1955-10-03 — Page 4

Evelyn Waugh

THE CHÌNA^ MAIL," MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1955..

THE NOVELIST WHO

T

DOESN'T CARE

By LES ARMOUR

HERE is no explana- commend it.. Yet he became Of all the living novelists who can

tion for Evelyn a Commando in World War

D

Waugh. The son of II, fought in Crete, went to capture audiences of millions almost as a solid middle-class Tito's aid in Yugoslavia, matter of course, Evelyn Waugh is almost publisher he holds firmly and probably did as much that the aristocracy is the and risked as much in the certainly the most bewildering as a per- sole repository of social cause of democracy as any sonality. That he is also one of the greatest value. An admirer of Mus- man in England.

goes without saying. And, now that he solini during the Ethiopian War and

A converted Roman appears to have abandoned wit and satire supporter of 26 Franco against the Republi- Catholic, he retained, in his cans, he has never regarded writings, the bitter, almost for deep and mellow character analysis, toward the bewilderment caused by his per- democracy as a form of sneering, attitude government with much to humanity of a nihilist.

sonality cries out even more for study. But strangest of all, per- haps, is the New Waugh-

of ti wider scheme of the satirist and the humorist values which has held him ever whose work has lost most of since. its acid and nearly all its frolicking fun.

Britain Entering An Autumn of Abundance

W

E

By WILLIAM BARKLEY

London. In some parts this summer were an all-thue record, valued

three it has been

His last two-volume novel, "Men and Arms" and "Officers and

part

in

1116

other experiments directions Brideshead Revisit. ed" and the current two-volume work-are an effort to And an alternative, "Brideshead Kem visited" was u

successful experi

aces a world of chaos which home hably not begrudge

心

He is convinced of the valite of the aristocracy because he attributes, to a large extent, to the reduction of values to their denominator. lowest common Gentlemen" He saki at

the Line of his (the latter just published)

conversion that the attrnellon lon has won little but abuse from of the Church Jay in the fret the critics.

the It is tot

that it was the founder of the civilisation work of

vahies of Western the Waugh who

and that, without Christianity. the whole of civilisation ផង់ wrote "Decline and Fall," Vile Bodies," and "Scoop."

bound to collapse. It is a solitary biot on this but of the Waugh who wrote wonderful record that to main "Brideshead Revisited." The Cadi The Industriei bustle of

new work, though, has lost This splendid harvest will be Britain we had to import 8.000,- much of the subtle pathos of the sound bisl f our health 000 tons of coal,

Is there then a shortage of "Brideshead Revisited," in and prosperity for 12 months to

coal? Not Where the granaries are conc

bit. We have parts, the critics think, it abunkiant coul, except that it almost gets blown away full and the beasts are content-

in the right places, with its own wind. ed you have a nation strong in But atounding food is only beginning of Britain's harvest this wonderful year.

are entering an high and thick J

abun { autumn dance. We should approach it with joy and thankfulness in our hearts,

He would be an expert could mathematician who count the blessings of the British people today,

Return d hellday -makers adjusting themselves THW 14 the year's labost their minds oge

picture of

Carry Mi

unforgettable

the poll summer

I was painted as they sped through the Belds to cous! ur mountain. Pleural felds

Terrie Us hus ever

been known near the sour old will reas

heart and sound in stomach.

The workshops

£284 million. al

iN

lime

being underground at a when we want more of it above ground.

Who is going to belleve that the brilliant ingenious British people cannot solve that te problem in transplantation?

Or

It

OOK at the steel harvest.

will top 20,000,000 tons this brimming over the hedges with year for the first time in British

rich grin.

It

history, extceding that

by probably half a million.

figure

Is there then abundant steel? No! Never! Yet that is not all

Prakse be. The only Searchly In Britain toxluy is rabbity. Now experts are assessing product of the pust-free harvest nided as it was by the splendid

The

bad

"For the suke of the British thank goodness steel reonomy

sus Ir is anything from 700,000. Is scarée," a steet man exploded

to 1,000,000 Fotter ALOTE prain in mic. "It shows that every-

than last year.

More grain

ventning

Amm-

CHREWD eyes were

felds in very district white the grain was standing. pling and estimating the yield. These figures were collected at headquarters in London and a national culated.

average Wis

cal-

A REBEL

is hard to resist the con- must

IT viction that there

If we have the wrong people

The

wrong organisation to really be two Waughs. do i we had better get the right ones quick and stop play- If all that sounds harsh. ing silly fools with ourselves,

In the mines as elsewhere it 1s the men, not

it is probably just because

the jobs, that it is only part of the story. are scarce. What an abundance Skeletona are necessarily of jobs there are in Britain!

