1955-07-25 — Page 4

! Page 4

THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, JULY 25, 1955.

GLAMOUR COMES TO THE AID OF VIENNA'S CRIME FIGHTERS

P

By RITCHIE McEWEN

Vienna. uoltorm for the glamour girls ERSONALITY and rely plam clothes deles

Ilves. charm make better To be a lady directive can.be weapons with which an expensive business, especially to fight a crime wave than it stationed in Vienna, the

least,

the

irregular, and working day le rurely us

then ten hours at a stre.ch.

Nevertheless, for all the ap

parent disadvantages of the ser- vice, there is always a long waiting list of young women

truncheons and pistols-or, aptal, wher: they are freqia eager to become a Sta.c dece-

at

called upon to attend ly least, this

what ia

receptions in evening dress at, sivė, Austria's small but elite sy, Schoenbrunn Palace,

(with corps of highly respected guard Jady detectives claim. They charmi)

personality

FOR HENDON

to and mimbers of the Lady detectives in Austria Gre Austriro Government and. VIÐ not rewarded with a medul, as; should know, for they are visitors and to see that none of is often the case elsewhere, for

the the guesia the only members of Austrian police force who priceless pictures any of the

are allowed to go about them duties "unarmed."

-and

Historie "souvenirs" when

ableware as they leave,

On these occasions, the lady detectives are expected to be as will dressed as the official gues. a year. Also they must clear of the buffet.

Austria's now glamour girl detectives have, in fact, created a mirse sensation am ng their on muscular musculine colleagues

The

27

oustanding work and bravery. but by a grant-often amounting only to a few shillings from

pecial police fund administered by the police president.

After sirving for 17 years, an Austrian lady detective can rea Fonably expect to become inspector and corn the top wage

of 18 shillings a day! When she retires after 40 service she will be given 10 78 per-

lady detectives and years. Smi

by Batly refusing to carry To Kolve their dhancio grms. This in epite of problems, many of the younger the fnel that Austria has and prettier probably

heavily some of them would win mwezł armed police fare this side of

beauty contest in a' canter-have the Iron Curtal. Every pollen- married in order to be in a man. whether in uniform. et helter pesillon to carry out their plai clothes, i requited by duties efficiently. law to perform his duties armi ech to the teeth.

Unmarrial members of the forceme required to live in pullee barracks, and A equipped with all the trapolis: of modern Det Hírmoured division, from steel helmets, gas mosks, rifles and bayonets to machine-guns and armoured

COTS.

COMPROMISE

So, ስዩ compromise-DO Austria is lund of compromise par EXEP}ence--the nation's Indy detectives are permitted. by special dcerte, to rely on charm wit nudi persammlity—on condition that they attend, tar- Ret practice on the police range and reach exacting "commanfo style” standards in sharp-shoot- Ing with all manner of fre

TS. from heavy service pistols to handy "handbag size" automatics.

The life of an Austrian lady detective is a tough one, and the material rewards are very small. The recruiting age is 24, and candidates must be "well but" and not less than 5 ft. 5 in. height

On acceptance, ally deter

ITL

version

of her Inst

Next year,

a group of Aus- tria's lady detectives are hoping to visit Britain to see the famous Hendon Poller College and to racet their uniformed and plain! clothes sister policewomen across

For their husbands, though, married life must be rather a trist, for the hours a lady delce tive has to keep, are, to say the the Channel.

I

Did it Happe

MATTERS RULING LIFE LIBERT

HAPPINESS

One more problem for you to solve in this FACT or FICTION series,

The answer will be given tomorrow,

4

Her Ship Came

Home

'M still frightened of liable to day-dream too Const it was thought that

home-made toys. It is much. rkliculous, I know,

this would be a nice change I don't think my parents for me!

in someone over 40, would have let me know the The Osprey Court, where my tive trainee must undergo a two but there it is. If I see Lestelles. My mother had aunt lived, was "on the other years' course in welfare work, them in art shops my first very definite categories of side of the Park," which was including child- psychology

my mother's way of saying that Later, she is sent to the Vienna pression is to run. But people. The greater num- it didn't come up to her social CID school and initiated into the then I tell myself that it ber" were labelled "impos- standards, Nevertheless, the mysteries of

shadowing a sus was all

child's over sible,” #1

and the Lestelles residents consisted largely

service officers pect, the characteristics of li developed fancy. Certainly, would certainly have been retired the different types of

malden ladies, similar to those of criminals

at eight years old, when I among them. In the Christ at the seaside hotel we lived in. from pickpockets to slayers--and the ways of dealers knew the Lestelles, I had mas holidays of 1922, how- Only the Lestelles were differ- in the white slave traffic.

much more imagination ever, I went to stay with my ent." When fully qualified, she Is than was convenient for a aunt at her hotel in London. placed on "full salary"-of 10

solitary As my #

parents lived shillings a day! In addition she small boy. But

PLS

is given £7

a year

sex

at

In lieu of child of elderly parents is another hotel on the South

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Much younger

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and

Mrs

associate with Yvonne

now Amaud,

on

SHOW BUSINESS

Debauched and

qceless • Democracy

OTHERWISE INTERESTED

World Copyright by arrangement with the Manchester Guardian

"This' teach you damned snobs, something," he shouted at my aunt.

he

He hud

more

-ended,--

I waited

or

what I

They fought

with frying

pans in the city of gold

TEWS of Canada's richest find Klondike

Nyold

1898

flashed through the world like an electric cur- rent. Men drifted up the Yukon's fast waters on rafts. Blithe spirits, they braved adventures romantic and sordid in search of gold, When they got there, in that pre-bulldozer era, It was hard work. But hard work backed by the eternal hope of striking it rich. And when day was done there was the life in_the_swing. doored saloons, the Dancing Lils to compensate for the heart-breaks out on the trail.

