1955-12-12 — Page 4

Page

THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, DECEMBER 12,7 1955.

Hush comrade!

GILES

can hear

Soviet scholars who speak English

like

Oxford undergraduates

want pen - friends in Britain. MOSCOW RADIO.

**Ectually, Al do faind a bowler hat a trayful nippelgh for the tame of the yeah, Old Boy," salda Moscow scholar who had allowed hla Oxford pen-friend to talk him into going the whole, hog.

THE ONLY SAILOR WHO GAVE IN

T

By J. P. W. Mallalieu, M.P.

HIE ship went down 500 Merchant ships had no pro- years of the war something like

1

teetion

scamen

201

submarines thice for two against, miles Mouthwest of

their except

escorts-and In But the merebunt Iceland un

bleak

the earlier years of the war the dki aot give up. They hardly November day in 1942, and supply of corts was meagre. even faltered,

1941, the The short-range guns which Though, around to the the survivors took

would have given them some

ne Cabinet was alarmed by reporte bonts.

protection from air attack had that remen were getting drunk aly been order shortly before in pubs,

deckhands were war broke out and were not overstaying their leave and Su available in substanta quanti. delaying sailings to an extent tes with the first half of 1942. which diminished any hope of

After some days adrift, FLI middaged Scotsman, who WnM the ship's carpenter, huddled at the mast step and said: "I'll die. I'm not going to freeze to death for anyone."

One hour inter he did die. "To hear and see a white man do this was incredible," zurich the master of the ship.

and

nud

The sailor was a ship's carpenter and he abandoned the struggle to keep alive in a small boat оп a freezing November day.

then

some

a large

was not until 1941 that eventual victory, Miss Behrens merchant seamen all received finds that at the very peak of lights without such troubles our imports were This is a tragic story; but at the life-jacket seems to be unique. For Miss which a would-be rescuer was reduced by no more than one

percent, C. B. A. Behrens, whose official usually unable to see them

This book Merchant Shipping

flashes and the the water; and it was not until

(HM 0 1942 that they all received interesting sidelights on Presi Wur Demands

clothing which de Roosevelt, for exemple, Stationery Office and Longmans, the protective 359.). studied 118 depositions later kest so many alive in the who, without consulting anyone.

Impulsively promised made before the Countssioners sea, or that their ship bowls

loan of chipping to Britain and were #led with pumps. for Wrecks

found there

with so many only this

of une instance

then hedged it

that the promise Wilh merchant seaman who fell he

of qualifications could struggle no more,

Not surprising become meaningless; or on the equipment. L that the numbers killed directly Army which, at a time of acute by enemy action were 6,000 shipping shortage, continued to 1640, and

then 7,000 in demand space for rifles when its 1t14:r༤ 1991 e 0,500 in 1942 out of

stocks were already sumcient for tobil

fit Heat time of about 14

years. 110,000, and that drayed-action It gives sober, detailed deaths or permanently damaged account of the job which the yes as a result of exposure are Merchant Navy had to do in the estimated by Miss Behrens at war, the problems

number of direct deaths,

We who live so much by sen- going expect our seamen to be But no one has any courageous.

for grunted the right to take heroic courge and extruordin- ary endurance which our seamen showed In the last war and which Miss Behrens describes in her book.

defleinezeN

G

it had to

Stül less can we eemplacent Pomelling not far short of the rolve and the extent of its

about the fact that their need for powers of endurance was

increased by our failure to pro- vide them in tune with proper equipment.

She says that the chances of a man's surviyn; after shipwreck, which later became rather better than even, were in the early

Punished without mercy!

Triumph of new self-winding watch

OLEX of

Geneva

Rcommissioned

Tudor Oyster Prince specially for men who want a self-winding watch of high quality-without paying the highest price. To prove the Tudor's perfect efficiency, Rolex devised a series of tests

in which it was exposed

to the arch-enemy of the

ardinary self-winding watch, vibration.

