1955-12-01 — Page 4

Pare 1

E

THE CHINA ̈ ̈ MAIL,” THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1955,

COLD COMFORT

VILLAGE

E

By David Laidlaw

The mother herself penniless. went to work as a charwoman, and Anya burnt her Identity papers and passed herself off as 10 so that she could apply for a job.

too

no

un-

Thore

doubt that VERY week more and

insistence on collec- Soviet more people manage to

tivimation of agriculture (which make their way from

the peasants hate) and on the behind the Iron Curtain.

priority of heavy industry has USSR made daily life in the The experiences of many f

for the majority of the popula- which

affair The town in

Anya tion on them are as exciting as

of almost badly damaged reloved austerity. film, but sometimes it is the lived was

"One doesn't live," exclaim- refugees with the least during the war, and when she

ed Anya bitterly. "one veget- dramatic escape

stories left it had not yet been

Tho bulit.

Inhabitants, she

ates. Life goes on monotonous- whoso evidence carries most

wooden ly up sold, hod

from

day and day to everyone ja dejected conviction and drives home

apathetic." most clearly the kind of staffi existence lived by the mass of their countrymen,

put

rc-

of life In The stark realities the Soviet Union are sometimes brought home to the world ai not by shono whose Laidlaw's words--- excapto-in

by those

their

A recent undramatic large fugitive was 10 young have

have all the ingredients of Rusalan girl of 19 called "thriller" film, Anya. With the exception why continue of a few months in 1951, she way westward in less dramatic had spent her whole life fr

but to mak

ки

circums'anots. Such an escape

A tha of wia

18-year-old who has since in a small provincial town in Russian girl.

m

Better Past

and

if

She said that people кор

that some- hoping, however, Lime something might happen to improve their lot, and this those hope

by was fostered who could

still

remember

the town in pre-Communia: times. told ulder

generation a comparatively prosperous given the author some of the The

stories about the past, and part of the USSR. What drab detalls of her daily life in stor

anyone expressed disbelief they A provinetat Boviet town. In cited classical Russian Illern- she had to say about this fact, to this girl it was not a

ture to prove their point. true town at all.

descendants uf the place is undoubtedly

village similar comfortless

where That of hundreds

of of

ckisses" “uppressed like beggars." Tsarist em should prefer towns throughout the Sovie: people

HESEDILIZED period to the present is indeed Union.

Indictment of Communist

"It is

a mistake

to lulk of

át as a wn," she exclaimed

passionately. "It wretched,

and OTIC

In

but a "wretched.

live

and

Union. Everywhere the authori- succeeded.

the thot

K Int

the ruins, but elety. hacks omong the only solid new buildings

One "rele of the past" the *** were Party

municipal Communists have always tried But ap- comfortless village where people offices.

to destroy is religion. live like beggars. Everyone

Tals is typical of what has prrently in Anya's town.

they have thinks only of himself.

Sovle! elsewhere. happened all over the

In spite of every- mistrust is so grew bat has to beware even of one's

deeply beat friends."

Just the old of people but the young ones too. con strike the people. Statistics show that Whatever they may do

private they pray of living in publle, in When Anya the average amount

person In Soviet before the family kan. μετ govern-

Spoer

every obstacle is put in Bu ellies is less then live square

outward urrested,

do the way of the metres, and many families

This atmosphere 13 wide- sprend in Cominunist countries, where disagler

man overnight. was 14, her father, a

WIR 25 years' impri-

fies have paid more attention thing. Anya affirmed, 90 percent to erecting "prestige" buildings of the population are

ec- religious-not than to providing decent commodation for the mass

от нау

ob-

and

thent official, sentenced

not get even a room-let alone servance of religious rites, deported und sonment

a flat themselves. Siberia, leaving ner mother and

Parasitic skin- disease, itching eczema etc-"