How did the women faro. in all this? "It was a man's country... the men loved It," writes Laura B. Berton in her book "I Murried the Klondike."*

HUMDRUM JOS

As a young kindergarten teacher of 29 she tired of her humdrum job in Vancouver. An offer of a similar job in Dawson, the gold city, came. Brushing aside the fears of parents and relatives she set off'.

What followed were not golden days. Home became a shack not much better than an enlarged dog kennel. As it was winter the win- dows were pasted over on the inside with heavy brown paper.

There was the cabin fever which broke out among the other teachers in the house. This happened every other day in Dawson with people of the same sex cooped up together in one but through- out the long ink-black winter. Trusted friends fought each · other with frying pans and anything else which lay handy.

But for a young woman in har twenties the social life was ahead of most English way story

towns. There was ice skating, sligh-riding and bob-sledding fabric Every night. The social

been drinking. me to fleid a cricket ball, which Once when she was talking with so unathletic a schoolboy of "maman" and her lovely old course, after that, I was for- her husband bidden to speak to him. My needed a great deal of patience. Norman chateau,

before aunt said poor Mrs Lestelle's In fact, he loved children. He turned on her savagely

but saying: "For look was piteous, didn't care much for the rest all the residents,

The most saw was an expression of din- dents of the Osprey Court, how- God's sake, shut up!

1 was to see it the you can say for the old girl is bollcal rage. and they returned they To begin with,

Before the were ever,

that when she's not boozed, she once much younger than anybody sentiment.

It was bad enough his having makes jolly good onion soup." else and they both spoke with

For all that, he was a very Australian twang, but if he'd Mr Lestelle accents.

had a been willing to be patronised fond husband, and often, when broad

would Australian twang;

complained, He she Lestelle spoke with the sort of a would have been well.

wasn't, He despised them all stroke her hair and say. "Never exaggerated French accent we and he showed it. What disgust mind, girlie, just wait unti my

About a week later, their ship ed them most, however, was his ship comes home.", And this treatment of his sweet little was no idle talk, because he did really did corne home-Uncle

Ted died. But before that Mr. wife

have a ship in the shape of a Then again, Mr Lestelle was He was madly in love

sheep-farming Lestelle himself had died sud- with very rich, old

denly of a heart attack, Every- broad-shouldered, six foot three h

her, very jealous and never uncle.

the drink that and had bright red hair; and disguised it. She, on the other Just about New Year, a letter one said it was Mrs Lestelle was really strik- hand, was what my aunt eoyly arrived saying that this uncle had killed him, for he had been in their room ingly beautiful with corn and admiringly called was on his last legs. Mrs Lestelle heard shouting

In my aunt's coloured hair and blue eyes naughty little fir!."

was in seventh heaven, though that very night, "more," as my aunt said, "like A young medical student inclined to be a bit grand with view, Death was unsuitable for I was not even One of our English roses than a came for a time to the hotel everyone. However, everyone, children.

to speak to Mrs Frenchwoman. My aunt also and Mrs Lestelle did quite a including, I'm sorry to say, my encouraged

Nol used to add, "What a bride she lot of "naughty little flirting" aunt, was sweeter than ever to Lestelle before she left.

that I wanted to after what had would make for the Prince of

happened on the morning before Wales," which in 1922 was

her husband's death.

praise Indeed.

Everybody, in fact, liked pretty little Mre Lestelle. Every- body, that is, except me. That may have been only because Lestelle was my friend, and you couldn't very well be friends with them both. But there

other

reasons, were

give themselves People often away to children. For instance, Mrs Lestelle was very greedy and had a very sweet tooth, Now grown up people

prob.

ably don't notice this much, but a child does; for him it speils rivalry,

Disappeared

I had been given two large boxes of chocolates that Christ-

тда and I only had to leave. them for a

the moment in lounge to and that two or three

-by

ANGUS

WILSON

In Hemlock and After (1952) Angus Wilson pene- trated the mind of a voteran novelist with exquisito aubtlety. Yet Wilson himself I now to this role. Hemlock and After was his first novel, but to succesful was ·i Ramune 15.000 copies sold in this country alone and For Whom

Tollu the Cloche (1953) his droll skip on the twenties that he has been able to abandon his job of looking after books at the British Museum in order to write them.

Born of a Scots father and

• South African mother and educated at Westminster School and Merton College, Oxford. the 41-year-old bachelor has a flat in Dolphin Square.

