1959-07-07 — Page 4

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THE CHINA MAIL,” TUESDAY, JULY 7, 1959.

How can a man be forgotten so soon?

• In a desolato, forgotten spot in Morayshiro lies the moss-covered grave of James Ramsay MacDonald, threo times Socialist Prime Minister of Britain.

MIST

[IST was creeping in from the Moray Firth and over the big pine trees as I climbed the lonely grass track that leads to one of the strangest sights in Britain.

An old iron gate creaked eerily behind me as I walked among the ancient headstones of Spynie churchyard, three miles from Lossiemouth.

One grave I had come to see-and without detailed instructions I would never have found it.

No Rower thecurates it. No tree thacr

Will it. Chare gras: hides its flat granite tumb-

stone.

But here, in this desolate, for- golten spot in the Mornyshire of James moor lie the ushes Rainsay MacDonald, three times Socialist Prine Minister of Bri- tal.

tho

So neglected

1 looked down ut the

lettering tasted

ነብኍSS

EC

1

Twenty-Ave years ago no one This hane brlieved would

No one would hav pribl beltered then that such Jame could come to thin.

Int, historically minded visitors e-pecaily Americans- refure to believe at first that this negisted, usumaked, unhonour- ed, and unsung patch in the wilderness is the last resting place of one of the twentieth century's Kreal controversial Ngures.

that they would be even more astonished if they went, as I did, search of Inmsay Mac- Donald in Losalemouth his home town.

1

They would axi no Ram- placid sayani Sprouting in the al of this slumbrous town cal the sandy shores of the North

Sen.

How strange...

There is no Rarasay Mac- Tonald statue in Lossiemouth.

No Hamsay MacDonald hall. No Ramsay MacDonald post- carda

I asked Mr Thomas Manson, the town's provost, about this to the massive indifference muinery

best-knowTI of the "Lossi Loon" of all time.

It was clearly new question -for Mr Manion was puzzled. Then he said "I suppose it is true that nothing has ever been done about Ramsay. I suppose that at first it had something to do with his polítics. But now wo just never think about it."

Away in the past someone did give a bronzu cast of the

in pressive MacDonald head to the town, But no

was very sure what to do with it.

It stood on a mantelpiece in the council chambers for years

one

by JOHN QUIGLEY

before anyone even bothered to door and ask if they can walk put u nume on It.

around They think is a private museum. But it is a house. There is nothing of my father there."

How strange the turns of fate. Once the world's Press br- when the deged Lo.siemouth

MacDonald sought the setting of peace there in sand dunes and empty see that he loved.

Cabinet Ministers walked the quiet streets when The Hillocks, MacDonald's house on the out skirts of the town, tele Summer Downing Street.

4

On one occasion then the man who hail started fe in a 2100-ram cottage came home In city,

cheering crowd hauted his car in triumph from the railway station to his house,

But tudna, 22 years after s death, it is most as if there had never been a Ramsay Mac- towns have Donald. Other mike more fun of u departed J.P.

In search of an answer to this new, modern riddle of Ramsay MacDonald I visited

let- world house in a bnek street of Lossiemouth,

Thore lives Mrs Ishbel Peter- Ein, Ramsay MacDonald's eldest Brughter. She is the only mem- ber of the family now living in the lown and she, too, like the provost, was clearly surprised at my question".

In

"Shrines are bunkum," she said. "I don't get sentimental about my father. History will

za

Six years ago the town coun- ci in

fit of belated 14- flusiarm decided to put a pluque

aside the coltage door.

It in a plaque so unobtrusive as to be almost furtive.

"It

isn't

very

really adequate," says Mrs Peterkin.

Then she took ine to The the riddle Jilocks where deepened even further-where found an even sadder veene.

For weeks at a time in the Britain and Thirties Twenties revolved

modest round this arey stone house. For this was the beloved retreat of the Lossiemouth rebel.

Still the same

When he was Prime Minister a direct telephone line linked it to Downing Street.

