1955-12-31 — Page 6

"Page

/ THE "CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1955.

INSIDE STORY OF THE WORLD'S STRANGEST SECRET SOCIETY

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254 QUEEN'S RD. HONG HONG

C

TEL: 2709)

CABLE 0170

FROM

T is 8.30 on & cold

black morning. In a suburban villa businessman's

♫

home

the telephone shrills. It

Is a bedside telephone. It han to be.

Peers.

barristers,

DISASTER

တန်းခန်းမ၌

By Terence Feely

solicitors, in his bloodstream was nudging porters, dockers, clerks, house- his sanity, wives. Thirty percent ого

other by

An arm reaches out from women, the bedclothes. "Hello?" A They know cach broken voice at the other sight and by first name only. end babbles erratic, crazy For of all secret societies this is half-sentences. The man in bed-instantly alert-cuts Them short:

"Hold on, old man, I'm on my way round. Be with you In 20 minutes. For God's sake don't touch the stuff till I get there."

The most secret.

by

All are alcoholics. Most have been given up as hopeles the medical

profession. Many have lost a great deal-like the one-time Lloyd's underwriter I spoke to.

Drink cost him two wives, two homes, £60,000 and almost his life, before he found AA, The man is climbing out The voice on the other end of bed now, He gropes for of the telephone was that of an his skippers. He keeps the holic. He was in the grip of

the terrible tearing bogey phone to his ear, keeps on haunts the small hours of The The insune craving, talking: "Put the bottle alcoholic.

Inalde... for hbs away Bonowhere. Don't clawing even look at it.

Just fight it till I got there..."

Alcohol.

at

Inst

"So much so." he told me, "that

when I was pulled up once for erratic driving I escaped a "drunk driving" charge by convincing the police I was per- feelly sober.

Again and again his perpetual alcoholle twilight would

be ripped by

drinking storms, lasting days, sometimes weeks.

savage

my sober "During one of spells I got my doctor's degree; during another I set

I got practice; during a third married,'

UD

But up to now the sober spell has always ended with the tak ing of just one small drink-a single shot of whisky in a glass of milk, for instance, And he has come to himself days, often a week, later in a cheap hotel

room.

With no recollection of where he has been, what he has done, how he has financed his "blind" or what his frantic wife is And with queer little doing. B

creatures peering and squeaking at him out of the wall.

Alwayn he wanted 40 stop. But he was helpless. Literally.

He didn't know it then but, of the World in the opinion Health Organisation, he was on helpless to stop drinking as consumptive is helpless to stop having TB.

ન

on

medical

opinion

For world now believes that alcoholism is discase. A diseas which means that slcohol has a pocu- har effect

certain people, setting up an irresistible craving for more.

disease

which against drugs, doctors, paychiatrists and the church seem to be largely But against which Impotent. Alcoholics Anonymous hus μ Dire and family have failed to phenomenal record of success, Drd and destroy the bottle they know he has hidden somewhere.

EURGENCY

Now the mun has pulled On his

his trousers over pyjamas. His wife grumbles drowsily: "D'you have to Ko?"

ESPITE all their efforts, his

A

PURGATORY

M

SO THIS IS. THE LAW!

By MICHAEL SUTTON:

AN is a law-making difference is. No one will be

creature and, quite able to tell you. rightly, is proud of

Yet, there is one type of

the legislation that has been

enacted, and which, on the public lottery that is legal. whole, has led to more ra- Art Unions-that is, co- his own symptons in the man's tional, civilised societies. cperative organisations for story, to an all-important point Yet, man in most countries huving portraits and other in his treatment-the confession to himself that he must be an are so busy making laws works of art are allowed that they often forget to re- to run rafflea. Again, don't alcoholic, too.

ones. ank why. peal the outdated There is no other known way Many of these anachronistic of getting him

lawa would lead to chaos if fact.

they were enforced. So curious is the mind of a that he will drinking alcoholle not even take the word of a

to admit that

medical specialist that he is sut fering from alcoholism,

As Brown listens, the con- vlotion is gradually borne hard down upon him that this man knows what he's talking about.

He has forgotten about the bottle. The sharp edge of his desire has blunted As Smith knew it would.

The electric effect of this kind of experience is best described in the words of a man who has been through it:

Pin-tables are also illegal in Britain, yet, there are hundreds of thousands of

BO

There is also another set these all over the country. of laws that most people They are illegal in terms of know are stupid, and yet, in a very old law, and the fine one is 40 spite of this, they are for playing on

The authorities allowed to stand in the shillings.

evidently don't think it statuto books untouched.

worth while to invoke Britain has many laws of ancient a law. But why does on the statuto both varieties. For example, it remain if the laws relating to books? Sundays were to be rigidly enforced, industry, would be

to brought

standstill, there would be no amuse-

and ments

no large-scale

"Hero was this nicely sport. dressed, healthy, prosperous looking—and he was telling me

knew he was

he had been further down in the mud than WES.

