1957-02-18 — Page 4

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Page.

THE CHINA MAIL,

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, · 1957.

I

H

ON AN ISLAND IN THE SUN

I FELT A CHILL

IN

MY

PALERMO (Sicily).

ERD by the warm shores of Sicily I feel a little

chilled at heart this week-end.

HEART

--for there, where one man

in three can find no work, I found the truth about the threat to our prosperity

by Robert Pitman

For here in this place of beauty, where Vistavision mountains plunge into a Technicolour seu, where orange trees glisten in the daytime and fishing boats are painted in Van Gogh shades, I have come face to face with one of the most disturbing facts in British political life todny. lie und hig family have I have seen the people who nay make grim nonsense out of hern Hving in that dreadful Mr Macmilin's determination room for 17 years, and in row

squilid row us into Europe's new after

of mud to jerk

streets and kny, crumbling Canton Market.

tho Italian homes it is the same with all

10 mirant almost AS A The workless in Partinico,

hast. Ite was explaining to is the same here in me why Sicily is no wonder Palermo to The tourist is fully ripe for development, but shown the picture-postcard I could not help reflecting that រ I had seen the statistics,

He is shown the with our population this would had seen the sad, realistic films waterfront,

and the giant post mean nen"ly 7,090,000 unemploy - abonet Italian shuns featuring cathedrals

oflee whits Mussolini bullt. ed or under-employed in British Magnani

Lollobrigida or

But now I He is not shown the tiny alleys terms glamorous latters. have seen the real thing, and in them, alleys which are more sordid even than any Arab has no glamour at all.

quarter I have seen.

have

unemployed.

Before i came to Palermo 1 thought I I knew all about up- employment in Italy.

ROMANTIC-BUT....

173

Fo 15

kit

shown the Incredible, aty-like huts which The workless squallors of NOME with me out into the Palermo have bullt for them- C coatry behind Palermo, entre le

The road twists wildly up and down the stiles of the valloys, We pass loaded mules; we pass hedges of cactus, We pass the #rent tomb of the bandit Giuliano high up above the sea

In a little hillside cemetery. 11 all very romantle,

Then

country

the

But it will be said; bus all

You could noty To Britasty?

unemployment in

Sletly now produces cement. It will soon have an electronics industry.

Palermo Ilself hos a gear-

factory atisl making

two

alton mills.

The wages for adult wometi in those mills; from 1d, an hour for ordinary nilikhands to

ever bring dulo queues 18. 40. for the highly skilled.

Aurs

Stelians The jobles THIly Farmworkers, They do not compete with our factories. Could they ever, even with the feve-Trodiag Common Market, bring distress to us too?

"What

Such Qis to do with us? What does li this poverty under the Mediterranean sun

mean for Brition?”

Now that our Empire trade

rome WE

wall is being to

broken down, A EL Sown of Partinico, means a lul.

means that the romanco

Inėse – wretched peuple are now From now our problem 199,

be

of 11 part they will economic life.

sen nuddenly

NlOps.

107

Out

ment of every Partinico thrce men are out of

work today,

I

I saw where those men live.

taken to one small cy-

floored room with

curving roof.

That

damp,

THE WORKLESS

room is the home of OOK at the figures,

13 people. A woman showed

10

questions Agno" shuple fact: that depression is a berg which spreads to any thing it touches.

'GOING NORTH'

AL-

onki

ONSIDER Baty alone.

theeleveres | reniv most enterprising of the unen- ployed in Palermo ne moving barth to Milogy and Turin.

Because of Oils supply labor the factory owners of

The whole of Italy has levels.

OPEN DOOR

WOULD anyone work for

such rates? 'l's get ul it | those dank alleys, certainly.

Low wages plus brand-new Industry--the formula could bring a sunny new Japan to the elborstep of Britain, and his time with the Common Market in action the door itself will be wide open.

Be sure that mass unemploy- ment for Britain could slip in

100.

Who then are in favour of the Common Markel?

Heigho!

European

Free

Market

US

DEPARTMENT STORES

SHOPPING parade

My 8,580 hours in the

DEATH CELL

B

RITAIN is talking again about abolishing hanging. Well, that's subject on which I'm an expert. In eleven years of my life I've almost twelve months spent 8,580 hours --

in the death cell.

1 wasn't there because I had committed any Well, there crime. I was there because it was my job. Some-

of are the Halians of course.

times I wonder how I ever managed to come out of it sane. As it is, my experiences in' that grim, bare room, with its ever-present shadow of the I sometimes with a fine record of oppost-gallows, have marked me for life. tion both to Mussolini and to think I am a man drained of human emotion. the Communists,

man

North Italy enn keep their I spoke to Francesco Gestivo, well below British one of Sielly's trade union wupers

leaders, a shrewd, wise can out-seli 19 They curs, motor-scooters, because their but because

me is kitchen-n briek stove 2,000,000 unemployed, but this with

la one comer behind a rag sun-strewn island'

by further

<if Sicily typewriters-not curtain Ils window--the gap alone has 200,000 of them, and a efficiency is high

their wage-bill is low.

