1956-05-19 — Page 6

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1956.

DON IDDON'S DIARY FOLLOWS THE FLAG

Now!-for the untold 'Inside Dope' The Gold Coast

being the vivid, exciting, and highly enter- taining professional autobiography of roving

reporter RENE MacCOLL, who draws on 20 years of news-gathering experience to tell now-for the first time-the "inside stuff,' the personal background to the major events of our lifetime. This story is (his phrase) "an off-beat one"... the one that furnished a strangely Ruritanian flavour to the newspapers Remember? of the darkening last days before the last war.

TO A ROYAL WEDDING

IN

A WAITER'S SUIT

N April 1938

went to

1

Albania

Lo cover the wed- ding of King Zog.

There was considerable

curiosity over the event

in Europe.

Zog, then 42.

handsome

WAN

FL

maa,

with

blue eyes, fair hair, and

small,

21

well-tended

father

moustache. His

had been hereditary chief of the Mati valley;

Zog got into

politics early

Albanian the in nineteen twenties, and

that did

well 1928 he WILS proclaimed king.

MO

by

ZOG'S QUEEN GERALDINE

and

specially built on to the side of tie Hiny palare ceremony.

4257 1471

Deadline & Dateline

RAN

for

the

uf bise

another gesture by you imply unt further lack of respect.

Tro

Down of the bottom engraved invitation my eyes fell unwelcome announce- ment. The wearing of evening dress for those Kiels teal in uniform is strictly enjoined."

the corridor

quiring

dress.

René MacColl

MAGCOLL

LA

had done my best to anchor it with airing tied round my waist.

Looking at myself with dis- taste in the ball mirror' of the now, I was reminded of a pro-· war team of French comedians. Une was very tall, the other ahort, and the tall one was al- ways bursting out of his clothes, In theso circumstances my appearance in the doorway to the palace annexo created

A

Steps Ahead

T

about this country

of strange

Accra, Gold Coast One of the intriguing things HE Follow-the-Flag enchantment is that litle stigma route now takes me attaches to people who havo to London, the been in gool "Prison graduate" heart and head of is a badgo of honour, and there outside sonsation. An instant hush fell, the Commonwealth which I pro said to be signa

tailors shops: "Trained in Her prison."

But and all eyes were turned incre- have been touring for the Majesty'a

I dulously on the figure of fantasy past six weeks.

haven't seen any. which I presented.

It has been an exciting The Governor and I had 1 journey-an inspiring one rowarding talic about the Gold

Const's future. in many ways,

My instinct was, naturally, to bolt up the central lano with all speed and bury myself in the anonymity of the Press accom- modation, which was arranged

on a low dals at the far end of the chamber.

But

Lost not move dared Any sudden or -considered year,

Here on the Gold Coast is a "We cannot and do not wish supreme example of British to dam the stream. The moro liberalism and progress. Within responsibility we give to the a fow months, certainly by nexi Africans the better, the more the Gold Coast will be mellow they become. This is a como Britain's first black right and honourable plun

run well, almost entirely by Negroes.

inove might well have provoked

of disintegra-Dominion, a country run, and which we have undertaken.

some fatal piece tion in my costumes.

IT

ELECTRIC SILENCE

to

ns

0

[13

"They are good, Bweet- They take their place proudly natured people, learning fast all British, ig Bl independent member of the time; but we, the the British Commonwealth, I will still, of course, be needed."

500 no danger of their wanting

to get out of the Empire. They want to stay in, but to run their own Affairs

the other Dominions run theirs.

il

He is popular

A

E Governor has devoted third of a century

.ol his to

fax serving the Alrica. When be first came to the Gold Coast there was tur-

moll

Now and he was booed. he la Intensely popular.

13 for wha

bold und

Bome-

The Gold Coast is achieving in a tow short years what other countries took decades to reach. life The eyes of all Africa are Cugat, the Gold happening 18 audacks experiment, thing Brat only the Briush would dare.

If the Gold Coast experiment succeeth--and the Prime Minis- ter, Kwame Nkrumah, is 'con- fident it will succeed-Uen

ali pattern has been set Africa,

for

He has done a magnificent job

the for Britain and for

Gold Coast by his gentle, subtle, and akilled handling of affairs.

