Pago
SEEING THE PEOPLE'S CHINA WITH RUSSELL SPURR
'',
✅ THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1955.
THE GILES FAMILY ON HOLIDAY
WITH CHOU EN-LAI
NEW
WAS dining with Chou En-lui. So were a thou. sand other people. We were scattered at small tables around the hall of a Peking hotel. The occa- slon: Some East European national day.
Bee
quile
at the
'NIGHT CLUB'
woman diplomat
Chou was not smiling then, in the Potnis at home, except it Chou was a Chinese war lord: is played worse. "We will liberate Formosa from
A massive We the American Aggressors,
from Moscow had dragged a protesting Russian journalist on to the dance floor, They ligged through the straggle like a bull. dozer propelled by vodka.
warn them now if they want war they can have it.",
Weil, Formosa Is no longer mentioned In Chinese Commu- nist society,
Members of tho British stub. Instead, there is an absorbing Embassy, apologetically I could
Red China's
hunt for well through witch Premier
"counter-bing their partners' toes, step- Communist ped politely aside. He sat sipping revolutionaries." glasses. opera
officials watched admiringly an vodka, seldom speaking, beside
through the
an envoy of the Soviet Union.
Chou nodded absently
interpreted chatter,
Suddenly he stood
to
up.. His
The clubs
teeth and his upheld gins gill. NATIONAL days are a subst!-
tered in the floodlights.
This was the publie Chou
diplomat the magazine-cover Chou. Not the dreamy figure I had just been watching.
His voice crackled through the loudspeakers: "To peace, to friendship among peoples, to n peaceful solution of all the outstanding issues.'
Everyone applauded.
drank. Everyone
The girls
PRETTY ittle Chinese girls, got up to look like Russians, played an accordion and sang Russian songs. A pimply plankst staggered through an agonising Chopin mazurka. Acrobats did Impossible things on
Title 101 EC But Premier Chou puld
He lapsed back into attention. his private pose, alpping the vodka and smiling the kind of mile that makes Westerners think the Chinese are inscrut-
able
I wondered he could be rocalling another toast only five months ago. Mao Tse-tung was present then. It was some
tute for night clubs in Peking.
they cut a swath hali.
The women
post-revolutionary
Night clubs have long been THE lean,
days are over.
Enjoyment
closed. Frequent, well-irrigated relobrations in a Peking hotel in the order, the very dennite surve to bring society together. urder, of the day.
There are a few non-comrades, Representatives of the Weneru diplomatic corps trying not to look Its if they are enjoying themselves. Indian and Burmese diplomats trying to look as if they are,
Professional delegates, cultural or economic, who seem to spend their lives the V.I.P. way as Ruests of innumerable Govern- ments.
Itinerant journalists bewitched or bothered according to their political persuasion.
Gushing Russions, besining Bulgarians, cheerful Czechs, all guzzling free food and liquor.
The same old guests keep coming back for more even anticipating each event on their personal red-starrd calendars.
great Chinese-Russian occasion, TIM
of hastily-painted portrait A
The dance
Women's dress in back too... by party decree. Five years of male impersonation are Stacks are out, skirts in.
over,
A few of the older women guests had actually managed to dlg out pre-Communist dresses which smelt of mothballa.
managed to improvise extra "Oo said anything about peace and quiet? My advert said 'Seaside 'ut, 'arf-minute from sea, not another 'ouse for miles, and nor there ain't,”
Some of the young girls had
ordinary creations out of mate- rial that looked like, curtaining. They watched with envy the beefy
Soviet women gliding round in Peking-made party dresses that would have suited
and fitted-the elderly Queen
Victoria.
I wondered what had hap-
women of the old spy novels, pened to the glamorous Russian
A
-[London Express Hervice).
The Prompt Marriage
NNA was a woman who had employed a domestic staff and kept her own horses,
These new versions seemed to have spent their girlhood exer- cising with pneumatic drilis. Their muscles were magnificent, their
assured. manner
did not look like somewhere in Middle
TIME to dance. A Chinese simply
milltary, band had broken Bulgarin, still unvarnished, out Into Socialist ballroom beamed down like Buffalo Bill music.. from a forest of flags.
Not
different much from the kind you could hear
women.
The exit
THE
They
HE musle paused, Chou En-
lat got to his feet,
Wao he going to dance? regretted the Secret Police had impounded my cameras,
LEADS
AGAIN
121
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YOUR PRINTING
Too many proofs mean time wasted.
We grasp the point at the onset and
ONE PROOF generally suffices.
After that, our upsto-dato automatic
presses make short work of the job,
Lot us quote for your current
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SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
PRINTING DEPT.
description
Europe.