He knew telling the truth. things which only an alcoholic

could know.

LL he knows is that he is in A purgatory-physically and mentally-and that he will never drink again. But always he does. Sometimes only half an hour later: "The hair of the dog. . . ."

He has tried specialist friends, A RELIEF paychiatrists, hospitals. All use-

Success with

190 nearly percent of cases taken in hand on estimated success -against Now he has removed it from of two or three percent schleved its hiding place the lavatory by nil other methods. And

Fondling it without

mechanical druga UT crazily.

aids of any kind.

He pauses for a second 10 look down at his wife. Gently cistern-and

he aska: "Would you really want me not to?" Then he goes out and kicks up the frosty engine of his car.

EA PRAYER

A

She shuts the front door a decorative wooxien plaque swings in the hull, It reads:

"God grant me the serenity to accept those things I cannot change, the courage to change those things i can, and the wisdom to

the difference."

That

is The

know

prayer

He is a doctor ... why can- not aid himself.

The man now speeding 10- wards him knows the urgency of his mission.

He has not touched a drink for two and a half years. But he is still an alcoholle himself.

He knows that if he downed just one small sherry tomorrow he would trigger off Liquor debauch that would terrify the average "heavy drinker who is not an alcoholic.

Alcoholics Anonymous he knows

SPONSOR

AND

Icas

the

Now he knows he is on last straight_ in the alcoholic's death race, Up ahead, not many years away, les the finishing post-Insanity and death.

He has joined AA. They have talked to him, explained their programme, given him Smith to look after him. He has been it achieves

one "dry" for a week. I on busle proposition: that an

hos Now his first real test

he led come. alcoholic can only be helped by

The sedative Brother alcoholic,

himself

at up with

bedtime Smith,

the has worn off and he is awake. driving through night in his car, knows this. He

Awake with every nerve was saved by other alcoholics screaming, his pyjamas soaised basically by tolk. companion-

with the racing sweat ship and advice arising out

every alcoholic knows. Awake with a bitter experience,

bottle in his hands.

of

Which is why he cannot re- Iuse his help now. And why his wife would not really want him

Bul with the help of of he will not have that drink. Not

next 24 hours, anyway. to. one of in the

That is as far as he allows him- self to look ahead.

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow never

"But today AA comes.

"Today has taught him to say:

To 1 will not take a drink. morrow I'll worry about when

Alcoholics Anonymous. the nost remarkable secret scretles In the world today. This man is a member, just une of 250,000.

minent Members of Parliament.

comes."

Britain's share is 5,000, scat- tored in 60 groups in England. Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

They include several pro- All he and his fellow sufferers could hope for before they Joined AA was n life of pro- crazier drinking, gressively leading finally to insanity ar unpleasant death. AA saved them.

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But

It

has not cured

ΟΣ has

them.

That is why he offered to not as guardian angel to the new comer, told him to ring him up any hour of the day or night when he felt he needed help.

His appointment as "sponsor" perfectly to the new man was Informal, as are all the workings of AA.

Someone did it for him when he joined, and he has oflen dona

Which it for others since.

Is why he keeps a bedside tele- phone.

He knows he is exactly one drink away from another gigan-

tic bender, He knows no one has ever been able to talk him out of that first drink before. But he has heard there is something different about în AA mon.

Most British doctors don't know it, but there is a law still standing in the statute As the law stands, no books that allows anyone, no engine-driver is allowed to matter what their qualifica- drive his train on a Sunday; tions, to set up a practice to yet he can act in any other cure diseases. The Act was capacity on the railways! A intended an o rebuff to the milkman is not allowed to

Company and Fellowship of deliver milk; yet he can take Surgeons who, centuries ago, the place of the man

though unskilled in matters was obvious he had got drives his cart, while the of curing diseases, took large "IT

something that had beaten driver would be allowed to fees from the public for alcohol out of sight. I wanted deliver the milk.

curing them and, further- to know what it was."

more, persecuted herbalists It is at this

to take point that the

who dared

away drinker will start talking about

some of their market. The himself and his own problem:

"The man had told me he was an alcoholic.

who

"

The laws relating to what law decrees "that persons can be sold on a Sunday are being no cunning surgeons also a hotch-potch of non- may minister medicines out- "The symptoms he described sense. For example, if a ward." were so like mine that I couldn't woman wishes to buy tooth- escape the conclusion that I was

Sunday trading laws in an alcoholic too, that I had the paste, she is quite legally Britain are, as already men- But if tioned, chaotic. A person

discose.