In one, the Trial of Destruction, the Tudor was strapped to the wrist of a work- man operating a pneumatic drill for a total of 30 hours. The invincible Tudor emerged from the ordeal quite unbatmed, ticking as accurately as over,

Two famous Rolex features--the water- proof Oyster case, and the "rator" self- winding mechanism-- make the Tudor Prince & miracle of precision

If your aspirations are higher than your bank balance, go to your nearest Rolex Jeweller, Ask to see the beautiful new Tudor Oyster Prince, in gleaming stainless stool.

TUDOR Oyster Prince

SPONSORED BY ROLEX, OF OBNEVA

Order your copy now

Success.

But all the statistics, the core- ful weighing

of evidence, the ralyses and the judgments are it by the one overwhelming fact that, desplie the sufferings and the deficiencies. large numbers of boys continued through the war to lie about their ages in order to join the Merchant Navy the morale of this and that great Service was maintained to the end.

BUT FOR THIS MAN

WOULD THE DUKE OF WINDSOR

T

hia

By Robert Pitman

1

STILL BE KING?

became the man Baldwin's shoulder.

over

unless it is confused with Yet we must be grateful for coming battle of bluff. And he something still more powerful.

the way почу evidence, a cockney financier or with

however knew that only public opinion Ho memory of

well-known shoddily presented, iza the could boost it again, doctor. Yet for a quarter of a puzzling case of Geoffrey Daw- century Geoffrey Dawson son. wielded more power than any Anancier.

HE Prime Minister

સ&[ s/albed ઘ table,

head lolling in dejection against his folded arms,

Outside, the fog and December shadows of evening were gathering Westminster. But the man who sut with the Prime Minister was not all dejected.

around

a

at

Il sage, half-bald head was held erect. His pink checks and aturdy frane glowed with inner satisfaction. For he knew that his work was nearing success, that the Abdication was nicely under way.

He knew that any moment

now

his friend Stanley Bald- win

due lo lumber from Was the room, take a short drive to the Paluce.

and tell the King either to reject his chosen wife or be hustled lato exlic.

His friend

What exactly wis part in the Abdication?

Among

this

correspondence

press,

What did Dawson do? He

It was the kind of role which

Regularly for looked at the spatter of mail he loved best. Dawson's from abroad which was already 20 years, while his paper was

being reaching The Times.

prepared for Dawson had been dining and He not ly led the move-

Не Look back at the British scene

the

He ment to oust Edward VIII.

droning with

great. helped to set up Ramsay Mac- in autumn 1930, in three years came an anonymous letter, The had made himself Into the Don 1's National Government. 1ime the world would be

editor whose at writer, who claimed to be a widest when he wasn't editing.

resident He helped to keep Churchill war, but for the moment there Briton

In America, Impotent In the wilderness. He were more immediate matters dealt feelingly with the_Simp-

Now it all seemed like 20 вот sffair saw the mainspring behind the to settle.

and its

effect on years of training for those few slow wheels of Appeasement,

American opinion: "Britain," he decisive weeks in 1938.

Double role

Dawson was the man whom k'219 consulted

their about Honours Lists, whoi Prime Ministers called in before they chose their Cabinets. And when the wives of dying statesmen sought an Abbey funeral for half a year. Though the home

NEW King huid occupied the Throne for little

their husbands. Dawson was the Press Brst man whose favour implored.

kept hushed

over

wrote, "has usurped the place in the realm 键 sordid intrigue formerly tenanted by some such Balkan State as Rumania."

The anonymous Briton did

influence

Lambeth call

was

trace for the first time that

not confine himself to foreign IN Dawson's own diary we can opinion. He vented his Own

Не too. silence, opinion

declared: Nothing would please me more vital flurry of activity. Almost than to hear the: Edward VIII daily during the crisis we find Dawson in conference with his rights in

Baldwin. And we and Baldwin of the Heir Presump- consulting Dawson long before he consults Cabinet or Parlia- ment.

they America was agog with his love affair. And the woman he loved, twice divorced, would soon be had free to marry him.