You see I knew more about it all than anyone else. It so happened that I had lost a new box of plasticine that day and, knowing of Mrs Lestelle's way with sweets, I supposed in childish manner that she might

too. like plasticine.

walted until the Lestelles went out and Then Ï tiptoed into their room. Sure enough, I found the plasti cine

In her sewing bag. but, when I opened it, all the Mrs plasticine had been used. Lestelle had made a great wax doll. and on the head she had stuck some of Mr Lestelle's hair combings, and through the left side of the doll she had thrust a long hatpin.

ход

Bewildered

I was slood

I

bewildered, As there holding the erea- Mrs Lestelio come into the room.

It was then that I of rage wow her expression

of the largest ones had disap with him. One afternoon, I re- her; they even seemed to for. ture, peared. I could never surprise member, Mr Lestello persuaded give Mr Lestelle a little." the culprit, of course, I him to accompany us for field- knew who she was.

but

teeth

Was

Fuch that everybody who was anybody (and most of those who weren't) had "a day."

'AT HOME'

This meant that somebody was "at home" to the entire town OVETY

afternoon. There were dances galare, With the

round seven deep

the walls they had to stake claim" on a girl.

men

It was at one of these affairs that Laura Berton met her future husband, Frank, With on engineering degree from New Brunswick University he had come in the days of the rush with the tense expectancy of making a fortune. Now he was no more than a seven-day-week labourer, But still an adven- turous fel

fellow. When the only dentist moved out for a winter he bought up the tools and act to work.

The dentist returned

to And he had lost some of his

2004.

patients for

Even with helpful husbands— and Frank Berton was one-the Klondike domestle chores in were a nightmare. Milk was delivered three times a week in whisky bottles stoppered by ancient corks Kept on by bits of string. Water came by cart four days a week. For much of the year it was too cold to make Ice-creami

EXTRAVAGANT ·

But there were always the women who would not allow it to got them down. There was

Mr George Black who trudged ing practice in the park. Mr But not for long. After lunch again. She seized the doll and

her long way to Dawson on Sho offered to take me to Lestelle's strength was very one day he came in smalling and hit me across the face. Then

mo until my

the trail and became, tho' city's and his aim with 2 announced that their ship, had she shook the pantomime. My aunt was gront

Uncle had chattered, I ran out of the room first lady, wearing gowns which only too pleased to have her cricket ball very good. Indeed, indeed come home.

crying.

cost $00 He and his wife were to

dollars apicos. Her bridge undisturbed and as the if the young man had not been diod.

believe ho I still don'!

husband had left New Bruns that evening,

Mr Lestelles were very badly off, very agile, he might well have celebrate

came wick poor and penniless to aho bought the tickets and gave been killed more than once that announced. Unfortunately, poor Leatelle's heart attack

I think it was the

labour in the gold. Belds. But Mrs Lestello an ample sum for afternoon, I think, young as Mrs Lestelle had nothing really from drink!

and all the effect of magle on an over-

he had struck if rich. An ex- a good tea for us both. Each was, that i know Mr Lestello's suitable to wear,

case, travagang way of dressing and from the ladies of the place were anxious devoted heart. In any time that we went, Mrs Lestelle murderous intention

to lend their finery. My aunt Mrs Lestello's ship came home, delight in putting the cat among had three double sundae and way is upper lip twitched.

But what upset Mr Lestelle lent an embroidered Spanish WORLD; COPYRIGHT RESERVED

the pigeons brought Mrs B, & great reputation as a character, I had a single vanilia lee. You thay ask why I did not tell my most were his wife's social pres shawl, Just about my bed time, tensione. "I worship the ground Mrs Lestelle came down to the

To ordinary mortals Dawson aunt but children of eight she walks on, kid," he would lounge, looking quite wonderful: DID IT REALLY HAPPEN? Boltom cak;

provided no more than a ̧ nghit... Play wat say to me, "but by God when but, when her husband came in,

ògainst a succession ́of terrára.. frightened of Mrs Lestelle,

she lies and swanke 10ce that he was dressed in his ordinary I guerrod that she could be she puts me in euch a rage I old clothes.

But to thoạo-mori.. "Bevd-women "Darrling" sho

with the spirit of adventurn vory violent. It was only on could kill her

cried, "please hurry to dross,

In their hover it was n city of that rateful day that I was to

Mr Poor Mrs Lesteile! She hated. We are late already, how right I wan

everlasting hope, intended being poor, having to mix with Lestelle Just stood and grinned: to the world at large, how to me with ule wa holna to ten for

Muriel Bowen Over

It was Mr Lestelle who to say; and so the romanced a money?" he died. And then he was regarded as a brute To me little. Especially about her, roared with laughter. "Uncle ho was always, very kind and family her pauvre polite, Tod hamn't kicked the bucket patient Throughout those maman whom my aunt under yet,” he said, "this'll teach you he ukually Bunny Chrifimas holl stood to be a comiatse in re- damned, "nobs something dayt, he spent hours teaching duced circumstances.

Shoud det my ch

YES

NO

your tich, in speens abore and

other where