1958-09-12 — Page 4

Page

THE AUTHOR

THE CHINA MAIL, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1958.

Our reporter gets the first report in ten years on the most sealed-off country in Europe

For so little

we gave them that Room with a View!

Artic

CHINA MAIL chief European correspondent SYDNEY SMITH files Part Two of a Report on Albania, the Kremlin's prize strategic base on Nato's southern flank, It is a land where the Iron Curtain bristles, and nowhere more fiercely than the point at which it clamps down on Yugoslavia. Inside, it is a virtual concentration camp for its 1.400,000 people. From the outside, it is clearly, unmis- takably Russia's viewpoint over the Mediterranean. Smith this land AND WHERE HE WAS today sends his second informed despatch on

of bondage from RIJEKA, Yugoslavia..

THE

ALBANIA

HE main street of Tiran, Republic Boulevard, wakes up at six o'clock in the morning to the bellow of a Russian Red Army song from the loudspeaker system.

The policemen, who stand on little pedestals swinging zebra-truncheons, wear the same uniforms as Moscow's

police.

The scanty traffic, which they welcome with wild whistle-blowing, is all either Russin or Czech. The children, when they see a tourist, automatically say the equivalent of "Got any gum, chum?" in Russian.

If you are lngliski you are a -probably less than £1,000,000 pensation in Tirana you and -- and there has been a haggle anything Facish. For Britain over it for years. and British things and Bri-

-Ush—idens— are—right——0——But breatre-we-cannot-or-slo- the map to this booming Wille not bother to convince The rouble-shuffed satellie, whigh Allenians fitat we have not got looks upon Mowwow as the gene all their £40,000,000,

and be tre of the world,

cause we and the Americans: ruled this rugged life coun- wier the size of Scotland

1 does so because Britain has had no diplomalle contart with

Albania siore The war, and be- Albanians ang non- cause the vinced that Britain holds. £40,- 000,000 In pote the Tirana treasury evacuated to Austria by the Nazis and captured by British officer.

ACCEPTED

it

1

s just a comle-opera coastal strip after the war, the Russians have slepped in to plek up a superb gift-strategic, political, and, very soon, economie.

As long as diplomate rea- tions are not resumed, the valee of the West and the goods of the West and the truth of the West stay unknown, has it all to herself.

Russia

Albaniam petrol kindly even feuler than the average Eron Curlan dist:ation.

+

Ewo million tons of it and sti have enough left to run her own and Russia's loen! air, land, and sea transport,

Years

In 1 past Ave thousands of square miles of the swampy coastal areas have dues reclaimed by Bulgarian and Fast German experts and Al- a whole banian tabour using mobile army of mighty Soviet "Varonesh" excavators Lulldozers.

PRIVILEGED

There is no such thing ordinary civilian trafic on

sch

J

REPUBLIKA

IRAKIANE

JORDANIA

ADROS 252T GELIN: SKOKEBERUN

They are CZECHS, prospect ing for chrome and already mining the only nickel in Europe.

Early this year they completed A contract by which they built the mines, refineries, worker's' towns and roach, and exploit the nickel free for 10 years. After that they turn it all over us a free gift to the Albanians.

REPORTING FROM A COMET IV, 20,000ft. UP

LIGHTNING

HAS JUST HIT THE PORT WING

AND HARDLY A TREMOR

By PETER WOON: Aboard the Comet IV.

with

BRITAIN'S new Queen of the Skies, the Comet IV jet airliner, is speeding through a violent thunderstorm 20,000 ft. over England on her first passenger flight, Lightning has just struck the port wing.

But from my seal in the a hidf. The Comet IV will take flouting off at 2,0008. I retura forward cabin I enn report that under seven hours.

to my seal, the 500-mile-an-hour silver

I empty my glass of cham- glant is riding the storm

There is no break in this cloud pagne and think that today's blanket and we have only seen new £2,500,000 order from Enst scarcely a tremor.

ground from 35,000ft.

up over Aftlean Airways for two Comets The Belgien const, just 24 must be followed by mero mure. minutes afier take-off from the

Cunningham mukes a perfect de Havilland's base at Hsteld ding. The storm süll rages, (Herts).

