1956-10-27 — Page 7

Cummings

SELWYN LLOYD

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1956.

Letter to a

Mellow 'Cello

OR

New York Babylon on the Hudson springs

some years after to mind.

an

the last War most And New York 13 people in Britain exhilarating place, especially thought of New York as a now in the "fall." I always walk faster when I'm here, and sort of paradise.

seem to think faster too.

The leansing laws are zen

from the deep freeze bearing a

While we all groaned under rationing and Aus- sible-bers open at ten in the characteristically chemical faint, terity we heard glorious morning and stay open until travellers' tales about the four the following morning. and Transatlantic stenks nylons and huge dazzling

cars.

But all that is no longer valid -not a bit. And after spending most of the past three months here in New York I say unhesi- tatingly that for me London in 1950 is a far nicer place to live,

Babylon.

ONDON is a mellow 'cello -

New York, a slide trombone,

London has a soft glow-New York a bright glare.

The other night was dining with

Americ friend at But ch, the people here! what Wax once a very good New Yorkers are notorious for German restaurant (now il 18 their ill manners all over the bedlam, with all its former

standards on the junk heap). United States.

The bus drivers have built-in My friend paid a whopping marls. If you say "Thank you" great bill for our party of six to anyone they look at you and tipped the waiter six sharply to see if you are kidding dollars

them.

And the other day, when I was seeing off a Boston pub- lisher of Grand Centrai Station, he said, "I dread having any thing to do with these redcope (porters)

"They are always 30 sullen and surly-what a contrast with But first let me at some of those pleasant porters you have the virtues of New York,

In

hos

IL muny Ways beauty, especially at dawn. Then, when the October sunshine fashes off the myriad windows

of

But, above all, Heaven preserve me from my friends!"

Q.

over in London,"

The mobs

The man look it with #sucer und made off in silence.

מהען

Later 1 asked the host why

he "Oh,"

sald this resignedly, "If you don't "tip to the nearest 10 dollars' in these places nowadays they think you are a chropskuter"

New York's subway (under- ground railway) is a disgrace to great eity. It is intolerably filthy and thick with litter,

Moreover, IL

A pretty

the soaring buildings, H never quite rid yourself of find

HERE in New York you can dangerous place in which to yourself, especially at Henry's phrase about

the authorities are the feeling that Someone Is night, and breathing down your neck at stepping up their war on the thugs and hoodlums who infest it.

By SIR BEVERLEY BAXTER, MP

WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN YOU INNOCENTLY ACCEPT A DINNER INVITATION

Tall started with

that he

bad

small

When. London

however, the Mirror and

is to be myself. Brin on

governed by crock of a whip. Troops were It called up..and there were open Canal erupted the Almost a Suez

without exception Parliament or by the Press.

is my sincere belief that in prepration for miliary inter- dinner. Hugh Daily Mirror began a cam- they were antagonistic to attacking and ridiculing the ventici And almost at once of came the biccting of the sheep: Cudlipp. editor-hi - palgn of attrition against the Mirror.

Prime Minister in the hour chief of the four- the Government, and parti-

international crisis, the Mirror complainin

threatened war over a purely tabloid, cularly Sir Anthony

Two days later, Cassandra sustains our enemies, chills our Eden. million-ciretalation

# action by Under Friends, and weakens both the legalistic Daily Mirror, had invited Its brilliant columnist, who was put in to bat.

and the spirit of

the country. de the heading. The Mirror unity Bome 40 guesta to the writes under the nom Dorchester in honour of Sam plume of Cassandra, ridi- and Sir B." he procceded to Goldwyn of Hollywood, who culed Eden day after day pay, me one kludly compli

I is the Gin MGM,

mocking him. pitying him, ment after another, but

knew that tough things scourging him.

were coming.

Hugh Gaitskell, the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition, looking like David Copperfield than over, was also there.

118

nation..

LK

h

an

For

ot

guk;

every turn.

The town is hopelessly, fan- tastically overcrowded-especial- ly now. Just ufter the World Serles baseball games. Every-

Struggles

where you an you find yourself I HAD always heard it said

in a mob scene.

