1959-04-08 — Page 4

THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1959,

CHAPTER 9 OF FIENBURGH'S INTRIGUING NOVEL

No love for Johnnie

Again Pauline puts

★ Johnnie

Byrne, MP for Marchfield, went back to

i hotel, rejected how ensiiluents, who had passed a vule of no confidence in blm.

He had been rejected by the Labour Party, who passed him over when the new Government Was formed. te had been rejected by his wife, Alice, who left m And he trad Leen rejected by Pauline, the girl he loved, who had gone back to ker Samlix.

Jile fortunes had reached rock bottom. That night he slept, exhausted; Next morning, reality had to be faced,

her case-this

time she wins

LIE sat over a coffee and tried to

build on the wreckage. He even tried to plan a campaign.

Point one: Work back into favour in Marshfield by answering all the damn-fool letters and attending all the dreary meetings.

Point two: Be industrious in the House of Commons, please everyone, and speak ill of no man.

Point three: To hell with the whole thing. I've had enough. Only one thing butters now. To find Pauline

He went into a call-box and telephone: fautie's London

'I want to.

and start afresh. When that

Is straight the rest will fol low.

talk to you,'

she said

'1'il como

to you

iztor

Tumber.

Authoritatively he said: want to sprak to Miss West."

"I'm afraid she has left." 1.

was the landlady's volee.

"Did the leave a forwarding address"

A poure, then; “She did, but Just for letters. She sald I wasn't to pass it on." He had expected this. He forced a note of weary Impatience into his voler.

Look here. This ま

John Byrne, MP. I can't waste my te. She bug been doing sonte work for me and 1 want to get

in tach with her today.'

“Well, I'm not sure--”

"I said I was an MP í ̧need the

for un important debate in the House of Commons tomorrow. It's most inron siderate of her to let me down like this."

He wins

The authority in his voice and the reference to The higher mysteries of Parliament succeed ed. They usually did.

"Alt right," Ite waited. I've found it. She's with her parents. C/o B. L. West, Red House, Shotley, Hear

M11 Lu

Bradley."

le travelled to Bradley by

come

the front door open as he A door opened and Pauline's reached the turn hi the stair- fether

into the hall, case. He knew without looking "Here's surprise for you, that it was Pauline.

Pauline. Mr Byrne arrived, Left soaked

We've

to

the skin.

Ilia steps did not fulter, foot, right foot, slippers dopping bathed Him, clothed him and hideously on the treads, he new we'll give him a drink." walked downstalme. He turned the bend,

He linked his arm in Pauline'a. She was standing there under

"How nice," she the hall light bending forward in mechanically.

suld Have you one take off her shoes. She looked for me, too?" And now her up, looked straight towards hir

eyes avolded his face but were

emile.

and smiled her slow, plaeid. Exed on the sult he was wear- Ing. Mr Byrne fills your clothes quite admirably." There was a dry edge to her volce.

He felt dizzy and had to reach cut to the Bannister, She is welcoming me, he thought, she Is gud I'm here. He tried to smile back but his mouth was frozen,

Her anger

train and to Shotleg by bia. It "Helio, Daddy," she salt, "you WEN OPENING then he arrived were right, it did ruin.

there

روع

P

He wantedl

So young

They fled into the silling- room. An attractive wonna rose gracefully from a low chair set beside the fire heaped with blazing coals.

It was an older l'auline.

titunderstorm.

tu stop walking Drenched to the skin, he rang but his feet still walked down.

"I'm Pauline's mother," she the bell at the Red House. Pau ward, down the staircase, gry! anld. * "You must be hungry."

after the other. In two steps his When she left to help the maki He was oui,

head was in the light. In three lay the supper wbie, Pauline steps he was almost level with

moved with her towards the her.

door "I'll help you, Mummy,” she said.

We met in London," he said. "I was walking over the moors when was caught be the rain,

She looked up again, still with I remembered she told me she Ured mene Shotley...." Pau- a warm, affectionate little smile, lime's father, a doctor of about Bul when she saw him fully her his own ape and height, mate face opened with surprise, then him elenme, poured a bath for the frowned angrily and her a straight, tense him, lent him 'dry clothes.]

Byzne opened the bathroom

mouth drew line.

"Johnnie!" Sell he could not speak.

our to go downstairs, and cure What are you dong Here

MAR

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It seemed to be taken" for granted that he would stay the night. The doctor went out of the room to find some pyjamos.

Byrne was alone with Pauline.

"I went to talk to you." she

said fiercely. "'ll come to you! later," and she, too, left him. He smiled at her onger and fol- luwed the doctor upstairs.