I was therefore with an un- natural deliberation, a blend of an invalid setting out on his first uncertain viroli after severe illness and an oid man pacing along in funeral here indisputably was evening cor.ege, tas made my stately

progress up the aisle. petand

Nor could even attempt to The equivalent sition was proposter-

brazen i oul, with head uld sterling engineered the loan. (AIS And you what was I to do? stayed unt eksing time, and high. It was the obvious course

waiter lex me of prudence

keep my then the head

much to a fairly shoulders bowed betrind the series

where he possible, my chest well in, and noisome cubby-hole, took off the evening sui and my head pressed down into my could I hurried with neck. One deep breath Hak over

The my prize buck

hotel, have unshipped the "dicky. Alley

with

wedding water

guests, The other obtained difeulty, and did what I could therefore, had ever opportunity in the to remove

worst of the to take in my appearance

detail; stains,

and while there wus a My thoughts. is made for good deal of whispering in my the palaer

flacre, were wake, ahead of, and alongside enly hone too sanguine

me, my advent occasioned an electric silence.

it This,

said seems to me, much for the good manners of most of those present. But my for ensemble proved too much

very my colleagues of the Press, and

hove the near focus they Africa, in a country which is British and his grand plano is

with with burat

photographs of greeted me

80.8 percent Negro, the people cluttered

hands the Royal Family. This rift is laughter. It was with a sense of

clvck are pressing the that

best brai dangerous, but the retter unmeasurable

forward.

believe a solution will be found. Arally mounted the newspaper- men's dais and sought cover at the rear of the niggering group, waller, I had Thanks to the mado .

protemnent

Evening dress! with the wrong sort at clothes entirely. But surely I could not this in reporter be the only

1 walked alon of the intel, KETRON

BUTTIC

Heer was

E

despair.

301- of my

There simply hnd La In skittaran But the tiny wore 0121 with none 1 night. I WIN

That night was sit- lo atte ng defectedly

of the Albanoin restaurants,

when of wine at my side,

my gaze froze. For it came on 1134 that the head waiter was wear - ing evening dress.

#

in

it

to a

IL

in

It is not easy to convey the state

and Hi-grooming gentral disrepair of the wil he hard sink. 11 may well have had

carier duzen surface was a crusted mass slaine

French and other colleagues.

But they. Continentals man, had brought along evening

lails. dress either

white the While i was so engaged there

or tuxedo and white waistcoat

as a matter of course, fur suller cunse a peremptory knock. without a pause the door was formal attire for weddings

small hearty every European country nung open to reveal policeman dressed in deddy is indubitably evening drosa,

#

Having duly survived everklut years,

evident

consider

hanself

durable

ogc.

your-old Countess

Apponyi of Hungary.

A

to contemplate murri along the street. His choice fell on the 22- Geraldine lady

u armed withi for 10 became rifle

ixed bayonet, thut the king might seemed that 1 was under arrest.

out together went sulliciently We

He flowed the bayonet right behind me. pointing towards the studi my buck.

By-greet,

and

It

who proved, to the gratification

ol newspaper readers, tu be out-

slandingly good looking,

POSSESSOR

the vivacity

vď

At the police station luid that there were

W DA

SWALLOWING MY PRIDE

I do WHAT could

to avuld W

committing a sad solecisin? The idea of finding a Moss Bros. in Tirana was laughable.

There was only one thing to be done: swallow my pride and go to see the F.O. Press liaison official again to ask if he would

for

I witnesses and

ready to tesuty that I had help Lutsel charm

od to bring the king publicly Into ridicule a move offence. I had been observed on the street, another ubetting ading arki foreigner in taking photographs of the king'a picture. in close Juxtaposition to a beast of bur-

CUTAWAY ELEGANCE

the

stud

accoutrements

I which thus experime

my

for foreign jobs i tided for this "morning special occasion dress," je., culaway coat, stripes od Lc9HUTI double-breasted

black dawn wallcoat,

Blues. dour-in-tand the, and top hat.

After a good deal of argument sunted on being escorted to the Foreign Offer,

The Press liaison officer the Foreign Office received me

at

No doubt auch elegance, reflected, might seem

I

with marked coolness. He cut

ut

of

place in Tirana, but I owed it

me short in the middle

*Please protest.

of

arrange

L

burtא

stretched on my behalf.

to

bc

İLC

21

"Absolutely impossible!" "There

t must stopped. certain protocol ut a ceremony of such a nature. After all, Mr MacColl, you would expect visitors to London to conform such with British practice

Re- mubters, would you not? spect must be shown.*

1

of ex- I made the mistake my remember plaining that my morning dress

that you are not in London now would be just the thing on such

to my hosts to appear as fault- but in Albania." i made sume lessly garbed as "I would have rather stiff reply to that, done hud I been covering 21 went on la coinplain about my repeating similar even at home.