0

"In admission relled to me.

entitled to do so. she wants to buy a tooth-

queer Way that

a

Бем

Brown has reached that point. And his helper starts to describe how he himself got better.

сал

prove

tremendous brush, she is infringing the who keeps a general store muy sell certain classes of 1 felt I was be-law unless she ginning to understand something that her need for it is Bur- goods in parts of his store all day on Sunday; some about my problem. I asked

gical in character! h'm to tell me more about

goods can only be sold for a alcoholism."

As many people know, the limited number of hours; English are great lovers of and others in other parts not fish and chips, which

are at all, almost the staple diet of

Children, at a seaside re- them. Not un- "I recognised that because of many of

sort, are allowed to buy my dacase, drink had got me naturally, therefore, they toys; bathers can buy swim- licked, that by myself I was like to buy readily-cooked helpless against it. I accepted that only a Higher Power could fish and chips on a Sunday he prays that he may come soon. help me..........”

They are allowed to do this. Smith, the man he has

But the trader who is sell phoned, is coming up the stairs

The pale wash of dawn is an ing these foodstuffs can only now. What will he do?

the streets as Smith prepares to do so if they have not been the fascination leave. will he defeat

But before he goes ho that beckoning

bottle has for has one last thing to do.

cooked in his own shop!

has With fluttering hands he dialled the number of his guar- dian angel. Cradling the bottle

What is more, Smith knows Brown?

There is no cure. They are all that in some strange way, help-

M.P. or fish porter. Peer or labourer-just one drink oway from disaster.

That holds good whether they or have been sober ten weeks ten years.

ing other drunks makes

easier for him to stay sober. It two thinGS

How

suits and bathing caps; post- cards and film for cameras

can also be bought. But just

let a trader try to sell a loaf

of bread after ten o'clock in the morning and he'll be treated like a criminal! With Mrs Brown's permission Other laws are quite

Wine is an expensive.com- he goes over the house, rooting hypocritical. The most modity in Britain, and Britishers out and destroying alcohol.

notorious of these are the returning from holidays In Ho Recla pretty

confident British lottery laws. Such countries where it is cheap are

allowed to bring in only Brown will be safe for what is LTE will do nothing sensational HE

If you

there you left of the night. But there is lotteries are quite definitely bottle free of import tax. Wero would see no melodramatics. He no point in caving temptation illegal. It is illegal to run there is a certain law

a raffle in aid of a children's still applies to the Navy, that set out, quietly to in his way, will simply

attention from draw Brown's

outing, just as it is unlawful many members of that organisa→

tion probably don't know. dog the bottle and rivet it to himself.

to back a horse or a He I have

WAY OUT has two things to help

has been proved that when alcoholle ceases to help others,

sliding.

he is in the gravest danger of self-multiplying "help" is one of the greatest strengths of the organisation,

This Only with the help of AA they do not take that drink.

EA DAZE

HE man now racing down the T

dark night roads to the aid of that desperate

Voice on the telephone-lot us meet him. Let us call him Smith.

busi-

Smith is a prominent nesaman. Two and a half years ago he was nearly bankrupt, had driven his wife away and was virtually insane. He had been a practising alcoholic for

years.

15

"During that time," he told

The man he is speeding to let us call him Brown. said he is a doctor.

Listen to Brown's story as I heard it.

"I started drinking at univer- sity, found I could hold it better than my friends. I was elected president of a drinking society.

me, "I went on business trips to JITTERS

South Africa twice, and repeat- edly toured Europe.

"When I came back I could not remember one single dotall of anything I had done.

"WAS a beer drinker.

But

beer lost the kick necessary

him. In the first place he can talk Brown's kind of language,

with a street bookmaker.

ITIS

It's also illegal to play

about the only thing Brown is experience tells him where gambling games in a bar, or

interested

In-violent drinking

in all its aspects.