What was the key to Daw

never

was never

authority? He son's

Would Edward V1ll be allow- struggled for public favour. He

elected by public ed both her and his Chown as vote. What then was his en- well?

can be titlement to power? It summed up in a phrase. For 26 years he was editor of The Times,

Dawson's story has now been TANLEY BALDWIN'S shore

fold by one of his surviving In the Audication is part friend. 73-year-old Sir Evelyn

But what Wrench. of popular history, about his self-confident friend, his fellow king-breaker? Who

was he?

He WILS Geoffrey Dawson. Even in 1030 his name meant very little to ordinary people, Today it means nothing at all

TOVARICH, HIDE

VODKA, na we all know,

is

a familiar, much- sought-after drink

• Geoffroy Dateson and Times (Hutchinson, 30.3.

YOUR

By JULIUS GOULD

European satellites. It comes Adolescents, and persons gl.

Into this scene stepped Geoffrey Dawson to play extraordinary double role.

First came Dawson Editor

Dawson

VODKA!

an

favour tive.

abdicated

A demand

THE letter, in brief, was not

THE

so much a loyal plea for the

Twice Dawson calls on the Archbishop at Lambeth. Ho Gounds key Cabinet Ministera.

He sniffs out the waverers,

Repeatedly ho visits the

the King to drop Mrs Simpson. It King's secretary, Above all to`

was a demand for his prompt plays on Baldwin's sensilivity abdication whether he married to Canadian opinion.

to

were

in

Decisive?

Ho

becom-

per-

His immediate act was bring pressure on the troubled her or not,

He runs off to the Canadian Blographer Wrench is not the King. The King Was alone-

What would most editors do High Commissioner. He. learns. Boswell of our age. His, book is shuttered off from public with such a letter? They would that the Canadian Premier had ill-assembled, long-winded, dull, opinion.

thrust it aside, along with all been telling the King of his But not popularity

Canada, kept those shutters other unsigned mail.

Geoffrey Dawson, His reaction observes: This Impression of Our down. He knew that the King's was remarkable, from all his personal popularity...

confidence was faltering for the postbag he selected this letter ing a very dangerous factor in and took it to the Palace. the situation.” And immediately he sels out to rectify the danger. There he begged the King's Becretary to show it to bis We cannot wonder that the master. Then he bustled off to Duke's last days as King were Baldwin with a copy, Said passed in terror of Geoffrey Baldwin appreciatively; "Very Dawson. And we cannot wonder useful it may strengthen my at blographer Wrench who says hand in dealing with the King that Dawson's part was The drink crisis also sheds

haps only second to that. of The conclusion from all this? - Baldwin in

the

Abdication new light on the structure and

In it that despite their tensions of Communist society claim to have tried to guide the

later story." is quite clear that children King along paths of caution," throughout the Soviet Union sale of all vodka on pay days struction workers" in the town.

were alcoholics and that the of the elite aro over-indulged Dawson anci Baldwin and late at night: and many of its East

day after pay day up to 25 by their parents. Not sure working for his abdication from

were "too prisingly this privileged young-the very beginning?' percent of the men sick to work."

er set prefer the Koktail Hoit "Under the influence." ns something of a surprise, ready

In this field, no elsewhere, it to the nt all;

Komsomol (Soviet Editor Dawson's part was put was that part decisive? therefore, to hear that were not to be served

seem thai Poland is Youth

All this pol

finished. and would

points not yet League),

When the If there had been no Daw- ord railway canicens what amounts to a vast

similar places were to go ab-learning the sons of Soviet to, the Society. Long ago Jout to mobilino

dilemma of crisis burst wide open he set son, would Edward VIII still be experience." Russian experts, Communist

public opinion on the Throne? temperance campaign is now-solutely dry."