The bedroom, was small and cosy, and a dressing-gown and sylomas were laid on the bed. He changed hate them, pulled a bedroom chair to the window and looked out at the night, waiting for Pauline,

When all the house was still, he heard the creak of n floor- board outside his bedroom door. He closed the window gently, drew the curtains and sat on the bed,

}

THIS

ON

MAN IS

DANGEROUS

a windy, cheerless day in December 1954 a remarkable luncheon took place in a private room at the Howard Hotel in London. Mr Stanley Evans, then Socialist M.P. for Wednesbury, was the host. His guests were Mr Arthur Deakin, general secretary of the Transport Workers' Union, and Mr Hugh Gaitskell.

They ate an excellent meaj↑ of smoked salmon, lamb cutlets, mince pler and Camembert, and drank the finest vintage Chablis,

Their purpose was to discuss the leadership of the party. They agreed that Mr Attlee, as he then was, could not con- timur much

ihat longer in position. And before the last of the mince ples had vanished they also agreed that Mr Hex- bert Morrison was the orily person to replace him.

Solemnly they pledged them- selves to work for this end,

Remarkable

So far there is nothing par

icularly startling in what I have related. Private luncheon

parties are far from rare in polities,

of what

by ROBERT EDWARDS

Mr Gaitskell, however, has succeeded in keeping the party all together in a period of ep=" position.

He may have had to ride bare- back on several horses to do it. But now his team is as dia- troupe. elplined as a cireus And even the proad and In- dependent Mr Bevan ban been performing fallhfully

as his whrelhorse.

Of course It can be argued Election unites a party wonder- that the approach of a Gener:1

fully,

but it is not of the

That may be frue of the Torim, Socialists. each other They were fighting

Gaitskell's power is

at a peak..

But now let me remind you la remarkable about this affair. Less than a year inter Mr Herbert Morrison was the defeated in his bid for party leadership. The man who defeated him was Mr Hugh Gaitskell. In the meantiene Qie powerful Mr Deakin find died.

To many people this story may suggest an unpleasant side to the character of the mun who will be Mr Macmillan's chlet opponent at the Ceneral that bicught the Tories back t Election, The casily stocked

It is to Mr Gaitskell's credit may be dismayed.

that he has established

that Altler never Ecendancy accomplished.

What is Gafiskell's secret? How does he do it? Well peer

But there is another way of looking at it that may be a useful caution to the Tories an they contemplate an casy vic- losy.

It is that us politician Mr Galtskell is both calculating and shrewd. He should not be underestimated.

He could just hear the catch turning. There was a pencil of light under the door shining in from the landing, then the door opened slowly and, for an in- stant, he saw Pauline silhouette-i agalust the light, a dressing- gown around her and a frill of

Look again at his decision to transparent nightdress reaching turn against Mr Morrison. down below it.

To the cynical his motive

seem to have boen door The

closed

may and he

simply of crude ambition. But could hear her breathing in the darkness.

there is another, worthier ex- planation,

"Where are you?" she said, "Here, on the bed." She was feeling her way towards the bed. When the maitress sagged a little ng she cut down on the edge he waited for her to speak. Now that it was dark and he could not see her he was confident that she had come back to him,

'I drifted'

"Why did you follow me?” she whispered. He heard the rustle of her dressing-gown and

ightdress.

I

"I did not come, I drifted let things happen and they happened like this,"

"You could them."

have stopped

one

.

Rad Mr

10 Gallsket stuck

OVCT the resolution he made

of

1

FO mercilessly in 1951 that they scarcely noticed the eletion

power.

again at Allee.

Both during the war as deputy Prime Minister

end afterwards et No. 10 bla most frequent con- tribution was to mulier. "I agree, I agree."

Unlike almost

every

other

இ

Cummings

Prime Minister he is becoming made mistakes, to as the able

ofice thon he was in it.

cadily more important out of Mr Gaitskel. There is always the chance that the calculating machine will go wrong and the party will be disrupted in the familiar old, old way.

Today his stature is greater than ever before, not least be cause he has replaced the old

10

Apart from this minor breach, however, Mr Gallo- kell is unchallengod st the

head of the Boclaitsis,

That is an schievement with....

Just now he Ands himself in a out parallel when I remind you slight disagreement with

te that it was not until May 1946.

the mince pics, unquestionably formula with a new one of my Mr Morrison would not have the. "I disurve. I disagree." become leader. But Mr Aneurin showing himself to be a great Bevon, which

Mr Gaitskell, however, i only alternative leader, Mr (later, even, than Mr-Haruld Beyan.

might possibly Wilson) that he had his first job lender while in power. He is not break out into open arife.