It was therefore too bad that nothing better offered than to be housekeeper in Hampstead.
my
FACT or FICTION? All the stories in this series COULD
be true
I learned that she had posses- slons because She WES Д good-looking, once, staggering widow, with fine with a load of middle-aged
bright blue eyes, Christmas Ibone-work,
par- the post and a pleasant style. She struck cels to
office, 1 could close the front door behind this lapse put her in a rare about tolichng burglars. To make her happy
me at
once as a nice woman,
not
ex-
me
But no, the master diplomat and so indeed she was. She had a confiding frank nature, and strolled through a crowd of was rather impulsive and admirers applauding himself
ellable. the Chinese
Communist
She
the manner. He paused in a door.
made easy for me way, sill half-smiling.
potential difficulty of employ- someone who had once ing been better off than 1. We ran the Bille trouble; the hot very his
little that there was arose from black
her sometimes getting steamed up over what seemed to me small things.
Then the band struck up, the dancers swirled around,
Chou
summer
vanished inlo
night in
bullet-proof car.
(COPYRIGHT)
PARIS NEWSLETTER
THE ABBE WINS
THE BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE
From WILLIAM ROLAND
THE the August
cash and it
A
To
had special
locks put on her door and win-
dows,
She had been
that,
LLS
with me a year when it botell
Jato usual, I was hur- riedly preparing to go out to R dinner party and
to
Anna came
bedroom, She announced:
my
"I have been
in correspon-
but did this one actually happen? The answer will
dence with someone through marriage burezu.”
"IIon plauded
a
enterprising." I ap- warmly-yet absently for was applying lipstick.
met," "And today we continued.
With mom leisure I'd have been as much interested I hope as sympathelle, as would most people. Even as it was I had to ask how the occasion had prospered.
"I have had a proposal mariage, confided Anna.
Radiant ...
to You
about
be published tomor De
That evening 7 showed the letter to a brilliant novelist, "He has murdered her," was the verdict,
"Because Anna and you gave the impression that you might drop in on them in Yorkshire any day. You have the ad- dress, and are perhaps the most
sho solid person knows. He wants to get in first with his
version
disappearance,
of her before you inquire on your own
nccount."
.I was
DID IT HAPPEN
ashamed that I'd not for unconvincing, inconsistent. intended to inquire, and op- replies.
alled at
could
be
person.
theory
the thought that I "Why did he marry her?" anyone's most solid
"Two hundred pounds in post
I dismissed my friend's office.
ds
over-dramatic and
I
ld
not know of this myself, lurid, but I was uneasy. Con- though I was soon to learn that
round-up of pleting the
It was the very sum she had my most distinguished sequain mentioned to my sister's cook. tance, I next showed the letter It might, perhaps, have been
a famous lawyer. I was anyone's likely guess, badly
shaken to and that he, "Why is he in London?" too, thought it very sinister, in-
"Sell her title things." deed.
"What has he got for them?” "Thirty pounds."
A fluent glass
Thenceforward the glass would do no, more for us. Deli-
Thai night I dined with A cately sparing us its too usual friend alone at her house, and BF., B.F., it spelled only aw
told her the story without name aw, or perhaps wa wa.
to We decided
The knife in the neck and the
and address. play the gaine in which one hole in the mear made shivery.
011
on
by
bed companions,
an
I WAN
haunted, too, till
'sleep camo, by the sale of her little things. For this
explained
Theodora what had not
Benson
"The Honourable Eleanor Thandaza Raby Benson, dougifer of the First Baron Charnwood, Ja on putheroes of almuet
thought out: why
he was in Lon don.
To support his story
of her
puts the letters of the alphabet and perhaps with a little money tucked
with
& wooden away-certainly valuables of some kind behind table in a circle small those bed-sittingroom locks. round a
When met him next day in down- turned she tho kitchen, I formed a good glass, placing inger each impression. He had a pleasant
lightly The appearance, was lively and spry, and seemed to get on with her glass, the fingers touching each famously.
The next day I waved them other, and then ns. A off in their taxi, with Anna's acks questions. mountain of luggage
and her current ects up
and the of three fur coats.
glass swoops around, A week later I got a letter spelling sense or from Anna, giving her full ad- dress, and asking mo to send sheer gibberish, on a pair of shoes, some skelns I do not know of wool and an umbrella which why. she had left behind. She
and Mr Prit- ported that she
I have never Palmer had indeed got seen
the
glass chard
90 Buent. married immediately, but that she was posing
Before we had time to open town where she'd surely go keeper, because he did not want the tople which admittedly for re-employment would be the neighbours to know that he filled our minds, it spelt blood his cover story, I could see him had remarried quite so soon.
loading and death.
of his at night; perhaps he had thought take another pirnic
must tell me everything de tomorrow."
It-
as his houIBE-
Civil letter "I have accepted," she per-
Leave
nonsense
of
Tility, Tackling travel,
V
murder and with the the "kumocpUES Marlian Sipessa. Rabeersel for Death, her falast mural, la în the detective category. She was born Je Lichfield birthplace of D Jahn has travelled widely in the Balkens, America and the far fort, and fros quietly, in London in Regency Round with a perdon,
to
that
fight he had to dispose of her bulky gear. This could
only be
large city. An outraged, visit to the marriage bureau and a
search in the
1
"Who is dead?”·· I certainly was not pushing basket. He had buried her the glass, but I dashed to and possessions in the second-hand
PARIS. top floor in small flat, HE Fermeture Annuelle "mothered" and cooked for by his secretary, Mile, Lucy Coutaz, shut who has worked with him since down in Paris -extends they were both in the Reels- even to the shelters where tance at Grenoble.
