of Edinburgh in an even higher degree.
Theirs is the magic
touch.
400,
But his man with the easy But they cannot be everywhere manner and the sense for things and see to everything. Alus, the that matter
Inspector Bryce (which isn't his real name) put his big head on one side, looked at me as if I were a hostile witness, and said:
is lacking in same senst Palace crust around them.
the though
he
"How would you like to meet a really bad man?" Is an American. "You could measure him up
is also and de- | against the
bad men you're put in servedly Knight of the Bri- always writing about,"
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expecting to be taken charge room or the cells.
to the
asked.
This is where the bad man lives," said Bryce.
"You mean he's still tree?" " "As the air,' agreed Bryce. "That's our big trouble. He's a on my killer. We know he is. We know
by JOHN CREASEY
FEW waters have corared more paper than John Creamy, Work-. ing under several names and som times at the rate of 10,000 words o day, his output has been estimated al more than 200 books. He has also covered a lot of ground touring the world, including Austral- esla, dabbling In Liberal politics, concerning himself with cricket and national rings the was oworded the MBE for his savings work in 1945), and acquiring a wile and two zoni.
But the way hes not always been easy-paing. Crippled. as a child by iniontila paralysis, he went through more than 20 jobs in ming yours and was unemployed for another few before fame found him. Forty-six, he ther of Bournemouth,
conscience, so I asked no ques- tions.
"Come on, then." Bryce said. People who have spent their Hives driving around England
know may think they
wint traffic is. In way they do. But It's traffle which behaves decorously. That Isn't true everywhere in the world, and it Isn't true in that particular city. Tattered nerves
on
I'd driven. In it for several weeks, and my nerves were a little
the tattered side. Bryce's
obviously .sergeant meant to tear them to shreds. Не squeezed between trams and
lorries. mammoth
he 100k corners
two wheels. I was so busy holding my breath. grit ting my teeth and treading on the brake that wasn't on my side, that I didn't notice where we were going.
We arrived.
who he kill- e. But we cun'i prove 1. Now he's under suspi- cion for an- other which probably
didn'
Job he
HAIL SMILING' DAWN
She lifted one hand and alook # fst at me savagely. then said in a
that tone wasn't jar short of neno-
mous; "Not
to
you listen me..."
do. The hall was short and narrow. But we want Hot air wafted out of it, as it to break him it had been imprisoned for days. 'down."
Lemmy had an oily looking hud gathered face, and sweat [ could have asked:
in his eyes. He was not a large "Where do I man, a head shorter than Bryce, come in?" but lean and wiry looking. didn't,
Eyes of death We got out of the car, watch- down-at- ed by half a dozen heel loafers reading the racing papers. We approached the door of this house, two big and one middling-sized inan whose une claim to superiority in size ny in his waist line. Fonty-six.
Bryce banged on the wooden door. The sergeant looked up and down the street, I felt sure they were both uneasy. Bryce knocked again, and then mut- tered: "I hope he doesn't shoot first and ask questions after- wards." I'm still not BUTC whether ho was being serious
or not.
Footsteps.
A_pause
I say "wiry" when, of course, I should say "lough," but I am thinking about his body. I don't know for certain whether To was physically as tough as he looked.. It didn't really matter.
His eyes mattered.
To have such nice winter clothing and
"not to use it seems such a waste,
"
OF
RENCI
World Copyright by arrangement with the Manchester Guardian
Bryce said;
who's
Like all the stories in this "Lemmy, I want
series, this tale COULD be true. you to meet M Creasey,
out from
The problem you have to decide la just
England. He's a famous crimino- 'Did it really happen?' The Jogist; he's writ- ten
answer will be published tomorrow. books
the ori subject, and he wants to ask came to life. you a few questions."
ព
lot of
onc She lifted hand and shooic a fist at me sold in a fone I'd had no warning. I hadn't savagely, then
wasn't for short of even guessed how mercilessly that they were going to pull the leg venomous:
of .crime "Now, you listen to me. When of a hapless, writer Action, I'd simply been told I'm home with Lemmy he's my that Lemmy was a bad man, man. What he does when he's
berc
not home is none of my busi- and a known killer-and á
and ness. You leave me out of this, he was, wary, a
suspicious with hostile,
those dead eyes I won't let
blurry unwinking as he watched me.
pommie-"
I've described eyes like it dozen times; all right, hundred, Lifeless eyes. Yet they
in them bad a kind of light
lice light reflected from stagnant water. I remember bul not were slatey, they whether the predominant colour was grey or blue.
They were the eyes of death. "All right," he said, "you'd better come in."
Killed in error
the
me when my knees gave way.
any
That woman's tongue!
to
Bryce came hurriedly to the rescue; I honestly think he was glad to. He calmed her down. to question and Bryce
sergeant and then started'
But Lemmy was back watched me, too. I had a feel- Lemmy. ing they were ready to catch on an even keel, and nothing
shook him even for a moment.