The airports seem to be in a state of permanent slege, with what seems to be the entire population of Puerto Rico airly Ing every other day to help swell the congestion up in Harlem.

that a man can lie in the mircels of New York and never And

Good Samaritan among the passers-by---but I had taken it with a grain of salt.

man

But true enough, it secins. The other night, in Park Avenue of all places, i saw an elderly

fall to

and the ground struggle feebly but unavailingly to get

while again, up pedestrians and a young cop on nirame duty shunned him.

Restaurants and baca are thick with people at all hours standing in line for tables and obsequiously trying to get the right side of harassed and contemptuous head waiters.

I myself consider that New York food is very bad, both in itzelt and in the way that it is cooked and thrown at you.

A really good piece of meat is practically unobtainable but you can get a slab of tasteless tough stuff which overflows the plute and is labelled steak you have seven or eight doliers

on you.

if

In fact, I have no doubt that Mirror the outpourings of the may have Inspired the Socialist

Eden may or may not have MP, Mr R.T. Pagel, to rise in been right. But he is an expert the House of Commons and say: on Middle East affairs. And it

The vegetables taste of Therefore at the Dor-

"Sir Anthany Eden is like 1 Is Interesting to recall that, when nothing and the prawns emerge banona, yellow outside but even he was an more chester dinner party I told

undergraduate Cudlipp that, in my opinion,

deeper yellow inside." In Oxford, he look First Cines fairness, even bis compatriots on Honours in Oriental languages. he had gone beyond the

By taking extracts from the benches looked embarrassed. It was almost as if he foresaw

his own future. When the lads left us, limits of responsible jour-

written by mo

Fortunately, Anthony Eden Hugh Cudlip uta! I turned nalism, and that instead of articles

intestinal toughness Ho know that if Nasser

Live next to the subject of the Suez injuring the Government he during the rise of Hiller, he Canal with both of was striking at the nation gave the impression that I which is oddly out of keeping away with his coup,

hnd been a dupe of the with the elegance and suavity of step would be the nationalisation Arob of the oil wells by the speaking

ur minds in itself,

years Lord Nazis right up to the out- his extentor

Beaverbrok's newspapers states. And for some years yet, language which left no He listened without A break of war. It seems doubt of what we meant.

now they are his staunchest British Empire. word of protest, and when that in 1938 I wrote: "Con powded him without mercy, but oil is the very lifeblood of the

The voices that had had finished he said: fience is replacing fear." "A supporters. Nor is that Cudlipp

jeered M 10 brilliant I

his weeknear Chamberlain for of Hitler's capacity sarily a matter of reproach. journalist

news- "Since you feel so strongly man and his

Lukes dismissed as

courage for a newspaper now jeared Eden for acting paper, despite its brussiness about it I will make you cannot be

to reverse its policy.

with strength. offer.

A n gangster." (or because of it) exerts a

I will give you crook or

The Daily Telegraph, of influence

front page

the month later it seems that I

By the time these words ap- powerful

upon the public opinion. For example, Mirror to attuck us in any wrote: "Who doubts that appeals to much the same pub- pear in print we may no longer The Times, has also be seeing through a glass darkly, the morning of the terms you wish. We the heart of Hitler will be le as

Its attitude to Eden. but what I changed

am trying to convey cut A General Election of 1950, it will not

single warmed and will replace the Last Winter it hit him very to you is the almost unbearable crude anger and bombast of hard, but now it is on his side. strain which democracy places came out with a front page_word."

upon the shoulders of its elected cartoon of a hand holding a

Nuremberg 7"

lenders. pointed pistol. The caption in huge letters was: "Whose finger on the trigger 7"

un

£

But, according to Cassan- dra, I came to doubt my own In a lifetime of journal- admixture of sweet glue It could only have

one ism, this was really some and suddenly described "the meaning. The finger on the thing new. Inevitably nows warm-hearted Adult" as "an trigger was that of Winston papers publish letters that international blackguard: a Churchill. No one doubted attack their policy or con- blackguard worse than any that this infamous cartoon temts, but

al- Chicago are Conservatives cost the

a ways other letters balanc- dreamed of." victory at the polls.

