1955-12-31 — Page 5

THE CHINA MAIL,

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1955.

For Those in Peril on The Road, etc.

by Giles

THIS is the Gim

FORDONS

"HURRY ALONG, CHUM; THAT'S JUST WHAT WE NEED - ELEPHANTS."

A STOLEN KISS

in a railway carriage ruined Colonel Baker, made him the Strong Man

Balkans and gave of the

Egypt a mounted police force.

By Alan Jenkins

NE Jme afternoon "Get away

crick

from the...

she in 1876 a plateinyer won't have you so bear!"

Then she told the court, on the railway line he put his arms round me and near Woking noticed kissed me "

about

something

She pulled the communiention. the up train to Waterloo, A cord, but it didn't work. ily young woman was standing now, the colonel was imploring on the footboard, clinging her not to make such a fuss. Did she want to ruin his Army to the apen door of

A career and

position th carriage and screaming for society: help.

I seemed that she did. The

rocked

The country. All the defensive skill

The platelayer signalled case at Chydon

to the engine driver who of Mr Henry Hawkins, Q.C., was jammed on his brakes. The to vain. Mr Justice Brett was guard came panting along indignant almost to the point of "The mere laying of the track, fook notes and Apoplexy.

u man's hand on a woman," he handed the girl over to the rumbled, "amounts to a common care of a clergyman in the assault,' next coach. A well-dressed TUAN of 48, fuliously,

Sent to Prison

protesting locked Wis

in

The train proceeded to

another compartment.

In

Colonel Valentine Baker: a moment's madnosa mado him Baker Pasha.

to

cope

with

London Express Bervic

ONE OF THE WORLD'S STRANG-

EST STORIES

No Discredit

be

saved their faces, he asked for But the cirtamátances at ET another job. He was given the Teb, where Baker

mat the task of

out reforms in enemy, were anything but lave carrying the government of Armenia, ourable. Baker found himself where the Sulan was beginning surrounded. Once again he wan to think that atrocities bad per- Idź down by the wenkor elements. hapa bern rather overdone.” of his force, Paralysed With

Meanwhile, brother Samuel fear, they lot themselves (by now Sir Samuel Baker slaughtered Pasha) had moved to Egypt and beyond. He had taken 1,500 rather reluctant Egyptian troops with him on an expedition to find the second sottree of the Nile. He had spent some time trying to surpress slavery in the Sudan, He, too, had written books about his exploits. But he had left Egypt in a troubled and rebellious condition.

The British onvoy, a friend of both the

advised the Bakers Khediva to send for Valentine. What Egypt needed, he said, was an efficient police force such as Valentine had given Turkey,

Pasha too

Seriously wotmded, Balter somehow managed, with in- credible tenacity, to extricate some of his officers and men He flung them, and himself, back into battio; but he had lost two-thirds of his army, and the most he could hope for was to meko Oston Digna's victory. as expensive as posalbid.

in

Whezi

died

Certainly Baker himself euf- fered no discredit, Bir Evelyn Baring British Consol÷Glencred in Cairo, sont dispatches fois of praise to the foreign. Oting. The Timés prpised his carter as By now,

Valentine Wes a among the most colourful Pasha too. The Khedive appoint- military annals, Lord Balisbury ed him Inspector-General of the said he had rendered incant➡ new Egyptian Constabulary, a parable services to Egypt. force

of 4,400 men and 2,662 Baker spent the remaining horses.

four years of his life consoli Baker realised at once that the dating his constabulary. in England. On his release from enough

Egyptian Constabulary must be on November 17, 1887, he the a crack force-a reserve for the at Tel-di-Kebir, he was buried Val Baker was fined £500 and prison he had chosen as LIF]- Russians.