But for 75 minutes and over 400 Hatheld is approaching again miles the Comet 17 has proved

cloud what a great airliner she is. now, the last wisps of

Lashing rain bouls a tattoo on the cockpit where 滷 supremely confident John Cunningham is Bylog on the auto-pilol.

TYPICAL of the anti-British The 11-year-old de Havilland's attitude in Albalatis cover chief test pilot tells met "Con- pleture from Albania's topditions are just about by bad as weekly which is called, rather they could be in these parts," optimistically. The Goad. This I makes itle difference. grotesque, Moscow-styin John As we let down through the Bull, with an American boot dense cloud the meaning of the behind him, is supposed to be new age of Rying that the becomes trying to unlock the door to Comel IV presents Iraq with a key called Hussein clear, of Jordan. And the artist's It is faster-we are passing more than comment: "He's trying to open over the earth st the door with a rusty key." eight miles a minute.

They are POLES who have just built the only glass factory · Albanian

Greeks.

Hoes to the cinema

In the country and which the seven times a year, which the Albanians have already put out Albanians pro'ly point often than the as of operation for a year by us out la more the-ing the wrong kind of coal.

and twice

many as the average Turk. EAST GERMANS

And all the the they kuy their land reclamation schemes

and

hear nothing but ircase Albonlan foox!

victories will

lories and production by 125 per cent in Communist. bloc. three more years,

who

main rods of Albania. Buch They are BULGARN and mes 25

great Skoda part from the and Zim and Zil lorries there is a busy army of earnest, grim foced civilians who tear around the countryside like men

olive-green War

Russian command

ΑΠ trafic gives then priority. They are the privileged class of Albania the Iron Curtain technicians.

cars

1

They аге RUSSIANS who

CREDITS

whcel that spins, or Every

is either machine that hums, Russian, Czech, or East Ger- mm. La year flussla cancelled £17,000,000 worth of debis and handed over more then another £30,000,000 in new loans, East Germany suspended £8,000,000 worth of credits for another 30 years, interest free,

have just completed * Survey which they say justlites major perations for copper mining; and RUSSIANS who have com- pleted and moth-balled against aveds hve je siraelds, future and are now busy excavating

Russia gave the mountains near Korea to build A-bomb-proof weapon 000-worth

ment

The Albanians are not alone

the wild belief. 1 is in diplomatically accepted fact in That's chancellerits, where I first heard a few days ago.

The fact is that, Britain did makes the wheels go round. capture

Albanian gold Next year Albania will export, stoves.

I

some

SCARCELY slept a wink last night, thinking about Mr Eustace Burnett and the afternoon I spent with him in the village of Hose, near Melton Mowbray.

But I am happy to report that I did not have a similar effect on 80-year-old Eustace.

Bul

it

Eustace

und

of now

Albarin £500,-

Al

tulp- the

HE'S BEEN AWAKE

YEARS FOR FIFTY

average

Doesn't Hold With Pills

lagers of Huse rall him, has mt slept for 50 years,

Had he not had a slight seizure recently he would have stayed awake all last night, his eyes wide open.

by ALAN BESTIC

"And lots of women want to marry me."

WARM, SNUG

Some people, of course, write to Mr Burnett because they wari his advice.

"I tell them to relax, as my doctor tok me 50 years back," he said. "I never read or smoke in bed. I simply make sure I'm warm and snug and then I just Be there."

Sharp at 10 o'clock, he Occasionally, he would have and worked for a couple of auffer from Insomnia and gwitched off his television switched on the light to see hours in the garden before

get slipped into his pyja- how many has had pass- breakfast. mus, took couple of al for it is boring to be pills and settled down for awake all the time. a solid nine hours

And that was an experi- ence of a lifetime; for, until now,

Ewl,

SO CONFUSING

At six o'clock he would as the 450 vil have bounced out of

Coldo

Even the slightest cold.

Is to be feared

Do not let it spread] Defeat it from the start

by taking 12'ÇAFASPINS'

CAFASPIN

BAYER

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Express Annual

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Invitation to an Eastern Feast

Ton Points About Pearls

Points on Judging fade

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On Sale At

bed

C

But, because of his ill. ness-one of the very few he has had in his long aleepless life-his doctor has ordered him to take pilis to make him sleep,

And Ewl-dean, as spry as any

זיי

He does not hold much with his quota now only because the doctor sleep is a medicine, to be taken sparingly and only when sick.