medical and Party men are the USSR rejouted "egalitarian-against the King. under way in that area. The

puzzied that drunkenness, like ism" as a "bourgeois ideal." Ning days later a ban was Communist authorities are

other "vestiges of capitalism The satellite states, Poland in- imposed on restaurants, for-

have such as religion and Immoral- cluded, be seriously bidding the sale of spirits even it should have persisted so Soviet example and have pald followed the reported to worried about a "drinking for consumption off the pre-

mises. From November 1, 1955, long after the Revolution. the price. plague,"

it was decreed that bil sales

the Capitalism in The campaign has now of wine at street booths would

Union is a thing of the

from Britain itself poured is certain. A Without the embraced Poland, where, ceash throughout the capital.

so why in April 1954 should

Into The Times office, Over- ubiquitous Dawson, the... affole evidently, a better and more

Eugen Evdokimov Director of

whelmingly, until the last could never have been dea- Moscow Young Specta- Bober genus of Communist

slickly.! Without Theatre, bo pictured in caste enjoy their place at the moments of the crisis, they patched so ts urgently required. In mid-

the paper Evening

top of the tree. But down be favoured the King. Yet not one Dawson, the Duke would trove Moscow September 1955 an Anti-

rankling dimeult letter was printed; not one was been freed from the of those after a fracas in the Koktail low, in the shadows,

his people had Alcoholism Conference was

in Gorky Street? This was questions are being asked. The sent round to the Palace or thought that

consulted, that held in Warsaw, and on nativity. The Polish equivalent

and man in the street wonders just copied out for Stanley Baldwin never

everything had been managed October 4: the local au- of the BBCǝ "Can I Help You?" by July, 1954; the Koktail Hall, how the abuse the Parly from the sort of people who

of privilego con Of this volume of support behind the scenes. bad become rather be aquared with thorities there banned the programme has been bombard which

asceticism

and read The Times, the King was During the December · nfter= ed with letters nbout the notorious, had been. turned Into 'mystique "mat,triumphant flow of

of an ice-cream parlour and after-selfless service. This, no doubt, kept ignorant to the finish, noon when he ceased to be

sale one reason why the Com

King, the Duke said goodbye to alcohol" **Indignant women much press comment the

Meanwhile in The Tunes it Winston Churchill on the stepe and of vodka at street corner bars. have denounced husbands,

upon

the more obvious forms self Dowson was marshalling of Fort Belvedere. The" older. others feel tha

that daily life, has was stopped.

of excams such as heavy

his columns against the King man's eyes were wet with terry, become more than usually complicated wien

It is sometimes hard to find ing. They are out to "drunks": can

reasons why individuals seek morale and, in

$5.

1955 GILES ANNUAL

stock will be limited.

Bookings accepted at.

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST LTD., HONG KONG & KOWLOON

DRACONIAN MEASURES

The announcemen“. draconian measures prolonged

the

tort

following and disturbing,

and radio

Soviet past

DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

A

Naturally,

the

privileged

of

munist regimes pre frowning

Not printed

It may be, argued that the slow weight of events would: still have, turned the scales, that the stolid instincts of the people. would still 'have swung behind the Government,

SWELLING flood of letters. It may be so. But one thing

been

deploying for battle. And the door in, the dusic and tapping

Eth all the verve

of a general Standing hard-headed at the

be seen sleeping off the effects rear cars, drinking the glided youth, hope to set a good pursued him into exile with a out the measure with high ́of their sproe", "GEFOSS · many;

causes are probably as diverse example to the rank and ale series of articles which crackled ho gruffly recited two lines prom shop counteENERALAT

Gin Warmów, as they are in New Whether they Will succeed is with spite,

a familiar poem

a For vodka in one article he suggested "He nothing common did or complaints may be York, Paris or London. But an open question.

have part of the explanation for the I will caintively. cheap in that the ex-King's rorgance had mean AbbV

astern, Eastern Europe and in spite speeded his father's death or theả?

horiken":"drink jāplegur! would not have, toleri

lias" in the of the vestures introduced In

Poland, vit unul unlikely that toy So much for Indeed, the problem Iscandidater, in Poland

Europe undoubte

Upon that memorable

Duke the