We were there for an hour. There's one thing I ought to before Lemmy escorted us tell you again. I had been told the door. ife grinned at 'me
he'd that Lemmy was being ques- the first real expression
1118 tioned about a murder he might shown and then hold out NOT have
There hand. committed.
that suggestion
"So long. Mr Creasey," he another man had been killed in said, "Been nice meeting you." mistake for him, but Lemmy We went along the narrow didn't know that the police, had hall into a small back room. A doubls. Hle, faded woman was clear-
I've never wanted to make It isn't really surprising that Rt me. Ho but the huge he locked steadily myself so scarce,
The knew the others, but I was a sergeant was behind me. footsteps
a menace. Possibly and stranger. Njow were
Obviously, he was suspicious of deliberate. There was a pause. before a man called in a fiat me; wary as a man could be.
I had to look back into those voice:
eyes.
felt shivery.
was
even 1
"Who is 11?**
Bryce called: "Bryce, CIB. Open up, Lemmy."
(Lemmy, course, isn't the bad man's real name.)
He'd got away with murders ing a table. There was a smell he had committed. There was the sound of a
then of n bolt being of cooking, and of stale afr.
at last the door "Who's your friend?" Lemmy stood there. Lemmy abruptly.
Think of the East End of London, about 20 degrees hotter (shade temperature) than it has ever been. Think of old, squat, forbidding houses, with front
chain, on to the pave- doors opening ment. Think of the listlessness drawn und which falls on a city when it's opened.
asked
HUNT REOPENED FOR THE
BEAST OF THE AUTOBAHN
[NVESTIGATIONS
From
INVESTIGATION the Auto
DONALD SEAMAN
STA
Would he be hanged for one he hadn't?
Rusty pump
Clammy hand
Well I couldn't refuse.. to shake hands, could I? The hand.
It was cold and of the killer. clammy, the kind of hand I've often written about, and about which the critics sneer. Believe me, he might have slepped right out of the pages of a book, eyes and hands especially.
4c11 me If they planed the
murder on to Lemmy or anyone olse, but I've never heard. „And soon afterwaren I was in New Zealand; en roule for the United States, where they aren't very interested in another, nation's murders,
I hadn't time to wonder about these things at the time. Ta Just been thrust into the pre- sence of a cold-blooded killer, and was left to live up to the reputation Bryce had thrust up on me. And Old England's, I t
I don't know what Bryce and baciced oul. I'd ridicule the
but they police in Lemmy's eyes. It his sergeant thought, asked a lot of lunatic questions, spent the rest of the day, with I'd make myself ridiculous
and couldn't do enough to in everyone's eyes. There was only make me feel at home. Only in As with the Dusseldorf.
other victims, called in and gave every help to one thing to do: tallt like a one way did they let me down.. They promised to write and been strangled with the German CID. But the killer character out of
one of
my tho had into
was never traced. Nor was the own books, one of her own stockings.
As with the other vlctims, ú car.
Thero bahn" murders - all 29 of shoe was removed and placed a
were no further kil Inga
until November 12, 1954, them are to be reopened. few feet from the body.
Then 21-year-old girl, named Again, no one saw the killer, Kriminal-Direktar Freidrich
Schultheiss, The Autobahn killer claimed Annalies D'Hell, the Chief of DusseC)- dort's
first. County CID, has been his woman victim in found strangied near Coblenz.
body The WWDS
lay near appointed head of a apecial October 1953. Her body
Autobahn! on the Autobahn, nonx“, Homickle squad with "Hunt the fanover, 300 miles from Dussel- Ansbach. Autobahn Killer" an their sole
dort, She had been strangled were so similar to the killing Instruction.
from all parts of with one of her stockings, a of Meels that they were CID men Germany fed by the Autobahn shoe was removed, and she had once linked,
boen agsuked. have boon recruited to the force.
British troops were li occupa= It was ther that the killer was, and knew I'd soon have to Their inquiries will be givention at the time. A witness was first called the "Beast of give it up. I felt rather as if top priority.".
a statement to the police in the Autobahn."
I'd been Inffated by hot air ani which he sald he bid soon tu
then, ho has claimed that if I stopped talking old-fashioned car on the night another victims. Many of collapse The Beast's latest victim was of the murder a car with a them have been found as much I said: ""All right, Lemmy, so found three weeks ago. She was right-hand drive. German cars, an 80 miles from the place you way you've an
nifbi, but- a ·20-year-old' waitrem hamed - Meels, Her body was found in a like all Continental cars, have A where they were last seen whows to prove it? Was your
weroobviously wifezolutie, poma corndeld at Viersen, near here, left-hand drive... Brilian cars alive. They
Awith the oliter victims, all have a right-hand drive.
She was a fliile,, dadoft wou carried along the Autobahn by she wbs lying nem the "Auto",
kirmy** BIB-the Special the Beast before he stopped his man, you'll remember * but the
stión de Branch LA were: car to'kill:
moment 1 mentioned her, i'ube.
gave A
of
a
which The
rund
The first questions creaked the like water from a rusty pump. from But I warmed up. It was, the
because noon oddest thing, circumstances
I crowded began to enjoy it. Lemmy, I got him looking past me at the police, and then at his wife, as if anxiously, All the time, I knew how phoney I
at
WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED.
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
YES NO.
• Put your ficic lo,the spara ahora und keep this pena?, by, you intfi" timerrow “kaiwhah thủ onwww will be stringith
another, story, in this varies by
** Gerald Bulinit
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