1959-07-04 — Page 5

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THE CHINA MAIL," SATURDAY, JULY 1, 1959.

BODY on the SAND

【THEN I saw him he was lying on the desert sand, dead.

WH

It was the

· second morning at El Alamein; during the night, after advancing through the enemy minefields under cover of a tremendous artillery bar- Although rage,, we had somehow gained the heights of Miteiriya Ridge. only a few feet higher than the surrounding scrub, this bare, stony out- crop offered us the advantage of observation.

He

WIN

He

the slope as quickly as possible, he ping I wouldn't be spotted. was lucky, the going was good, and I rolled over into a shallow slit-trench and joined A Com- rany.

And here we tried to dig ourselves into hard rock while solid shells screamed towards us and went whistling away beyond to seek the tanks; while enemy guns and mortars blasted us ceaselessly all along the ridge. There were also the might bring me out by A Com

I was then that I saw nipers, expert shots who pany.

The lady, waited until you took a

German, quite chance and started walking instead of crawling, watched young, fair and very brown.

By his stomach, his hend you through Lelescopic wins twisted over and his eyes sights. fet

Lar

were closed. His hands gripped enough to think yourself his rifle, he must have been hit safe, then fired. They were while taking nim through those dratly telescople sights. And not only in front, but on now he was my only companion all sides. It was perhaps in this dismal piece of sandy the most unpleasant place in desert. the world. Miteirlya Ridge, um October 24, 1942.

you

"You realise," I sald to the Company Commander a few minutes later, "that you've had Jerry sniper between you and battalion headquarters, behind you?”

m."

right

DID IT HAPPEN?◄

"Tell me where he is, we'll x coast have faded. The rusty tank hulks all e out there in the desert, the minestelds strotch under the sand, the wind whips gainst the tangled wire, and close to the railway station, under

the

I didn't want to look any Jonger, but there was something that fascinated me-the pair of biculars around his neck.

""Too late, he's dead."

PLAN ABANDONED

I

Al feb that morning Colonel told me to go over to "A" Company, forward on the right, to report on the position Of The

Time is platoon. memaireless In de moke and noise and stench of battle. We might have hern there fur hours or slays our senses were ambert, w were in touch with all our companies by wireless, but the land lines were constantly being

broken by shellfre; th sigballers who mend them were went out to stilpel.

DERELICT TANK

Crawl, your headi basic rules for survival. With luck you might last lifetime. Without it you were a twitching corpse on the sand.

kous low, don't put up, these were the

ww

I wasn'! looking for trouble. Going A Company meant Fernibling over the top of the ralge in full view of the enemy. rowling in the hot sun like Hizard, probably gelling killed. 1 JU+'*'rt[ the comparative security of me only vehicle, the wirchss track, dug into a deep depression,

But I went, That's what train- ing does, forces you to accept bpossible situations and make the best of thern. And by the time I had skirted a couple of burned-out tanks and crossed

in a mass of scrub and taken a

by JOHN MONTGOMERY

SOHN MONTGOMERY was

Hintselry officer in

the Eighth Army. After The war he joined a literary agent, and began to write in hit spare time

Recently 2 novel. Mr. Sparrow, and a social history, The Twenties, ware pub- lished. Now Montgomery li writing a

sequel to Mr. Sparrow.

He lives in a cottage on the Surrey hille.

Q

1 was Uwere for about an hour But this before starting back. time my journey was much more

Almost at ence dangerous,

under observation and

came someone

I

the clear blue Egyptian sky, le our friends and enemies who never came home.

I returned from the Mickle East in 1940 and exchanged my uniform for a civilian suit and

il

me

The iwlated budy of the German was my unly companion in zniť dismal piece wi sandy desart can

perately hoping that in such, an unlikely posiiton he would be taken for doad.' And I had fallen into the trap,

started sniping at me my pistol for a pen; four books. Korps. Your story is about the ing up the slope, I was in the

11s fre from the enemy lines. was inaccurate but it was very disturbing, frst a bullet would

Paje 5

Scot Free

UTSIDE Britain it is not generally realised that the Scots enjoy a different legal system from the English.

They have, for instance, a their marriage laws Into Uno third verdiet. In addition to with those prevalling below the "gulity" and "not guilty." This Tweed.

1s "not proven," which means

exactly what it anys: that the

I can tell them now......they

jury, while not commilting haven't a chance. themselves on the innocence of

ርቻሮ

the accused, do not believe that The Scots have long held that the prosecution has proved Its English law fy a creaking, anti- quated affair which would benefit vastly from being brought into conformity with the Scottish legal system,

The most famous "not proven" caso (the story was dramatised. and filmed some years ago) was the trial of Madeleine Smith, the Glasgow heiress of the last century, on a charge of murder- ing her clandestine lover.