'Mitigat

-Bayer - LEVERKUSEN GERMANY

to

Food Scarce

the one

town In the church which survived the war has been turned into a bakery

In this bleak, constricted Communist world. the

people who have any chance of the a reasonable existence are

aristocracy - the new

Party

Food And other necessities, said Anya, were equally scarce,

a permanent short- members. In Anya's town as There was nge of every kind of foodstuff everywhere else, these get the

was im- best jobs, houses, except bread, and It possible to get hold

of winter tional opportunities.

and educa

BOTTLO

with

the

A Little Scared

clothing unless one had kind

"pull" authorities.

of

This last is far from surpris- Ing when one realises the price of textiles in the USSR.

five hours Western countries.

Το

Well, Billy's party is gettin' along real nice when in comes Sammy the Snatch and says to Billy: Billy," he says, 'I brought you a magnificent set of seat covers which I find attached to some geezer's automobile outside. Now this tactless remark by Sammy causes your Lady D. to jump right up and exclaim ; 'Bernard;' she exclaims (Bernard's her ever-lovin'), 'Bernard, we've been misled. This is no literary luncheon. In fact, she says, many of the characters here seem very highly illiterate indeed.' Whereupon she places a kiss or two on

our Billy and blows it."

SMOG OVER

HOLLYWOOD

T

Hollywood, Tuesday.

HE

film industry went to Hollywood because of the wes- ther. Here were the blue skies and the clear air, the bright sunshine, the Pacific Ocean and the mountains.

DON

IDDON'S

DIARY

This 13

my

OD

NEW STARS ARE

AS RARE AS A SIGN

OF THE OLD SUN

seventh visit And she said simply: "No."

Police cars patrol the Bever- to the flim capital in the past

three years, and I spent two ly Hills area every ten minutes, months here last year (in Do- and all people seen on the bocah Kerr's lovely house streets after ten o'clock at night Pacific Palisades)..

are stopped thd asked if they Smog had

not penetrated are residents, and if not, to Beverly Hills DF Pacific Pall kindly walk somewhere else. sades then, but there was in ominous, aggressive overcast in the mornings which usually lifted around eleven-thirty.

Today smog

has

invaded Hollywood proper and a walk down the miracle mile in Wil- shire Boulevard has me cough- ing and sneezing.

My eyes

felt heavy my nose ton-

in

Their salaries, said Anya, are

The Pacific Ocean and the unrelated completely

to those by ordinary workers. mountains are still here, but buy one yard of poor quality received woollen couling meer in. Anys For instance, whereas the aver the blue skies and the bright

ja have had to do 30 hours age Soviet industrial wage work, as against the four or about 700 roubles a month, the sunshine and the clear fur most local Party Secretary receives have departed-at least for required in

3,000 roubles a month. In addi-much of the time.

I loft Vegas in brilliant Although the official working tion, Party members get four to 3.x weeks' paid leave every eight hours,

flew low is one of (lay

and year. thai

to 12 months' weather, and we up Why Anya's experience

fully paid Bick leave if over the chocolate-coloured splutter. mos: people had to average at full

are necessary.

mountains towards Los An- and smurted. 10 to 12 hours to

gested. least

No wonder Anya was glad to

I could see the de- geles. enough money for the necessi

But she must have this get away. of life. Although

with al- the

little scared, all the sert and the hills on been u

the Geneva Con-most dazzling clarity for

of Gov-about three-quarters of ernment in July 1855. .Commun-

hour. ist propaganda consistently painted the Western world as a terrifying place. Aaya admitted that her friends and relations her had been frightened about reception,

carb

na urally Imposed a strai their health, free medical same. Until

had been ference of the Heads treatment, she cold, discontinued.

The ideal Christmas Gift

for friends abroad

CHINESE

CREEDS

AND

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VOLUME

V.R. BURKHARDT Illustrated by the Author Five Colour Plates FIRST IMPRESSION.