And in the second place, like all arrested alcoholles he has the "gift of the gab."

this:

I

He

to look for liquor. looks under the mattress, in the to publish football, coupons

behind in a newspaper. bowl, lampshade pictures.

ono

But

which

898

High-ranking members can bring in Enormous quantities free of Import tax. Thus, ad- mirals, under the Customs Act "For three years my drinking

He looks for small bottles in

of 1870, may bring in no less was legendary. I did not appear In all my investigations

vice- than 1,200 gallons, A Brown's gloves, in the wardrobe. to pay too great a penalty. rarely met an ex-drinker who He looks among the coal in the

admiral can bring In 2,050 True, I Wis geiling the could not charm the bottles

He looks for bottles But, as everyone, repeat gallons a year; a rear-admiral, litters when I got up in the

gallons:

680 from the shelves with his talk, caller.

captains, stuck with adhesive tape to the morning, but the hair of the

One man put it to me like bottoms of armchairs and sofas everyone, knows, British 840 dog' soon put that right.

"There's a sense of re-

people back some £400,000,- gallons.

Hundreds of thowands od He sniffs the vases to find it, 000 a year on horse racing lease and a self-respect that comes when you've licked your perhaps, the flowers are existing alone. This is done quite pounds are lost every year

It seems to fill on a diet of alcohol. This is a

needy charities because own problem.

He legally either by wagers stupid laws relating to Sunday you with

Icerned. the right words, trick he has

racetrack or entertainment in Britain. With especially when you're out to unscrews Brown's hot water made on the help someone else."

bottle and tests the contents. by credit backing. Apart but few exceptions, no publie to stien my spine the morning Smith tries out a simple

Finally, incredible as it may from this, another £125,- entertainment, to which people

Admitted are He tells the story sound, he sniffs

on payment, technique.

may the water in 000,000 is backed on dog- take

place after, and I started on spirits.

unless the local his Own lurid past.

give their consent. "The litters got worse. Com- of

teeth on the bedside table. He ing up to my final exam in my "I remember a 'bender I went which Brown has left his false racing, while more than authorities fifth year. I went on a spree on in 1950...." He paints has found the water, before to £70,000,000 is gambled on And they can only give

He

mission to the most sombro the football pools.

and uninteresting entertainments which lasted two days."

In the examination room his describes his own rake-hell ride day, to be gin.

that just won't bring in the to disaster. hands were shaking so much he

It shows Brown that he is not could not write. He sat on them

unique

that the man he is

The authorities

only to keep them still-and handed dng to has been in the same better than he has done for a bling are illegal! It's no

to sanction a "musical entertain- in three blank papers,

rather, Britain shake their heads ment" defined as a concert con- This was the beginning of 17 hopeless mess. It starts him long time. He la lunching with wonder that visitors "Some things from the past I

years of insane drinking, with thinking "Well, if he could get Can dimly remember. I can one or two periods of sobriety. bottor, se can 1.". remember getting up at my These usually followed bouts

Ono mono important point, table in fashionable restaurants which had led to complete

The man has told him “I myself screaming stupid songs.”

And this an alcoholic." To onlookers, his behaviour physical collapse and a "drying

coaxes Brown, as he recognises was extraordinary, Ho did not out" process in a sanatorium, appear to be drunk. Like many alcoholics. he kept himself perpetually topped. up drink. He looked most normal only when the amount of liquor

to

continual

"I couldn't even remember how had got from place place.

in a I myns alcoholle daze.

"Now, when I go to places I have been to many times in the past, it is as if I were there for

For even the first time.

now, those years are largely a com- plete blank.

$5.

with

1955 GILES ANNUAL

stock will be limited..

Bookings accepted at

SOUTH "CHINA MORNING POST-LID="MONG-KONG B÷KOWLOON:

his own past viciousness.

EXITI

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN

BUT, CHIEF, YOU WERE HERE

TALKED

FIFTEEN MINUTES TO YOU?

OF COURSES

I SAW HIGGINS

GO OUT: WITH YOU,

CHIEF!

I WASN'T HERE

BEFORE I SAID 10 BE HERE AT ELEVEN. IT IS ELEVEN.

COULD THAT HAVE BEEN THE

GUAY CAMEL=~ DISGUISED AS

As Smith drives away, Brown softice down to deep. He fetis

Brith tomorrow-or, today.

Yet, lotteries and gam- public.

Can

per

01

He has got one foot on the and wonder what it's all misting of the performance road that leads out of his about, There is a legal and use with or without singing

or recitation. No make-up forment.

an illegal way of betting. scenary is allowed. Don't ask what the real

(COPYRIGHT)

MAYBE-- BUT WHY NARIDA STILL HAS HER JEWELS****

(COPYRIGHT)

By Lee Falk and Phli Davis

I'LL SEARCH THE GROUNDS--MAYBE. ∙∙HE'E, STILL

ABOUT!

MANDRAKE--THIS NECKLACE-SEEMS ODD. THIS ISN'T-- *MINE-

TALK

ABOUT MAGICASA

Have you seen

Admiral