Only once

In English law, a man charged with murder is virtually tried three times at an inquest, in the magistrate's court and finally in the High Court.

And knowing the Scots, they wouldn't change their legal system even if, in their hearts, English law they believed superior-which they don't.

Spares for

humans

of

In Scotland, however, a man NEVER cease to wonder at

For Scots 1 and admire those men is tried only once.

of medicine who labour mightily no disclosure tate permita evidence before a trial, and thus and with great genius for puny jury rewards in the name of human is obviated any risk of a projecting

by having welfare. read accounts of preliminary

a car?

first few days of the battle. A week later came his reply, but when I opened the envelope I

When I removed his binocu- was impropared for the photo- graph that fell out; if this was lars he had silently prayed, he not the same young fair Ger- suid, that I would not discover man soldier the dead man the truth. If I were to search then he was astonishingly like for his pay book he might move, him. His letter made Then with an unloaded rifle, he curious.

stood little chance. But perhaps the biggest surprise lay in the "Dear Mr Montgomery he last paragraph of his letter.

Afrika said, "I was in

Recently at the new experi- "When you come back, crawl-hearings.

mental surgery unit of London'a we have been

Hammersmith Hospital Dr desert war, can

There are many other dif- facing one another at Alamein in black burned-out lank. I hnd

I watched ferences, despite which the Scots ventor of Britain's heart-lung Denis Melrose, 36-year-old in- October 1942? This was what I reloaded my rifle. After this I lost an arm on the so close I could easily have shot together, With one exception.

you. I don't know why The Scots marriage law which startling plece of equipment There Russian front,"

Maybe I didn't wish to perinits any couple over 10 to beg didn't. give my position away, perhaps | marry regardless of their parents" it was because I'd never seen wishes. Ive Englishman so close before. Who knows? But just think, Mr Montgomery, If I had shot then you wouldn't have written that excellent short atory, and I shouldn't be able to translate it

a few articles and some short stories, all written in after office hours, Bustly on railway ping over my head, then one truins, no best-sellers or sud- looked like then, in the army, you look at your map; you were and English get along amicably machine, spoke of an even more

den fame, just

vuld pass me on the right, then another came over the top.

I stopped crawling several times, lying quite stili, bugging outstretched sam) with the hands, amnest clawing into the Alound. it is surprising how comforting a few prickly bushes cun bon such occasions, even If they are only a few inches And wille I lay there I alt. thought abat the dead German, for it had occurred to me, backs that I had with A Company, neglected 1) collect his pay RHUGE book.

It

Sometimes captured pay book could reveal more than the mere name and number of its owner; soldiers often kept letters describing the home front, des- eriptions that gave away value able information, small pieces to fit into the large gsaw military intelligence,

of

knew I had to have them, wasn't a question of looting the dead need no binoculars and they would soon picked up by segone else; perhaps to find their way into the Colte buzoars. But I could make good use of frem, they were Swiss and bet- ter than calne. So I crawled the

arer, untied the black leather burned-out tank looked different, everything was unfamiliar and

I

But I didn't find the body. must have misjudged the route

the scrub bushes near

reme wire and grubbed around step and slipped them off his i couldn't see him. So I aban- reck. while my heart beat a

but i felt guilty. little faster. It was to crime dened my plan and crawled on towards the wireless truck only too glad to reach home.

the top of the sidge. I stopped compass bearing. I had reached here, pear to another derelict tank, und lay on my stomach Then, with my prize around trying to choose a route which my neck, I erept forward down

A British Crossword Puzzle

113

14

16

FADED MEMORIES

'The afternoon brought a fierce 1ank battle all around us, we lay low in our trenches and hoped that the solid shells would fly overhead, that a tank would not blunder in on top of us, that the set nearest one wouldn't be alight so we would have to run OVIT to help the fellows out before they were burned to

death.

The hours rolled by, there were many casualties. We lived ลง in a nightmare, scarcely daring to think we would see another day.

Fifteen years ago, and now the memories of Alamelu and our the long break-through and pursuit up the North African

a little monry and the joy of writing. were rejections, of course, but pleasure writing brought me and many friends.