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風

new.

op a

are the elite, the bosses. There is such a dearth of talent and new red.. blood that; they have- the whip hand, and the whip is never out of their hands,

" came

up against platoons

of agents when I tried to sign up. Alec Guinness in Epgiand

www

Are

"Why are people so difficult here? It must be the the smog. I almost felt better'

You know

at Guadalcanal. Marines."

I was in the

Tiger to tame

By the time I got Jp Sunset – and here............ Now I-am-aftern Boulevard the police car scemed young property in Rod Steiger. to be trailing me,

but I The

Arcola escaped without being stopped blocking me again." and without any further signs of hostily. Perhaps it's the smog that has made people here rather suspicious of strangers. It is a mistake to walk in

The first men I saw in the Beverly Hills, and few people do. I walked from the Beverly Beverly Hilton bar, by one of

those extraordinary Hilton Hotel, which is

coluci- of life, glossy, and the most luxurious dences

was Fred film the "old" Feldkamp, Independent the world, to

Hills opulent Beverly

Hotel, producer, who happened to have who had met There is naturri confusion over the seat next to me A Press agent

and Beverly Hilton

the February flight from London to me, and who drove me to the

Hotel, sald: Beverly Hlion Beverly

Hills, and there New York this year. ant you are

nol conditioned

Fred and was fierce opposition to Conrad

had talked most After a little while, Hilton calling his hotel

the of the smog you.

journey and shared a bottle of mlik (that was all we could get) at the tirpot in Ice- land, Feldkamp in Hollywood looks more worried than Feld kamp in Iceland, UDDENLY the blue sky bc- Some of them had prophesied SU

He said: "I've been stuck in I noticed in the hotel came grey with clouds, the air that if she ever reached West

Hollywood ten days trying to Germany alive she would be

outside looked thick and woolly, anti-smog ointment and

NYWAY, as I walked past the sign up new names-the public smog

on were glasses the scene below vanished. flung into a forced labour camp

beautiful houses the children is getting awfully tired of the It is a city on wheels. Every and allowed to starve. Others Innded at International Airport Smog Is Los Angeles' greatest

In the gordins stared old onea-and I have come problem, and therefore Holly- playing

UP one out of two people, and the went so far as to say that she In what was not actually a Lon.

I aald to ona. tgainst the agents, wood's. Despite all the swank in astonishment. fair Californian would be hanged. And yet, she don tog but a

Lon Angeles ropulation Es never "Do you know who the mos and riches of Beverly Hills, le girl: "Have you added,

replica. almost all her younger friends envied her the chance to While I was waiting for my Hollywood is still a Los Angeles seen anyone walking round powerful people in Hollywood 5,500,000, runs, a cir.

me today? suburb. luggage I began to cough risk these dangers.

Choked up

We

and

the

to

He

say three months or so, your Beverly Hilton but Conrad won. body builds up resistance." Jaughed, and added: "I feel fired out, run down and choked up only half the time."

that anti- splc,

No walking

here before?"

The agents. They

GENERAL ARAB, MAN OF HATE, MENACES VITAL TALKS TO KEEP THE OIL FLOWING

From

Damascus cause of the pro-Red trend in concession!" YRIAN Ministers and Syria. "Cancel the

Stop-ranking British is the ery of the crowd the has

oflmen are meeting

whipped up.

The talks are concerned with Petroleum here for critical talks about how much the Iroq the pipelines that carry Company (predominantly British) should pay the Syrians 25,000,000 tons of oil a year for the pipes that pass through heross Syria from the Iraq their country from Iraq. In wells to the Mediterranean Iraq profits are shared on' a basis, which will mean fifty-fifty

ports of Tripoli and Banias,

There is good will

both sides. BUT:-

опл

Across the talks, falls, the khadow of one Khaled Bagdash -called "General Arab”, and rated Moscow's No. I the Middle East.

this year about £72,000,000 to

Iraq.

most of it earmarked for development purposes.