In crisis daya crowds camped outside in the street.

And inside, Ramsay Mae- Donald found solace and release.

As the crowds waited, the sound of his scratchy gramos phane used to waft out frac still air with sounds of Ber- thoven, Bach and Harry Lauder,

Today the house is still join'- ly owned by his two sons and three daughters. But none them lives there.

And today the house

of

where

prove him right. Even now high state secrets were discussed people are realising that what is let out in flats,

he did was not only right but sincere and that he remain- ed a man of the people the dlad."

Almost furtive

Two photographs of her father a typically worried pose looked out from a corner,

Mrs Peterkin led me window and pointed to a cottage fisherman'a row only a few yards from her own front door,

to a

That is where my father was barn," she said "People from all over the world knock at the

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The arden where Ramsay MacDonald used to attack the grass with a sicklo is derelict. Weeds lean against the vecka- dth where he loved to sit and loaks out at the golden Korse

bloom dancing on a North Sea breeze.

Beide me, almost as if she know my thoughts, the voice of

Mre Peterkin said: "We really must get the pince tidied up a bit sometime."

Famous lines

Need this frighten you when you

SOBIGUD

fly?

A reassuring answer to the question in many minds after the air disaster in Italy... PEOPLE

are killed in their homes, in fields, and on golf courses by lightning. That is a scientific fact, proved a thousand times over the years.

It is also a fact that the chances of it happening to you are about as great-or as poor-as your hopes of winning the biggest treble chance football pool.

But be sure of one thing. As far as Rghining is concerned, the rufest place to be in a thunderstorm is in an airplane,

Disccun hen the snap blame the eye-witnesses and Italian air authorities have put on light- ning as the cause of the disaster near Mian which ecet 08 lives.

by ARTHUR BRENARD

TI-

60 I talked to airline and technical perts to find out if they shared ny scepticism.

If you are going on your holidays by air this year-an sklypers milions are—you can be certain Izar thut you have nothing to from the summer thunderstorms which are purt and parcel of the good hot weather you expect to enjoy while away.

Why do I say this even after of the Italion the reports disaster?

I read those first reports with scepticism.

For nearly 30 years I have been a regular traveller by air

but for lately as a patsenger thousands of hours as a стем member of bolli civil and mill- tury planes of all sorts of shapes and sizes in nearly all parts of the world.

Many times I have tensed and felt that cold knot form in the the when pk of my stomach bang of a Hghtning strike rose the engines above the roar, of und the perid tanell of burning ulphur-and sometimes rubber --offended my nostrils. But my tension was never justified

There was never more than a smalt hole in the fuselage and a that useless radio set to show lightning had struckt.

33

:

ho n

All that would happen would small Dash where the lightning struck and met re- sistance before it was safely carried on through the neropians

its way und sent on

spilt

Mi that the

1 report that they all do. Firmly and confidently. With

second later. ene voice they dlemiss the map

True the radio, if it is left on judgment

**2303- italian

can be wrecked by such u strike burned-cut valves sensical,"

and And here are their reasons. All aircraft

"bonded." insulations would waft Gre That means that every single unpleasant emelt around

cabin and cockpit. piece of metal in the plane is

That Is of good conductor

But that is all, joined by electricity with every other scientific fact proved beyond all piece of metal.

doubt after millors of hours of fing and countless thousand of lightning strikes.

Lightning, then, is po danger to you on your holiday trip by nir.

Turbulence

39

д

Therefore the plane whole, electrically, is one piece of incial.

What then was the danger in that Italian storm?

There are no gaps to cause un What is the most likely cause 20 of the disaster if all possible are of electricity should

technical faults are eliminated ectric charge build up in one

.the to escape to and

weither conditions art and want

part less heavily alone are to be blamed? mother charged or a different pole.

It is also a perfect conductor the plane should be in the direct path of a lightning dis- charge from me cloud to un-

the other or from a cloud to ground.