hotel accommodation,

On the afternoon of the first watch un 10 day I stopped Austrian photographer taking

picture of a peasant

obediently pused, photograph

21

who was

holding

out

white 1

with

owners

The silk facings on

one

of the lapels had been replaced and a pirce of ordinary, much lighter-coloured, cloth. A long tear on one of the wronger legs had been inexperlly sewn 1p

The glazed celluloid "dicky" which served the

D

STRING ROUND MY WAIST

question of THERE was

attempting to button up the cout; the trousers ended several

shins and

my loches up my wrists stuck out dolefully from

My Пту meagre sleeves.

al

teinpts at cleaning were reveal- d, in the dayligni, to have been o more than skelchily success- ful. 13 the

wearer us

a whirl-front was filthy.

One of the gravest problems butions were missing from

It sides of the coat cuffs. Perhaps was posed by the "dicky."

uf all, while am showed a nasty tendency to fly worst

and strike me the head walter up muddenly 6ft 3in. to,

although was quite a short maz But beneath the chin,

THE MAN

43

鹚

(COPYRIGHT)

More MacColl memories Next Saturday

WHO FOUND

HITLER ALIVE...

His name was Col. Lincoln

yet he did not

exist

By XAN FIELDING

THE

Di

was in

Pressing on

be

more

Relations between the Prime Minister and the Governor are excellent. However, relations between the Prime Minister and Asunlehene, King of Ashont, the land of the Golden Stool, uro bid.

JOTHING

could

There is a feud between the difererat

Prime Acera and brilliani, than

articulate Johannesburg. Some people in Malster and the King of the power in South Africa are try ancient land ing to force the hands of the in West clock back. Here,

White

What used to be the Man's Grave is now the black man's near-Utopia.

Thero la kotai racial segrega- On the tion in South Africa, Gold Const there is no segrega- tion whatsoever, except in the lonely citadel of the Acern Club, and that is tumbling.

Asantehene

We will remain

pro-

SAW some of the chiefs off for a trip to Britain and the United States. They wore their

They must be

The situation is complfentexi by a plebiscite which takes place in Beltish Togoland next when the people

I arrived here in the binding gold And purple robes like

of Roman togas. heat prepared for all sorts discomforts, and, although the handled with care.

political discomforts exist, the example is so shining you forget them.

because of our pro- Largely

altitude, our desire Wednesday, gressive that the Gold Coast achieve its wont to be integrated with the

In- Gold Coast or want separation. An ambition of becoming

of member

the dependent Commonwealth, there is almost no Communist movement here. Nkrumah says: "I am a Chris tian Marxist, a Socialist-not a Communist."

He also says: "We are free-

one from

im Ing ourselves perialism," making it clear he Is not going to become tied to the new imperialism of Soviet Russia.

They get along

It is taken as certain that Togoland will vote to join the Gold Coast and Prime Minister Nkrumah's power will be in- His demand for “in- creased. mediate

will independence" grow more shrill

Actually there's no need for shouting, The Gold Coast is petting its Independence and is getting it soon.

our

which in vocasion in London,

him and gave

the opportunity of his carlier remark and that I was in Albaniu now not London.

HE greatest, most intre- in a number of different places in April 1950, the bubble burst. "It seems that you DFC Over-

But we will remain. Our ex- Sulzberger, I ก that

its

He is a cham- Cypras simultaneously. I pointed

periance is needed and critical" he said sharply. "You

the pid operator in

daredevil the New York Times, Д mor-

marksın, pion

capital is neodeti. have been treated with con- general scheme formul

plot, un expert mountaineer, a Teheran and he picked up a clue

Volta River The ambitious sideration

regrettable int dress is not vastly dissimilar business of intelligence is a

The the in

fabulous Lincoln. driving a mule cart. The mati affair of your committal of from full evening dress. Could mysterious American whom wizard in codes and ciphers, and to the

Project, to produce aluminium, result was an article that an an Wo parted

I not perhaps borrow

without Radio Moscow calls "Colonel a man of a hundred facts. lese majeste."

But Lincoln's death, nounced

become reality cannot NOLOURED and white get along the British. of the king poised glacial terms.

In every respect Lincoln is the The day before ile?

I think Nirumat Lincoln."