Like most people who usually healthy. Ewl is slightly irritated by his illness,

pills and is taking has ordered . To Eustace.

irc

500 the of the

It is smoother-vibration almost non-existent,

-ta

It is quiet the four mighty Rolls-Royce Avce engines are heard as nothing more than a soft whine,

Its altogether more exciting.

A welcome

I walk forward through the fitted fuselage and Juxuriously

the co-pilot's seat. The average Albanion has lost

Cunningham gris a welcome. for believing that the power

He has been lying Comets for the West has mything to offer.

from those buve What is the price for the lee years, Russian roubles Albania? days when Britain's ploneering irst took to the Just one thing. The geographic passenger jet position of this lito country.nir, through all the exhaustive the tests that have followed disasters of 1954. "It's good to

In

A room with a view.

The rugged coastline, the have passengers on board stain,"

waters of

And, he says.

with a smile "Be even better when they are

be

rocky sheltered island submarine bases---the muzlain-dyreened Air

bases paying ones,"

Well, B.O.At cover this view at the bottle-

will Mediterranean-selling tickets for Comet fights across the Atlantic 11 weeks or so from now. And people an both sides of the waler already queueing up.

neck of the

Nat's southern lifeline.

►

The Russians have their money's worth all right.

And Brilain, but for a stupid million-pound dispute and. a shameful shortage of foresight, would not be today looking in on this locked country unknown, feared. and hated "outsider.

an

are

Figures show the great Incon-

from New York io Lowton

STARTING IN THE

CHINA MAIL

TOMORROW!

A Pig And A Promise Saved Me

From

The Titanic

By Edith L. Russell

The next-to-the-last passenger in the last lifeboat

tive. On the east-bound crossing DWARFED by the giant funnels of the great ship, the tiny figure of a wiry, indomitable Stratocruisers currently make lady tripped up the gangplank of the mighty the journey in 12 hours.

Edith L. Russell, survivor of almost The DCFC does it in 11 Fours, "Titanic." Bristol's Britannia in nine-md-every major disaster of the last fifty years, had come to Pinewood Studios to relive for a day her own part in the greatest shipping disaster of all time, now filmed in "A NIGHT TO RE- MEMBER."

ROUND-UP

MARINES EXHIBITION

IN 1805 recruits were allrated by this Royal Marines poster: "All pour men of respectable etcracter, good countermoce and rob health, who do not exceed 25 years of age, and are full five feet six inches righ (shoes off), can enjoy a GLASS OF GROG, etc., or are fond of a Jovial life, have now an opportunity of enlisting in that GALLANT CORPS, the ROYAL MARINES, where they may have the good Fortune to visit Foreign Parts, goin glorious Merour, and retum do their Friends with Pockets well lined with Gold," That was 153 years ago. Today several hundred "Royals" are de- monstrating their 1950 life at the Corps' rst comprehensive ex- hibition at Southsea, Hampshire. The exhibition was opened by Uhhe Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, Councillor A. L. Blake, himself an ex-Royal Marine. HIS JOB

end hardy 50-year-old is anding it rather confusing. dream a lot," he said Vivid dreams, so realistic What I'm never quite sure

In fact he can hardly wait whether I'm really asleep. Bu÷dozing certain until he is Bt again. for the ly helps to pass the time." moment when he can give up hils pills and get back to sonic restful, wakeful nights.

-(London Express Sarutor).

Until he was in his middle 205, Ewl slept like everyone else and got itp just as early to work on his farm. Then he be- gan missing a night's sleep once or twice a week.

By the time he was 28, he had stopped sleeping allogether, Remembering sombre tales of people who attempted suleide because they could not steep, he went to his doctor,

"ile told me I wasn't the suicide type," he said.. "Told me to relax, And that's what I 18.00 have been doing ever since."

$18.00

18.00 Relaxing has not meant lazing --- 25.00 for Ewi: Until 1940, he played cricket and tennis. "Then I had 35.00 to stop," he said. "All the other 7.50 players went off to the war and 10.00

I stayed behind in Ilose up Chief Warden," 4,50

Me reired from farming about

1.00 the same time. But he is still 18.00 active.

1.50 Inevitably, his story has gone 1.50 around the world, bringing ham a multi-coloured malt. "Most of 5.00 the writers are sure they can 35.00 teach him how to eleep, a lessen he is not particularly saxious to Iourn.