THE CLAIM

man. In

Looking hungrily at so much money, the Syrians claim that Don't their tranalt

John Redfern

CYPRUS

SYRIA

elines

ISRAEL

AJORDAN

MAKES

SAUDI ARABIA

Costello

The

WHAT are. Hollywood and Los** W

Angeles doing about the sunog which threatens them? Plenty.

Los

Angeles is the 'world's". most spread-out city there are more than 4,000 square miles in the county and the city limits themselves cover 444 square miles. So it's a dimeult tiger to tame.

It has been a fight between city and motor for years and it hasn't been decided yet: Car- bon dioxide fumes pour, out of. automobile exhaust pipta. он refineries belch bad air, end Los.. Angeles, situated in a big bowl, sucks in the pollution.

City officials have hired hune.. dreds of experts and spent $100,000,000 to beat the mor. They are willing to spend $100,000,000 more. In fact, they aro willing to spend $300,000,000- more and the latest plan is 10 build a concrete air sewer to carry smog to the mountains,

shadowy scowl. "You are Journalist? What newspaper?" Told, he answered. You must makce

an appointment and directed me to a small offiou

What does Norris Poulton, the Mayor of Angeles, say? no many yards from my hotel..

There youth was packing don't think

meg will over. leaflets behind posters showing Africa and the the

"Alomatixreig."

Los

On location

Near Eastin be eliminated completely, b6-” of a make labelled cause of our climatic conditions and what is called "temperature The young man took my into clcn. The sky is most name and address and promised often as clear herd as anywhere the to telephone with an appoint in the US. (or anywhere in. ment, Nothing happened. I world., Then there are .h.r telephoned several times. Big days when we have this moky dosh had just gone out every overcast. We are fighting the 'time.

smog with everything we'vo THE DRIVE:

FOL. Although I did not asc Big- Never heard of him?-

payment from Parliamentary Standing Com

Invisible dash, I saw plenty of Bagdashrv.

Syrians are wor». worry. You will although a IPC. works out at only about mittes which will consider any Man." It was an amen. Responsible

So I drovo through the narow, rind over the Infiltration of the couple of years ago ho was just £500,000 a year. They want, a pipeline proposals.

ill-lit streets in which it is im Reds into the schools. There a Red on the run. He is a Kurd, bumper

Someone has pretended to He calls the company "a bunch possible for two cars to pass., uro. Communist sympathisers: In a Kremlinised Kurd, who last

Is, doing the of imperialista" and supixarts My driver sald in Arabic the the army, the supreme power HOLLYWOOD year became the Ant Commu- work out what the oil men are.

Reno, Some studiós nist M.P. in the Arab world. supposed to save by using the the "People's Committees equivalent of "You'll be lucky in Syria toka

overland route Instead of formed to ran up Syrian fooling when I told him whom I wanted Russia is stepping up her they are willing to tankers through the THE SWAGGER

Persian about oil

diplomalle drive. She row hus, approximately ve Each fresh bale of leadots, The houre was down a slops 11 diplomats here, A. Rumos their profits to beat the mensee, Bugdash, a wess-dressed = six- Hà hàg printed ́ ́the glad dach new wave of propaganda rear a stream. Near it was in Syrian trade agreement was and five percentvis-n-high-per- cemiage In Hollwood; though footer with swaggering good tidings for Syrians £10,000,000 makes the not over-stable coall police sentry-box, but Bagdisah Higned laat week Ennek nem

me: "In not of course as high as the one looks, has spent three or four a your or alia,

Government, look over. It had his own guard on the door. A Syrian official

the agents take, Awake Örelos...remember Abadan? shoulder to the old house in The door in the wall was open the last year there years in the Holy Clly itself Moscow. BEK PREPLAN angel That all started when Mossades, the Damicus - Kurdish quarters ed an fhebe's "could see a plén-growing feeling

the towards Russia!" people

1941 that, then Persian Prenler, put the where Khaled Bagdach studies santi courtyard from

ommunist technique and pre shadows man, said he the

increase.

...

KOWLOON.