She was one
of the first homeless working people women to be awarded the Croix
I was worlding on my face who cannot afford the price de Guerre during the war.
against time, and all the worse of a hotel
normally date, Emmaus room
hos borrowed £2,000,000 for housing projects for interruptions I felt that get a place to sleep for the 20 percent of it put down in anyone else's life could wait
unity, the morning. night.
"Splendid. Anna!"
I cried, still absent while enthusiastic In the face of official in. not plane to build 2,000 difference the Abbe Pierre From the headquarters, build-Simply splendid. I wish I had (real name Henri Groues direct a fortnightly
ing the Abbe finds time
Ulustrated the Pierre is a legacy from magazine with a 100,000 cir- the Resistance days) has culation. 3
A thousand rug pickers work alsted and I want to come to the rescue. He has for Emmaus. They pool their with him in two days' time »
I did not altogether like this, fro spelling Anna P.P., and on markets as he bad buried her fought and won the battle earnings and help build houses
That shook me. I protested: "You can't do that. You have especially the nuisance of doing further inquiry Pritchard Pal, body in the moor, and he was of the bridge.
in their spare time. The Abbo draws only enough money from to give me a week's notion; the up such a parcel But I sent and on fresh. inquiry, as to the 230 the richer for an
the stuff off, along with a civil address, Red Barn Coltage. Rag pickers
you." the
for minimum I could give to
Ietter. organisation's funds
I got no acknowledg- went so fast that I could not "But suppose he will not walt his barw
said: needs. Ho The Abbe and his small army This all started because
ment,
and had engaged a new follow the letters; it was my a
"read aloud the the for me?" aslood Anna,
housekeeper; T heartlessly for friend who [of rug, pickers · have codi
I am a great
words she could not possibly bellover in got the Pitchard Palmers, mandeered the arches under the house I first rented was too big
everyond's duty to honour Pont de Sully in the centre of for me."
A month or two later I got a have known. Paris. There they have set up
Mendes material contracts no matter friend any sinplus terris, straw bede France, the Abbe never dinis how disadvantageous and the boter from Mr Pitchard Palmer
writion: and even pots of goreniums and anything stronger than milk. His report that if he wouldn't wait Posted from Batterson. He had Hole in moor”
in a week he wean't worth having
"Our marriage has been short 400 people a night sleep under only recreation is to go of
his small car to neath the arches
some quiet was divious. But Anna looked
WOMEN. One day deceitful Backed by
the Paris Pre- pot for a day or two of abeo-radion, Hike a young girl, and I but not sweet Anna is a most thought it absurdi to insist, while I was out she managed to. fect of Police, M. Dubois, the lute silence,
whether or not I could have escape with all her stuff. Please Abbe defled an order from the
meltoe, succcentulky.
be so kind as to inform me as Hiver Navigation Authority to
soon as you hear of her ad- break-up camp, and plans
dress." swoop on other, bridges while the holiday season Jarle,
Like
hie
Lost and found
PARIS tourist, had his
*When did sho die?"
It
Plenic his motor car.""" The spelling was slower now, by request, and I too could read,
"Was it a car crash?'" "Ha, ha, no.^^? when how did she die?" "Knife in neck,” told me that he was worn bd harsh as to hold, littlo "Where ́it she now?" whis bit older than she was exaggeration against her. What
wallet stolen. It contained a Lively and spry
teamship ticket and 50,000
She
The “Abbe's organisation - Eunos (R50), ! Sorrowing, the known as the Comprimons: "Rourist went to 'the steamship D'Emmaus has come long company and bought fresh rate
thought this very odd. “Anna was not deceitful, unless one
way since the days when he ticket. He was advised to can a mount widowie with #blf of word of man would speak of his pered my friend. fust rented a large old fotiser'in at the lost property, omog3| Next
a Parir-subuleba and tobić in a day the tourist, klow overjoyed.
Kew! homeless joeople; ?
It is now CINE
"bulidin":
returned to pot a refund on the
H
recovered ha
ttle, 30,000-franica
woped a nice cote wifescaping from him? Hole in moor,*- answered the
lico, Thaimaase Why should he write to me klas.
hack of course, upon ? five minutes aequain-We did not like our store.
bei atlefedi, dato Lahoe, whes 12-1 were on any could hardly - nerva myt
sale whether sha) hind;
ANASANTHEeji treninga, showed the harm, whether she had
ht1⁄2 Ketteer fo3 m Belillant; novelles, dié suffered extremit
AHS Flagmurdered; be 17 was fell down
The next morning I received letter with a Bayswater address. It ran:
"Dear Miss Benson,
My husband turned out to be a perverso of the most awkward kind. So I will be much obliged if you will give mó a reference, How are you?
Yours very sincopoly
Anna
I never learned what her. husband was doing in Battersea. WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN ̈
YES NO
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