NO

Wages rise

bony.

There Is по explaining Waugh; bul there may

be

an understanding of Waugh.

rebel, It is

thing is going great guns. anost encouraging that the steel Industry is

being stretched the limit all the

time. "Steel output has increased by 1,000,000 tons a year for

Next yers, many

21,500,000 23,000,000 tota by 1058. let's hope it is not enough!"

This steel consumption reflects abusart harvests in the work-

jalas at

year tonis

11

NOTHING has ever been known 10 the twenties he was

like it, with 22,945,000 men,

Not a political rebej or women, boys and girls in civil Even a literary rebel, but 41

д to employment, quarter of moral rebel; a rebel against the the million more than a year ago. artificiality, the tinsel,

Wages for the industrial jobs forced galety and, above all, the are indexed at 158. That is to absence of any fixed standard of

have wa say, they

risen 33 per-values. seven years, which in "Decline and Fall," his Orsi and gent in And three percent faster than prices novel, was a satire on the age, have risen. The wage rise this the novels which followed were year alone for nearly 11,000,000 merely further episodes in the industrial workers has beensame satire.

But negative criti- £4,200,000 a week.

cism never satisfied him.

He turned to the Roman Catholic Church, but that was

In the last seven years shops. Drilish industrial production has The result shows bounty gone up by one-half.

Every Krain.

aboundinu.

dition.

Loo

orifer-books

To pass eround these abundant earnings the nation's note circulation is at a peak for this time of the year. With a note circulation today of £1,781

there million,

00,000,000 more of these slippery pieces of from-me-to-you paper

going than there were a year ago,

turn out to be

THEY

arc

The savings

of

Other values might other civilisations, bu! could not sustain this one.

and the critics should mudes him one

unsuccessful experiment even if, "Men after proper digestion, and Arms" and "Officers and Gentlemen" should turn out lo be entries on the debit side.

There is no telling where he will go from here, But that there will be more experiments, there is little doubt.

buti

they

52.

Waugh, after all, is sull only

And the particular value of NO LOVE

Catholle Church, the Roman he insisted, lay in its univer. sality, and in its authoritarian organisation, which assured E united front and a preserva- of two centuries ago in tion of the basic values house In Gloucestershire. unadulterated.

MEANWHILE,

Mule of the country squire

he lives

the

his

There, other sides of character como to light,

פות

There

In the thirties he travelled to Ethiopia, to British Gulans, a gentle humour in the pre- through the Mediterranean, and servation of a wash-stand built William Burgey, the nine- to everything he saw he turned by

teenth

who century architect his biting humour.

designed the, revival Gothic Cork Little

in wonder, the cir- Cathedral. cumstances, that he should turn

to the past for his inspiration There, too, are signs of his and his values, and

little biting social commentaries: to a wonder that he should take on pair of paintings depleting the authoritarian view in politics joys of travel in 1750 und 1850 and in social values.

EXPERIMENTS

even

the he hos added-painted in same style to his own Instrate- tions—a painting of an plane crash in 1951.

acro

throws

him.

He dislikes publicity, QUALLY, little wonder that, out reporters on sight, and con- if he did support tinues to show no love for the

which supports Christian civilisation under the public guise of Mussolini's and Fran- Even in his latest novel, every- co's Fascism, he should tan and body but the aristocracy comes fight when it was clear that off rather badly (though, in takes a swipe at ruthlessly Hitler was

under- fairness, he mining the whole

of the aristocracy, too). array Christian values.

to

There is s no sign that the Nor ought we, perhaps, public will ever reciprocate. there is be amazed that he should find But, disconcertingky, satire an inadequate vehicle for no sign that Mr Waugh would his thoughts.

care if they did.

Commonwealth And

Conservative

WHY

CUMMINGS

FLEW TO

AMERICA

LAST NIGHT

:

Cummings left London yesterday for П tour of America. This is Cummings's first visit there.

✰

But through his work he is no stranger to American journals. In news maga- zines and other periodicals Cummings is now among the most widely "quoted of British cartoonists.

*

★

The trip he plans covers Amerlen in many aspects Hollywood BLS well 1.5 Washington: New Orleans as well as New York.

★

★ ★

His notebook is open to all he secs 15 the Journey develops. though, as you see below, he has SOME pre- conceived notions on the purpose of the trip....

Why I'm going, says Cummings,

is to find out...

are

The

Conference

By HAROLD JAMES

London. branches throughout

the

growing aere in England and

The shipyards Wales has given us this year about two ewt. more than in the podlod 1950-1954.