army. And us an old cavalry

with military hotura in the sentenced to 12 months' inipular a retuge as could be So Val Baker became the officer, he naturally concentrated English cemetery at Cairo. In prisonment, Shortly afterwards imagined the Turkey of Abdul "strong

after man of the Balkans," on the "moimties" (still today 12 years,

"a moment's the Damned, the vicious Sultan When Rusia Waterloo, where names and the following Item appeared whose ambition was to become (as he predicted), he was given white uniform

invaded Turkey the pride of Egypt, with their madness in a train near Wok- the Loudon Gazette: Lieut.-

and red tar- ing, Valentine Baker had cover- addresses were taken. The Colonel, Brevet Colonel, Valen- "Cellph of all the Moslems" one of the three top commands. booshes).

ed himself and the British with well-dressed MAN, whose ne Baker, half pay, late 10th

Turkey, which had roused He

won

battle after battle A mission awalted those glory.

(COPYRIGITT) name was Colonel Valentine Lancers, has been removed from all Britain to fury by the Bul- (Johnny Turk, properly led, was Egyptian police. Osman Digna, always good military materlol). Amir of Eastern Sudan, hench- Baker, and the girl, a Miss the Army. Her Majesty having sarian Atrocities,

no further occasion for his ser-

and fought an outstandingly man of the Mahdi and a power- Rebecca Kate Dickinson, vices.

For the Bakers had a family brilliant rearguard action at ful slave dealor, was Inflaming were then allowed to go.

connection with Turkey. Val's Tashitessen: with only 2,000 men local tribesmen on the Red Sea elder brother, Samuel, had he halted 40,000 Czarist troops coust. in 1875, would

Baker Pasha was sent Miss Dickinson went been the end of most men. But there. The Sultan needed West- while

helped to build the first railway for 10 hours, holding them off with a motley force of 3,500

his home and told her brother, not Val Baker,

colleague, Shakir men True, he had ern advisers, Western technical

gendarmes, Negrots, barrister. what

anese, and Turks (with ton had powerful friends. Royalty among know-how. Above all, he needed in, withdrow the main army

them. For several years after-

safety.

officers) occurred. Next day Colonel wards they never stopped peti- army.

to put things ter a police force and an efficient

The Sultan was pleased right, Baker was arrested.

tioning the Queen and the "War

that he promoted Baker to As usual "pend for, Baker" Office to give Baker his com-

One year later Balter had or- ferik (Lieutenant-Generaj)→by was the accepted solution to Well, what

had occurred? mission back, But it couldn't need a Turkish gendarmerie. telegram.

almost any crisis. The Khalive Something that was to change be done. You cannot un-cashier Two years later he was Major- But already Baker was getting warned him, however, "I rely Val Baker's whole life, and also an officer.

General in Abdul's army, on the fed up with seeing his fellow upon your prudence and ability the face of the Near East. It he

famous Mehemet All's staff. He generals abandon strong posi- not to engage the enemy except had an infantry division of his tions and retire, leaving him to under the most favourable own and had trained It well clear up the mess. So, having circumstances.”

#

That.

have

hadn't done it, in a moment of And where was the man all madness possibly quite light the fuss was about? No longer hearted or slighty intoxicated

madness--we might have for-

gotten Him.

Because of a Kiss

He had kissed a pretty girl in

a railway carrlage. Because of that Turkey got i modern army,„ Egypt got a police force, Russian plans for aggressivo expansion were checked, and the Union Jack was unfurled over the Sudan.

Fior

Val Baker, Assistant

MISS

RICHARDS HAS

TO SAY PLEASE........

Quartermaster-General ot the LA- you're 20 and B

London. Unlike France's literary prodigy who roams ITERARY success when freely about the world, Gillian Richards British Army, friend 01 the woman at that is as rare has to ask for permission to go from Oxford of Cambridge. (with whom ho as a Givenchy dress among for rehearsals of her play to London.

Prince of Wales and the Duke

was to have dined on the even the Eskimos.

ing

of

that unfortunate day),

was regarded as Britain's most English, one French-seem

promising soldier.

Two new prodigies in this field-one

by AMANDA MARSHALL

GILLIAN RICHARDS.

to me to raise interesting

A chauffeur is essentish.