He is it was not on the obituary page.magnißcently here: I have met knows it. With all his oratory on his mule's head, and study- the wedding the correspondents

right man for the job, He shook his head coldly.

a passion for And so, by one stroke of Not much is known about modest and has ing it with close attention.

tribal chlets, pollurians, scores and magnetism he is essentially received their official invitations

He is selfless and journalist's pen, the "You have already shown grave of punde

of Negro journalists, clerics, and Afterwards I walked back to on imposing pieces

intensely patriotic. He is daring Lincoln myth was exploded. unpack and attempt to hang up board edged with gold, I glanced disrespect to the person of his the man. He is said to be nonymity.

T. treated Robert

A bit of an anti-climax? Cer- businessmen, and they say: "We "Show Boy" not because he is the and rea Lincoln,

ourceful.

deserve our independence, but flamboyant but because he la on the single hook behind the casually at mine to verify what Majesty.

These the fenlently on that occasion. I do middle "T" standing for

particulars

the tainly, of wedding time bedroom

annexo

But no more so than the rest we know our debt to the British not intend to be any party to been

Throckmorton. He was born world's mastery-spy are revealed Linery,

in a new book, "War of Wits" of Mr Farago's revcialions. It and we won't forget it." I hope natives, their hope and loader.

they won't. in Slippery Rock, Arkansas,

by a distinguished international all very well to call these as he journalist, Ladislaw Farago. does in his sub-title="Secrets of handsome, smiling person. He But there is just one thing wrong Espionage strong with Colonel Robert Throck- They are, of cours

the kind. How morton Lincoln,

door

my

we had to bo which

at

had

TDC

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wero

on October 10, 1909. He used to be a rum-runner.

No superlative la enough to do justice to his skill, He has fought and won single- handed, in the mountains Persia against a whole army Soviet operators.

He does not exist,

of

of

and

whole

The West African is a happy,

loves to laugh.

learn

shrewd man. He is known as

the prizo

of possesion

Little tension

Tun

and

the

Intelligence."

nothing of

Here, in all the shops, restau- they be? rants and rickety hotel bars M.1.3 would soon have some

gulded the country, which is rich in thing to say about it if they and drinking places, white and NKRUMAH has were. And no publisher, I coloured mix freely. America's

Deep South would be in fury, minerals, carefully, Ho hus He was conjured up over an imagine, would so blatantly defy Perhaps they can both

Been to it that the women, the from the Gold Coast. The ro- mammy traders, the murkos He has penetrated to Atom- after-dinner drink one night in the Official Secrete Act,

by back to Colonel

any maanmics who le astonishing "hidden"

But to get the

Russian Teheran by Ambassador John

the retall grad,

business here

sometimes Wiley and his political officer, Lincoln. It seems that the Sulz- atomic elty, and returned with a

Gerald Docher. It was 1948 and berger scoop did not kill him off Dr Nkrumah must take much profileer outrageously have not complete hydrogen bomb.

man, een allenated. He has calmed unruly tribes the two men were listening to altogether. For he still turns up of the credit. Here is

They were from time to time on Hadlo London and American educated, There is little tension here, in Afghanistan, and on a Paci- the Moscow radio. fe island ho

"once durmed a suddenly redugovlet tale about Me story, which with character who was noted them each countie the big politieal develo

Minister of a British ments. The Coast, assisted band

of Japanese conspirators

when and guided by Britain, steps Times glory was only released Empire country in 1949 who were plotting the assassina- a

a ubiquitous American agent. tion of General Douglas Mac- They decided to put their heads so as to camouflage the fact that he was in gaol, serving a sen- forward confidently towards in-

le allve and as active fence for sedition.

the Com- and accommodate the Linco Arthur.

dependence within Rob Lincoln was the us ever.

The Governor-then, as now, monwealth, towards the stolus He also discovered Hitler

perhaps the legend is not Sir Charles Noble Arden Clarke of the first black Dominion of Alive in a cove in Patagonia product of this whimsical con-

after all. such an anti-climax some time after the world was spiracy

and Nkrumah took over as This is a magnificent British satisfied that the dictator was no

African achievement longer living.

was suddenly everywhere to And so in a way do Mr Farago's Chief Minister of his Conven- and

tion People's Party. He has and the whole world wonders. Lincoln is known by a score the bewilerment and dismay of disclosures.

been in charge ever since.

- (COPYRIONT) of allases and is frequently seen the Moscow propagandists. Then,

by a

tic

Lincoln

Cong from-mowktre, Lincoln At least it still serves a purpose. hing, the polls, released the Empire,

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN

(COPYRIGHT)

By Lee Falk and Phil Davis

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