But what will happen when the Industralists Dnally develop South Haly and Slelly?

of daylight

which is left

the open door.

FOR 17 YEARS

Sicilians 400,000 without

work fur any months la the year.

are most

new

#

As

industrialist one incal

FOR BRITAIN THAT MAY me in his shining marble offlec: "Out of HE AN EVEN MORE DAN-

population 4,500,000 GEROUS THREAT.

of that

The Americans are now de- we have Say

ollferds 000,000 unemployed in Sicily," veloping

in Sicily.

HER husband: We are total

ing in the fields scavenge you cari ing for food to eat or sell.

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As n

to was

THE WATCHERS

'hanging'

by

TOM JAMES

Killers like Haigh, with his in the washhouse mirror, even was youngster 1 He said: "We are looking woollest operative in Yorkshire.

acid baths, are certainly not comparing himself with the Ho toolc forward to it very much.

For the more they Greek god, Adonis. I

the textile depression Waking and sleeping, through intelligent. It was

their may enable us to get rid of

arrangements, great pride in his magnificent kls that

on the fantastic out the 24 hours,

every elaborate put me uwenployment,

chances of a slip-up physique and boasted that, if Rome of our

watched by two the more lead me movement is road that

Invariably they he had cored to, he could have We may even be able to sell eventually to Death Row.

prison officers, his

cell com- they create.

end In the dock.

been a world champion boxer. some of our vegetables

panions until the last minute. Out of work for a year, I During the

One of the biggest soarea for Despite his love for the brigh night he is closely answered an advertisement for watched. If he pulls the bed the murderer is his own vanity lights, his boxing career male

London clothes over his head the night Most of the murderers have not been undistinguished,

Even menlal hospital. I arrived in duty officers will pull them met are intensely vain. London to start my training 69 down again or tell him to do in the death cell

you and frull."

01 nurses

they never the

In pointed out that to please British and Empire fariners Mr Mocmillan's version of Common Market will not extend to for. He said, as the French free trade enthusiasts have also tormers, said to their peasant "Ah, I think it will in time."

Bu

'A SHOCK'

EL

the conviction aso. If he becomes restless the lose

hospital is medica! orderly

only probationer with chilling in my pocket.

made good. with

Fortunately, I

12

that they

to

The work fascinated me. In morphia or other sedative. and committal the misguided

fact, I don't know any moro worthwhile career than curing for the mentally sick.

the

At all times, day and night,

condemned

SHEER FORCE

had

Uite

ho

While awalling trial, 0 organised the rest of prisoners into a Swedish drill class. Night and morning, stripped to his under-pants, had all the small-time crooks ups." Ho lorded it over them doing "knee bends" and "press- by sheer force of personally, nid they obeyed him implicitly.

dressed

phoned and

superior aaro somehow over ordinary men and women. comes quarter grain of From the time of their arrest

y of other

prisoners, virtual segregation.

and for their klller's the solicitude shown 1 passed my examination for behaviour is recorded in the health by the prison authorities,

occurrence book. Registered (Mental)

most of them the keenest devotee of the State Tester Preliminary morning, uram, and again weening sense of importance,

an over Certificate. Shortly after supper, he is seen by the

A typical "big shot" I joined the prison prison doctor, who is

catering niwnys Antonio Mancini,

During the day he of nursing service and served in accompanied by tho medical manager and gangster, sentenced impeccably in a Savile Row

Wakefield, Parkhurst, Wands orderly,

to death at the Old Bailey In brown hopsack suit, with rich worth and Brixlon Frisons,

UT

The Common Market whom

I have met was not a 1rade unionist. He was a man wealth, an intellectual.

on

Together we talked the terrace of the big old- fashioned hotel where I BIL staying-- terrace where both Edward VII and the Kaiser once | sat talking.

General afterwards

A CHALLENGE

It was in 1939 that

Each

was

His

OF

1941 for the murder of cream open-acck shirt and The orderly may be called to Harry "Litle Hubby" Distleman open work leather sandals of the death cell

at any time during the day or night lo

a minister to

ATL headache, tooth, or somu such

Wandsworth in aching

I become

medical orderly of the "death watch," minor allment.

Most condemned men arw My friend told me, "You That was a job nobody wanted,

certain that their absolutely British must learn to be good But it seemed to me that I

When it Europeans

like your Mr one regarded nursing as a real appeal will succeed. Thorneycroft

with his Italian vocation the man in the death is dismissed, acute melancholia wife. He is a good European, cell represented a challenge and The Common Market may be a an opportunity. shock for some of your workers and some of your bosses too, but: I may wake them up.

In a Soho club. Mancini had excl

exclusive design.

chier knifed his victim in the course of complaint was that his carefully a "smash-up" gang fight. The case was recalled during the Jack Spot trial.