The answer la turbulence—a swirl of madly heaving air clawing thousands of feet Into the sky like a supersonic devil's cauldron.

Explain the experts: "Light- ning is the visible manifestation

at a thunderstorm. And a through the 'soft' areas the

The

t

screen shows.

It is wisest, of course, to y Fround the storm and avoid it altogether. And if the clorm is really a bad one to stay on the ground until it has passed or turn back if you are already in the air."

Inunderstorm is the result of n cloud formation We airmen krow AS cumulus-nimbus - "run" for short.

"Due to changea of pressure the air in the cloud nëse kround rises rapidly until sometimes reaches a speed of overal hundred miles an hour.

But it may be said by anyone "Remember, in 11

air med planning an

trip this ure airliner you

travelling of summer--"Is there any danger much as 400 to 500 miles an

of my plane being smanbed by hour, and if you hit this up- such turbulence?" word surging air at that speed the stresses on the wings of the plane can be disastrous,

A freak

"It is perfectly simple reclly. Imagine going over a foot-high bump in n car going 20 mica an hour. And then going over it at 70 miles" an

how.

imagine

"A the slower speed your springe might complain but you would certainly get broken-ones at the high speed.

Tals te

problem well understood by airline captains. Most airlines have storm warn Ing radars which sitetch Intensity of tho

the

storm on a

My answer la: Certainly not. The chances are quite as re- mole an repetition of the Titanje disaster,

n

For there is nothing, even in the most abnormal storm con- dition, that cannot be avoided by the run-of-the-mill airline pilot using his normal Instru- ments and weather information.

Just as there is no longer any real risk of the stately Queen's hitting a rock or en leeborg on their Atlantie trips between Southampton and New York.

You can be certain, my ex- perta agree with me, that the itollan disaster WOB D freak calamity on the same scale as the Andrea Doria collision.

IN OTILER WORDS, THERE IT IS NO REASON WHY "The rule is to avoid the SHOULD EVER HAPPEN

turbulent-areas AGAIN. hard-wildly

reduced speed

keren.

and

Av

nt

-London Express Service),

Hovercraft: how the U.S.

is grasping the big chance

Two years

ago Christopher Cockerell flew a model of his invention (the hovercraft, so suc- cessfully demonstrated to Press and public this month in the Solent) over the carpets of Whitehall.

Everyone present thought it pretty; no one thought of using it. Except some omelais at the Ministry of Supply, who expressed their enthusiasm by classifying It "secret" and burying it for a year. was

when I at last. But almost despairing of Anding even one litte crystal of senti- ment a chink did appear. In the astonishing steel curtain of stoicism that surrounds the minory of Ramsay Machoпaki.

At the end of a narrow pass- age on the top floor of The locks there is white door that is always locked. Teannts of the house are never allowed inside.

Washington

A report Just released from suggeals that if Mr Cockerell had flown his model over some of the Pentagon carpets he might now be a rich man.

In contrast to the complele

BY ANGELA CROOME

luck of interest by our Services na large assault craft for land- al

hovercraft possiblitles in ing the

in

1957, the American armed beaches.

Lorces have been trying to ochfeve

Rear hovercraft ever since

on Marines

A small private firm, Nation- later this summer. A large, Research Associates Inc., water-bus version is expected hostile currently employing 15 people # small has recently gained contract from the U.S.. Tank and it has plready Command test-flown a small model of the Hight cavalry tank vorlety craft.

Admiral R.

Bennett, Mra Peterkin turned key the Korean war. And, so far, Chief of Naval Research des

have failed to produce anything cribed the fret project as an and showed me in.

beyond a good mary design ideat killer-able to place, a studles, and one or two bomb or charge directly on the reliable scale models.

of

Old-fashioned prints Elgin Cathedral decorate the walls. In the centre of the door stands a big desk. And in the corner a single This the room where: Mac- Donald slept and worked.

"We have not changed any-

PRACTICAL BOOK CO., Hongkong thing" said Mrs Peterkin.