He had passed brilliantly out of Sandhurst. In 1848. Joining

national differences and

love, naturally--and composed From the age of ten she wrote their work. Both write about]

Francoisu about some sentimental lyrics for Paris plays for home performance, love,

the

Quality Incomparable

Gordon's

Stands Sripreme

Sole Datributor: NODWELL & COMPANY LIMITED

M

16th February-8th March 1956

LEIPZIG FAIR

WITH TECHNICAL FAIR

55 Trade Groups covering 265.000 square metres of exhibition spaca în 15 Fair buildings, 19 Füir hálla and 15 pavilions.

For further Information apply to:

LEIPZIGER MESSEAMT POSTIACH 329

'To all who have flown with us in the past, and to all who will do so in 1956...

the 12th Lancers, he had fought parallels.

bravely in both the Kallir and

was.

your

academic

a

of unsanctifed among varying age. Gilliate about idealised

HONEST, MATURE

the Basuto Wars. He hud served *The first-Franco's pistol club She is in the best trail and settled for profesional variety that is strictly X-Alın, at involving a worldly setting, and in India, planted tea and, shot packing baby novelist Fran- tion of the world's most elegant playwriting as her ambition

A disciplined Q elephants in Ceylon, And he had coise Sagan, now 20, wrote capital

a Jaguar Jungle.

to study, turned

girl, she devotes term up

"Bonjour Tristesso at 18 when freebooter in a soul, this little the age of 10. the Crimea to wits in

groups. she sprang fully

Now take Miss Richards. A Sebastopol

armed into

gives two and a half hours each gr ness the siege of

Eventually

he had got his the batticfleld of best-selling level-eyed, dark-haired, soft day to her own writing in the love merval boy and giri

voiced girl with an appealing, vacations

only, and visits the who have dreamed of each other regiment, the 10th Lancers, and fiction.

willkirawn expression, she is second, Gillan Richards, withkira

about twice a week with all their lives, and are muddenly thentre In 14 years raised it to such The

he hitherto unknown, who lives in reading English at Oxford's most

second

undergradunto

nto her 17-year-old sister. efficiency and renown that

confronted by reality. known to his brother Ending, is 20, and has cracked the reading

Where Mademoiselle Sagan is women's an avowed jive speclaflat, “Misa - ofleers ne "Baker of the Tenth."

Somerville. She chose Richards loves Bach, but le not: Such was the man with the fortress of the Third Proscrummo

Oxford because her father, an to be broadcast with

• Overno-lo“ pópular misle pushe Francoiso's prosto in sophi and Professor of likes dancing entomologist

but in the dock at Croydon Assizes: Dorothy Putin in the lead.

13: Lankly ented, decopliyaly custai and heard 12-year-old Miss was written to went there.

Zoology at the Imperial College, bod at it Admires Shakespeare, astonishingly mature Dickinson

Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, give evidence, against draft, did in stically cart

tell youth v roce

Joht rogerths, when

Whiting,

metaphysical, persocial, Christopher Anoull and poetry had boarded the train at and was 18. Midhurston where the Mademoiselle: Bezirk hng: short

Ther Besh two verso plays sheTYCOLI Where Mackenboiselle Bazin bas abanicked, one on a (and is on her sectady, spooda freely though not classical third,

drooping moustache, who stood

him/

lived, and had a first-class come into the goods, truck full life of partment all to herself. At Jahú

Aldershot, she

Badge in ante

prposite

fr chatted with pe Stevenswell until a

WROTE AT TEN

visits unheralded, “2 about the

Tork and London, and Miss Richards ~ helch kompos

to ses fine cialty in Duimulching, the desdernié ?

Super authorly to permit Herto, vint

Bhay Ikaw four days off beper

of Shálcésonanodzi

for

A HAPPY

NEW YEAR

and best wishes for many pleasantijo

\KES-GOOD-CARE ON YOU

FLY BOAL

HEOVER

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