HIS RISK

;

Yes, I replied, I thought It

were we

facing It was when my last short tittely

one

you, in the desert com- another.. I told him about the story, set

in a popular binoculars and I asked him if paign, appeared magazine that the strange t were possible he was the man tion of a short story sometimes did not como for three weeks; he correspondence began. Publica- I had presumed dead. His reply

incident well, DID IT REALLY HAPPEN? brings requests from foreign had been ill with influenza, He translators. May we, they ask, remembered the translate your story into Danish he had been lying out there all a forward or Dutch or Italian, and share alone, sniping from

"behind our outposts the proceeds with you if it is position

when suddenly he realised that published?

someone was creeping up on his right flank. He was about in reload his rife but now he dare

FAMILIAR FACE

One usuntly agrees it is extra money for nothing. This letter, with the Frankfurt address, was like all the others except that at the end the writer asked where I had served with the Eighth Army. Had 1, he won- dered, been in the forward area during the Alamein battle? If not, how did I come to wriie about 117

I replied that he could trans- late the story and told him briefly where I had been on the

TARGET

G A

How many

words of four Letters or more car you make from Ch Tatters

H

RNI

G

E

T

BIL

Mare Like 12t

klop

each word

Le efterg

1A each of the soul care ly be ward once only. Bark word Hiust coRI+ tain the large letter in the centre square, and there must be at least one wine-letter word in the

mi Jat NO DIRE

foreign namer, words: 6 TODAY TARGET: BR words. good: 08 words, very good 81 WH, CIcellent. Solution on Monday,

YESTERDAY'S BOLDTIME

Hera foran base use WORK hunk kosher loose rogo rouse ruse rani rusk shew slice Bhook store tow shower RISE Akew soke pose nor power whose kute Rare 11ser usher WORKBOUSE, worse.

Landon Express Bervice.

YES NO

not move, he could do nothing a Put a tick against your choice in but close his eyes, twist his head the space above. over, and lie quite still. des. (The answer is on Page 10)

19

built by a team he

la essence. this will bo machine to keep human organs In England, anyone under 21

alive outside the body for tong raust have parental consent periods. The scientists hope to before marrying.

by next The result have it in operation being, quite naturally, that star- year. crossed English lovers can defy their parents by fleeing north The aim is to keep an organ of the River Tweed and con- alive in the machine for two to three weeks. This, they be- tracling a marriage which is legally recognised all over the lieve, will enable them to study world.

the growth of diseases, such as cancer, and experiment with Just as naturally, anxious new drugs. English parents resent this op- parent loophole, and presumably

It will also be a considerable

It Is this massive concern which step towards building up kid-

lins prompted the Law Society nay, and llver (it controls England's solicitors) pilals

for

"banks" lil bos- transplanting into

lo agitate for the Scots to bring emergency cases,

CRAFTSMANSHIP

...in the famous Parker,tradition

120

122

129

20

127

THIS FUNNY

WORLD!

ACROSS

3 Dismantle or note (4, 4).

7 City of Franco (8).

8 Knot in a handkerchief? (3).

10 Birch brooms (8).

13 Deadlock (7),

15 Japanese drink (4).

17 Ono might call it a ringing

summons (7).

10 Children's joya (3, 1).

20 Flag-girl (5).

21 Madam Italy (7),

20 Scottish tongun (6),

27 Inclination to write

apparently (3)

DOWN

I Cover-up story (5).

2 Clutch a fastening (5).

3 To which hagglers may

eventually come (8).

4 Way out (4).

6 Loader's triál (0).

Takes caro (8).

9 Compositions by Elia, for

example (0).

11 Hot end of some months ().

12 Kilns (5).

14 Flying-acor?

(0).

song,

28 Eel of the future (5). 29 Almost unique specimens

(8).

15 River net (6),

18 Gurkha inité (5).

18 Young crab? (0).

19 He should be called Victor

(0).

22 Entrances spectatore (5),

23 Don't die please, girl] (0),

24 Nut of discomfort afoot (5).

23 Give the girl a note (4).`.

YESTERDAY'S CROSSWORD-Across: 1 Satrap, 8 Dhobl, 3 Maria, Orator; 10 Stoke, 11 Sat up, 12 Pile, 18 Seers, 16 Bodega, 18 Nailed, 20 Niger, 22 Stye, 23 Relic, 25. Visit, 20 Medium 27 Attar, 28 Adela,,29 Lead on.. Down: 1 Scorpion, 2 Trailing, 3A-MO's, 4 Persol, o Daised, 6 Hat-peg. 7 Baker, 14 East wind, 16 Sidermen, 18 Biretta, "17 Decimal, 19 Aerial, 21 Ivlod, 24 Care.

"But according to the cookbook I can't take it out of the oven for ten minutes yet.”

1412

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