THIS year alone it is up 7 per No one

Asi ne this figure doubts that These cautious estimates ure much covers the ever-famentable fall below the fact. Reports come of 3.000.000 tons in the coal In of 55 and 80 evt. per mere hervert it is certain that expan being reaped in minny places, slon in general manufacturing three times the national average irustries w

circulate in shops and probably unequalled the even percent,

packed to the cellings with world.

Every shipbuliding yard is desirable edibles and wearables,

Perhaps the best way of them buy more The crop

You read with regret of Some has a lower full,

But the tbundant boer, 80,000 barrels water content than usual and orders going abroad.

monedh be to was gathered in perfect con- persimmlets who predicted short more than last year. Many aro

ita history found a place in our monwealth would be to see that have been

National put by for the future. Con

schemo of education. Indeed, foursted The shipyards are savings are up £125 million

the Tory party in their election Pretched to capacity. What over last year, The richness

more can they do than their Abundance

of work, abun

that "the story of our Empire. most?

dance of money, ibundance of

should figure more prominently Aa for motor vehicles, 1,250,- goods and foods. What a happy

in the teaching in our schools,"" THEN nearly 10,000,000 cattle 000 will roll from the factories Britain it is. THEN

and Move! than 21,000,000 this year,

A sad, bad phrase was com-

But, alas for good intentions! sheep and

In Docs that mean abundance of mon in the sad, bad days of The main preoccupation The one itely to be chosen The promise was made before our helds and on our hills to- motor-cars? Maybe not for the depression. Wo were said to of the electorate at the for debate is, at least, the most the dimeuitics were probed. day, and the number will sure- insatiable home market. But to starving in the midst uf moment is the cost of living, "meaty" of the lot. It urges In the ovent, it turned out that ly rise as farmers gain con- they play their part in what we plenty. Rejoice that this

of Educa- fidence in the new richness of ciso nced-abundance of exports. autumn we are eating and eating and out of 292 resolutions the government to embark upon the school curricula are settled

And British exports Inst month well, in the midst of abundance, sent up by Conservative bolder and more imaginative not by the Minister

policy of strengthening our tion but by the county educa- economic and traditional ties tion authorities. They fre with the Commonwealth and

stubborn and disinclined .for Empire."

changes. "What has always been taught is safe" la their line.

lambs browse

rabbit-free grass.

THE first of the annual country nearly 50 are con- conferences of the poll- cerned with taxation, living tical parties the Conser- costs and pensions. vative Party conference at Interest in Commonwealth manifesto in 1951 undertook Bournemouth on October 6 and Empire has waned, for only promises to be a dull seven resolutions find a place in the order paper, most of an affair all round.

anadyne nature,

men of few words say

Pink Plymouth please

and cam the respect of all who appreciate

that REAL pink gin should be prepared with PLYMOUTH GIN.

But, do be sure it is

PLYMOUTH GIN

Bola Apontez ‚·

CALDEEGKU -MACORECOR • CO, LTD.

TORY CONSCIENCE

What is likely to capture the Imagination remains to be seen; but unfortunately, the "imagina- tive" policles put up to these conferences are too imaginative to be practical.

But the second part of the resolution is calculated to prick

the Tory conselenco, for it onlis

on

Nevertheless, It in every council in Britain county energetic steps were taken to bring home to the educationists the need for teaching Empire history in the schools, soïne- thing might be achieved,

MORE DIEHARD-

Here, anyway, the Conserva- associations

all constitueneles "to com- tivo constituency

monce a virile campaign to

arouse the interest of the elec- might get something done. orato in Commonwealth Empire affairs."

7

and

It is sad that the party claim- ing to be "the party of Emping should have to be whipped up in this way.

to

There would still remain the public schoola to be converted. By and large.. they are more dichord than the local education authorities when it comes changing teaching schedules, and most would still regard Latin Verve as more important than,

ay, Rope Relations.

But whatever West Indian immigration has done, it has ti But it is the headmaster who least brought home to many docides, and there are some who Belton "how.colomual is their are young enough to realise the Kanarmaco of the territories importance of a knowledge of whose wolfare is their respon- the Commonwealth 'in modem

bility.

(educationy

THIS I

BEQUEATH

THE RA

501 A

IF the Californians are REALLY as stafu esque as one hears..

If the New York cops REALLY all trish

men...

... IF New York is REALLY lacking in the charms and.com. forts of Paris

IF the American female is REALLY deadlier than

the mele..

PARTY

If their hospitality is REALLY all it's

cracked up to be.

ROUNDABOUT

AHRAD

IP they sth chain

Qui

BUT above all to

find out what they

think about, B6,

Landai Express Baryins