ANY FIRM USING THE NAME APPLIED TO OUR

"ZORIC"

DRYCLEANING SYSTEM HAS NO CONNECTION WHATSOEVER WITH THE UNDERMENTIONED CO.

PLEASE TELEPHONE DIRECT TO

59195

FOR COLLECTIONS AND. DELIVERIES

THE STEAM LAUNDRY CO.

No, 1. Kwong Wa Streef, Kowloon.

On the floor in one corner ure MacDonald's favourite grama- phone records.

Books and omnements

Phenomenon

un-

enemy tubmarine by radio com- mand from the mother skip and scoot away to safety.

The US Army is interested

The verbatim report of three in a hedge-hopping amphibious days of hearing this spring be- tank or Bren-gun-corrier. fore the US. Congresalonal

Water bus

The vehicle will operate at ve feet above the ground. The version will have combat wheels. Using these "it could be driven in and out of buildings and along city streets and when Committee on Selence and This would act as a kind of there are no paved surfaces Astronautica on "the ground-air-cavalry, for reconnaissance, could lift itself off the ground cushion phenomenon" other close support and forays. They and traverse such surfaces wise hovercraft and its close re- expect tuve such vehicles by snow, ice. mud, desert lations makes fascinating read- 1965.

llo

about in confusion.

Mrs Peterkin looked about:

"Some day we may do soine

Ing.

thing about With room,"

the

anid,

cated

That night as I drove away from Lossiemouth I passed the field where a Beather-helmeted MacDonald used to land in an open, two-seater Hawker Fury.

On those flights from London

he used to read poetry. One of his favouritea was Christina Rossetti's famous lines: When I am dead, my dearest,

Sing no sad songs for me; Plant thou no roses at my head,

· Nor shady cypress tretj Be the green grass about me

With showers and dewdropą)

wet;

And thou wilt, remember,

And if thou wilt, forget.

--London Express Äervice).

During these hearings Con- Natural

gressmen became quite intoxi-

.

and Aretle fundra."

EL

sands

The most specincular cushion- craft results described at the hearings were those of Space- tronics Inc., which has not had a Brigadier General F. H. Brit- cent from the government and these novel craft-not only for ton of the army's research and runs on a staff of three people naval and military purposes,

described at present. In 18 months time Spacetronics Hydro-Air

by the possibilities of

but for a variety of commercial development office,

such vehicles as "tying in the the

uses from lock-skipping barges nap of the earth," and able, as Sport Vehicle will be on the to wheelchairs, and of course, for centuries armies of the market to the public for 4,000

by the obvious delights of a

boat.

combined sports car and speed world have done, to make use dollars.

and natural of wood, hill features to gain cover and con-

I will carry six people and but the cealment

unlimited as 1,000lb. of luggage two They even. dlocussed

feck hovercraft's hopes of climbing ground-bound cavalry has been above smooth ground and water samo features 19 surfaces at 100 mph. For opera- mountains (and stairs), and by these

tion over water at maximura exploring the face of the moon, mobility.

speed it will be 20ft. long and zött. wide.

The U. S. Navy in interested "You are from these vehicles In hovercraft for two purposes; where you get ground cover, and

radio-controlled

during Automatic only expose yourself nati-jubruarine platforms, ang arting and then get back out"

盛

A prototype la to be "blown" from the Chesapeake to Miami

to be on the market next year, also.

At an alr show this spring a Arst man-carrying legt-model, built out of second-hand parts (a 12 h.p. motor for the air- pump and a 0 hp, engine for thrust and control) was demon- atrated publicly by the inventor. Now the company has its Arst order from Congressman G. Fulton of Pennsylvania, one of the committee members, "Deliver it to me in Pittsburg -we want more people like you In this economy."

has a

Congressman Fullen message for us as much as for the Americans.

(London Express Service).

THIS FUNNY

WORLD!

GIFTS UNDER 5

"They're all $4.98"

CHON