for

Churchill successfuly sued

libel. The case

Was

there

ing them, and, of course, No exception could be taken

there iA the editorial

to this on my part. It is true column in which the editor that the extracts were divorced can argue his case in de- from their context, but that has fence.

always been regarded as fair in dobate or controversy,

With this in mind, I

neces

which

the

There is no democracy in Egypt just as there was none in Eden believed No one will deny that the Nazi Germany,

js the that the only way to deal with dictator is to be tough. It is freedom of the Press very basis of democracy, but freedom demands responsiblity, good to know the Churchported

hind the scenes, It is absolutely right that the him loyally. Government and Parliament it- gangsters even self should come under constant

criticism of the Press, but not to the extent that it weakens them as en estate of the realms.

So we come back to the Press. Stanley Baldwin was so em- In my Daily Mirror article I

newspaper ended with these words: bittered by hostile campaigns that he declared from

"My purpose is not to defend a publie platform that some

has like Sir Anthony-although he British newspapers wero

my complete loyalty but to the harlot

"exerting pay Nor did I quarrel with his the

lovel this charge against settled out of court and the agreed to the proposition on final broadside; "Str Beverley without responsibility,

Daily Mirror: that in attacking Daily Mirror paid Church- the condition that there has brought his & paying pre taking warlike measures against it is unintentionally strengthen- Eden is being denounced for the Prime Minister in such terms of would be no editorial com- science and his horrifying pre- the Pinchbeck Dictator of Egypt, ing the hands of Nasser and all ill's costs plus a Bum

Churchill ment on my article

to in monition, which is accurate money to the

but it is nothing to the pounding who look upon this country with Homes for Elderly People, the actual issue in which it the nearest 180 degrees, to bear he would have received If t10

distrust, or envy. The Mirror also published appeared. And thus it was upon the Suez Canal problem. had failed to do so,

We are kind enough not to

"From the days when "Eden an apology. A year later agreed.

: credit our old friend with being

When Chamberlain came back, avon the Millary, Croa there was another General

from Munich. in 1939. great wrance he has served his country. Hugh Cudlipp meticulous- more than 100 percent wrong. Election which the Tories,

crowds cheered him from the and civilisation with a courage aerodrome to Downing Street, and tenacity that brought hope won. The Mirror did not ly carried out the agred- ment. In its own pages 1

and late, into the night. But to millions of people who lived repent the slander.

accused the Mirror of sus

within a few days he was" do- in darkness. and In fairness, the Mirror is taining our enemies

Pretty rough, you will agree, nounced as a poltroon and

"The Daily Mirror, in attack. of Our friends but quite, within the Queens Coward. The humiliation not strictly a party news- discouraging

the and, in the process, lower berry rules, Nor did 11 ditmay Munich was not to be denied, Ing and ridiculing him at such a but Chamberlain bought time for moment, has been unworthy of paper. It supports.

own spirited | tradition, of Socialista, but does not ing the standards of British me unduly I have been tough- Britains to put into the air the ite hesitate to castigate them journalism. Then with auch ment, 31 Years in Parliamen de 1543 won the Batle of liveliness and loyalty

Britain and, to put in to the soon

the matter resta, but it walent a Navy, that kept =-the- on occasion. On other vitriol as was I dealt hand, it opposes the Tories, with Cassandra, the column- But the issue raised, by the open from the beginning to' 19 shows that can happen whén you but does not withhold praise ist of the newspaper, allora antice of the Daily end of om sware Ver

The TeaLK When more contráventay, #Padletters #gpoured in on the "matter, before: us la whether, Canal, Bouw repky na dikke, the

1.

innocently accopt an invitacions 4o, dine with Mr. Bam, Goldwyn

when it is in a benevolent During the next 48 houry Mirror in much bigger than menganggo kang matanda, the gun of Hollywood. “W

mood.

LIMASESTI THE ORLES

BLACK&

WHIT

AUCHANAN

WHp

I hurried over and helped him At this the cop belatedly Up.

"Whatsmatter?" came over 100,

to

he rasped, then added accusingly

the luckless and oldster: "You oughta be careful."

shaken more

Ah well. It will be very pleasant to get back to the good old mellow cello one of these days,

So remember me to London.

RENE MacCOLL

-Page 7

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