In the Socialist Government; Morrison's Mr

era

content to walt unth afterwards. was over. In popularity

He made a pilgrimage to Gen- and that at the time there wore Thus, on a wide range cerci de Gaulle and returned -

grave double about his health. straight contest he would have lost. At the very last moment

after spending more time with him than did Mr Macmilian-as Mr Revan offered in despera

frank admirer. tion to sland down if Mr Guits- kell would do the same. But by that time it was clear that Mr Gaitskeli was the party's choice,

The truth

Next examine Mr Galtskell's record since he became the leader.

issues, from slapping down Mrs Jer criticising

Rebara Castle British troops to attacking con- verubility and American policy over Quemoy and Matsu, he has spake up on his own initiative without consulting anyone.

Today it is the leader's col- leagues who are saying,

The charge?

Proves again

. He

Mr Gaitskell now stands with- out question as the most success- ful of the post-war flock of poli- Ile hes spoken in such warm tidins in either party. And, as terms of the French President, for his health, it is remarkable. "I agree, I agree," and not the. who was installed by extremist His stamina rivals that of Mac- lender.

groups in the army, that he has man and Khrushchey. He does not have to rely, like exposed himself to the Tory poor Clem, on the

tyranniest charge of denouncing Mr Mac proves again that for public men Dower of trade union bosses to milian's policy in Nyasaland power is the best penlelllin." The truth is that from the prop him up cnd lay down while accepting de Gaulle's

Today the man once hated by Algeria. party point of view he has we pelley.

half the activo Socialists in the quitted himself magnificently. He lays down the polley him- And Mr Bevan has responded country has wen a multitude of

When the now ermine-clad self, including

Socialt with more consistent Left- friends on all sides of his party. Clement Altice was leader the election programme. And there wing utlitude by Inviting de At the age of 52 Mr Gsítskell Secialists were united for only are no union leaders left with Grulle's greatest enemy and op, can afford to lose the General a few monals during hli long the stature ciber to hold him panent, M. Mendes-France, to Election with the splendid The dooler watched her so nothing else, so I came period of office. Thutavas after up. mordes him around. tlay at his farm. No effort was equanimity of someone who is "London has reformed my "WIN J'ou

t nade by Mr Gaitskelt to meet sure that by the time he is 57 daughter," he said. "The sudden carly?"

has this distinguished visitor. helpfulness...is a new louch_of_ domesticity, *****

It would not be so bad, Byrne thought, if she called them and "Father," but "Mother"

and "Daddy," "Mummy"

to people of his own age, made her stem so very young.

"Pauline," he said evenly, "I auddenly found that I was alone in the world. You can't under- stand. Alone. You were all I could fasten to.. There was

go

shattering triumph

the

tomorrow.

their

1045.

In Naturally, Just

brillant Mr Macmillan

ад

Alo you want me..io?!. **** She stirred on the bed "beside" him He wondered where she they out

was in the darkness. He reached a band and found the material of her dressing-gown, and he let his fingers lie on it as though the contact could establish some sympathette link between them.

He spoke costly and con- fidentially, accepting that were two middle-aged men dis- cussing the foibles of children, Then he cleared his throat and become diffident,

"I don't suppose, Mr Byrne, that you have any idea why my doughter dashed away from London."

Byrne shook his head,

The doctor laughed,

"Do you want me to go?" he asked again;

"Yes," she whispered harshly. "By coming here you have proved all that I tried to explain to you when I left, You come "Some here and not only wore my father's clothes, but you walked

boy trouble, I suppose. At that

age they Dre so intense. I into his world. sometimes wish that Pauline "You're about the same age.

wore not so beautiful, Mr Byrne. You have noticed that she is beautiful, rarely beauti- ful."

Byrne nodded,

1

You talk silke, almost think alike. You've made me feel incestuous."

He was suddenly and utterly wonry. Hig hind became Intolerably heavy, Mo let it crop and began to pluck petu- tantly at the coverlet,

'You're right'

"It worries me zometimes, you know I have never seen a beautiful woman who was really happy. They never have chance. When they are still young older men court them, purs them and flatter them. "And older men can give théni O much, a'Uttle stalus and a blager house. They so often fall for it, the poor dears, so they never get to know young men won't pester you any more.” their own kind of people.

The insitress rose as she stood, "The result in that they never then the war' soundlessly open- become adult until it is too late. Ing the door, there was a fash When they do they

are of her silhouette and she wAS

gohet

unhappy."

"Go away" he said wearily. turning, his head Into the pillow. "Go away. You are right. I

"Your daughter will be safe When he departed the next enough, Dr West," Byrne. sald morning in the doctor's Car almost bitterly.... "I'm sure you Pauline was still in her room.·

bave, warned her:"

The doctor, laughed, "I have

but I don't, suppose sha'll listen.”

Oh, God, thought Byrne. Sho

TOMORROW:

bas listened, and learned enough ALICE COMES. BACK.

to kill me.

Afhenden Express Service),

от тиз

No. 10 will be his.

MADE TO MEASURE FOR JAK

"Dave, say

inysalf, you're a mug not

open - In Savile Row.

LORESS KIRILEJ AERISH,