WCTO

acquired auntan was fading in prison. He would spend hours attending to his toilet, and never failed to bathe, night and HIS BOAST

moment treated me

with Mancini was in my care in

his which means that the the hospital ward al Brixton respect Despite his toughness,

manners

always medical orderly has to use all until his appearance at the Old

Quietly spoken, he perfect. his tact and skill to restore the Balley, After he was sentenced

committed a breach of I visited him dally in the In the next eleven years prisoner's spirits,

condemned

until his prison etiquette. knew and lalked with.

hit When visiting relatives tell con

Ho prioca himself than 100 killers, among them

of the reprieve petition which, execution on October 31, 1941,

boasted

ho taste, and Fead every book he notorious characts Ey

Ho openly these days, is almost automatic neat han at the old quarter Neville Heath the sadist, Hugh the prisoner again becomes full was the "Al Capone of Britain" could

Detective Novels and magazines good Detec Trevor the monocled of confidence. "It will help those poor people murderer, Tony Mancini tha

"And besides"-he wayed such

of Palermo

across the bay Dorlan

He was an Italian, of course, so I did not ask the obvious question. I did not ask him why we should ditch the Com monwealth, why we should turn our backs on the Empire merely to help carry even the most deserving burden Europe has to offer.

Gurman.

LISCO Q

I

moro

nerves.

that

never

his

оп

hands

on,

Д

pocket

Iterary

Ho

that he had such ,only to collapse and

His chict joy was to the completely when the governor "connections that he could were dismissed as "strictly for

never be hanged. I om mugs," over there. Why should they

Soho "chiv merchant"

his

jobtells him convinced he believed this until settle down with most hated be only our burden?

knife) that the last hope is gone and Why gangster who

digest or "popular his last shouldn't you carry some of Christle the Rillington Place that the time and date of the

day on earth,

weekly. Ho certainly wasn't lying the burden too?".

strangler, Haigh the acid bath execution have been Axed.

Even

he had been after killer, and Karl Hulten the G.I. At this stage the prison about his friends. While ho

to death, his con-

left him. ondence never doctor may find it necessary to wall on remund he was visited sentenced seo that he given sedailves constantly by "big shots" Because I was there to help to stendy his

And London's underworld, Ferfectly came down from the dock,

tailored in sober business sults, them, they

laughing. "They have to make regarded me with again the medical orderly must

used in they less suspleton than the ordinary become comforter, and nurse,

to arrive at the a gesture, Mr James," he said, "but they can never hang me. prison officers. They talked tö suppose

that

hugo Americau who carried prison

never I've got too many friends in they could never me freely.

out those duties for

so many cara,

and cigarettes into the prison, could, in the last resort. When into the minds of murderers as.

they saw that Tony was never. conscienco Or dread of their any, man living.

Listening to the evidence short of money to buy the littl

He maintained his confidenco impending end got the belter of

paychiatrists luxuries he was permitted. too

There were other visitors, their nerves, I was there with given by some

even in the death cell. Though during

murder trials, and sedatives to help them sleep,

----high - -powered undercover his appeal failed, he was certain knowing how hopelessly wrong For clad in prison grey and they were, I have found mon" with plenty to spend on the House of Lords would make

bluff and hard to stop myself jumping up you sec. stripped of all

up the swarthy gangster's defence. history

quashing Mr James?" be

ĮPOCKET CARTOON by OSBERT LANCASTER

'He asyr you'd better watch' pour · step in his tribe had some oilfields once!”

I listened, advised them if I years, have as good an insight get out of food, elgars the right places!"

CONFIDENT TONY 1}}

by

his

pretence these men were facing and protesting. The amount of would swagger, "I'm much too nience, or at least ordering &

all

relrial. up to stark really at last.

balderdash solemnly mouthed would

I saw him for "the last time Death

"experts" in the important to hang. Money can cells in most big by some

The the nig witno box appals ne

you out of anything.

night before he was hanged, Yot Hot prisons are roughly alike.

only thing I've got to He was still quito unperturbed. In the centre of the cell seno juries accept 1

waste weeks here until they. They just can't hang me," be stands a plain deal tablo, about

STUPID MEN

spring met

seen, 8ft. by 3ft, and four white-

The underworld certainly set

nover. wood chairs. An Iron frame

the wheels turning, for Tony him smoking. I offered him a on the Siripped of col stands in a corner

falso Mancini. No expenso was elgarette. He shook his head opposite sido of the cell from

"melodrama, murder is a...sordid spared.

and thanked me. No good for the door. It carries

a cole

business. Practically all He enjoyed the sensation he the wind, he said with alled mattress and pllow, two murderers aro actuated by was causing, inside the prison

smile. heavy white twill sheels, two greed, lust, revenge, jealousy or and out: All the morning aud

at the lady when while prison blankets and a feat. în my experience, greed evening papers were deilvered the gallows trig dropped white prison hospital counter and lust account for most af to his cell. Acting the part of beneath his feet, Tony Mancint pano.

Near the door, in The killings In Britain,

the ganater chief, he lorded it remained confident that: tho screened alcove, pre batlı, Murder is stupid crime. I've over the potty crooks who were "silly misunderstanding would washbowl and toilet.

heard a lat about "perfect his companions in the hospital be cleared up and his liberly crime": and "Intelligent" ward.

restored. murderere, but I have yet fo Remarkably handsome, ho He died as he had lived, in a meet one.

never direg of admiring himself fools' paradise.

It the man in the death call wants them, there are plenty of cigarettes,

1..