"An Irion told me I should drinke buffalo's mök," he sald. "Unfortunately, the buffalo hards seem to have deserted Hose. An KOWLOON

Australion Bald I

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST LTD.

HONGKONG

¡ should wear a little woollen cop

in bod

when: Or that irrrible night

"As for leaving the ship the "Titanic" went down, Miss the. llcet sccred ludicrous. Russell can say: "I was there." Lee the warmth, brilliantly- Sne survived the tragedy when it gaiety for that cold occan over 1,500 people lost their lives in one of those fragite Ufeboats? as the greatest luxury liner the I was very reluctant

to you world ho ever known, was and it was only when one of the ripped open by an iceberg in stewards threw my top ply into mid-Atlantic.

a lifeboat that I jumped in

It was not the first time that after it. My mother had given Edith Itussell had escaped death it to me as a good luck mascot by a narrow margin. Hers is a and I didn't want to be parted iifo continuously marked by from it.". disaster and near-tragedy.

As a child, traveling with her mother, Edith Wad

Wipped

tt

0

broadtail

to

il ankle-length coat which she had taken

Alamsy when about to board a train, The Brabed to go over her

dress when rushing out Stardometer called a Doctor and the train lett without them, investigate the sudden commo- the tion cn dock, she survived

in the liftboat. The year was 1888 and the train headed into the Johnstown, long key hours

'Maxixe'

for the She played Bood which Pennsylvania

incurred

childrch sharing the hazards of the night, wrought havce and great tos of Efe,

How much pressure does a hawlunch exert with his beak when That was one of the problema it racks a cherry stone? 64-year-old Mr Percy Lallow Thorpe had to deal with at the National Physient Laboratory, Teddington. He has just retired after 50 years. As a senior experimental officer, he did re- search into metál fatigue ard specialised test on engineering Me Thorpe, of Borser Road, Twickenham, also carvleti ecraponents. out tests at New Scotland Yard. In the war he was engaged

nomy land mine experiments. Mony of them were done in Rich-northwest of Minorca, all Grands mond Park.

Adywi

**Why all the fuss, Mummy? It's only Daddy.

on

En 1910 she booked aboard the General Chanzy and cancelled the day before sailing. It sank,

lost but the engineer.

A simtir last-minute cancella- lou saved

Vivid memoetics of this tragic night were brought back during the filming when she stepped

her 20%e whey the onto the week of an exact replica Lusitania was forpedoed.

of the Titerfic'. Built by skilled hafiznen the ship "You can't run away from studio

Russell features in this film, which for your fate" says Mins

1 "Whatever philosophically.

the first time tells the true story

has in store for you-it catches of the terrible night the Tianle

up with you."

Bonk,

At the time of the Titanic"

It is a night that is still so disaster, Miss Russell was # fashion buyer In Paris for im- sharply etahad in Miss Russell's portant American concerns, mind that she cas unhesitatingly recount every trugle moment be- ina velling home tu luxury for a

brief period in the United States, tween the first blow from the In mid-Allartie this great un keberg and the entry into New Ankable' ship was clawed by an York harbour glazed the rescue coborg and, within three hours hp Carpathia”, was lost, taking with it over 1,500

men, women and children,

"It was only then" she recalls, "hat

tuti we realised the tragedy of the event, when we aw the headlines and met the grieving relatives waiting at the Jewels, furs and other valuable quayside. It was only then wo possessions were strewn in her realisedJust 704 survivors in calm. But Mies Runcil, an all the foolishnew of our individuali bo the foot, chose

the sinking ship."

to send her steward back to hree cheers of the end of that that night, when wo thought cabin for a mail toy pig which everyone had been saved from

tha played the tuzo Maxixe, popular tune of the day.

With the fleandering of the "We had boon told the "Titanic" wouldn't sile and we believed mighty Titanie came the end of

texboy', *" sho says

small the sedate Edwardian era. With ofcgant digure brimming with her survival from this tragedy vivably. "When we met hit the Ming Russell is also a survivor of Joeberg many passengers thought 4 lost civilisation...that went was a huge joke. I remem down with the mighty "Titanic" ber pooping up handfuls of mow just 40 years ago, and having a snowball flict with

Q

some other young people on

dock."

Read her story in the Saturday China'Mail