1959-10-26 — Page 4

THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1959.

JAK IN THE GYM

IT GOES ON AIR-AT 60 m.p.h.

THE

זין

"MIND YOU, HE RIDES A PUNCH WELL!'

FUTURE OF THE

London piens Seria

IAM

Americans will be able to buy-it-next month, And the price ?-From £3,500;

I drive a wonder

AM riding on air. There is nothing between me and the ground except a one-foot-deep cushion of compressed air.

This is the first report on the air car of tomorrow. It is America's land counterpart of the British flying saucer.

And it is all so simple. No gear changes to worry about. No hand or foot brakes. No clutch. No chance Nt all of being held up by that outdated mishapa puncture.

OPPOSITION: THE AGONISING REAPPRAISAL

THE way Britain is governed deponds almost as much on a healthy and vigorous Opposition as on a sound Government. But today the Labour Party is picking itself up in pieces after a massive repudiation of the week policies it has traditionally stood for. This PAGE FOUR begins

20 examination of how effective Opposition can be built from the remnants of electoral disaster. The first writer: a leading young intellectual of the Left:

ап

LL over London (but

ALL

chiefly in Hamp-

stead) discreet Socialist gatherings were taking

place in the past fort- night.

by Paul

Johnson

There have been pro- national figure during the cam- tracted and anxious poign, and is now more Armly long-distance calls to the entrenched in the Midlands and the North, than ever before.

where

other Socialist

leaders were licking

,

For

a start,

BEGINS

the name Socialist will have to go

(AND IT'S A LEFT-WINGER SAYING IT)

car

from PÉTER VANE [NEW YORK

in fact-look, no wheels! pong ball at a shooting gal-

lery. For the last half-hour I

fro But there is no bobbing have zoomed, to and across a New Jersey airfield sensation. The blea of escaping uir is almost entirely muffled by In a prototype of the the engines which, in turi, go are not a lot nolier than un world's first air car to

And the vibra- into commercial production. ordinary car.

tion is comparable to the It will be on sale next smooth-ranning

British VIS-

month.

count plane.

The makers claim that any-

How would you like to one who can drive a car cùn be able to glide through learn to handle an alt car in the air with the greatest two hours. This is no exaggera- The air car is a joy to of case at about 60 miles on.

an hour. To be able to ride in. No bumps. No lenks, skim over

earth. water, swamp, ice, or snow with. out so much as a wisp of a worry about skidding?

Steering is simplicity itself. There is one buste control-a joystick-type. steering wheel.

A gentle push forward and vents along the car are opened You can do it if you can to allow escaping air to giva afford between £3,500 and forward thrust. The wider they are opened the faster you £5,000. That is the travel, For reversing, the

car.

estimated cost of the air stick is pulled towards the body.

And it looks us if the

That is all. A mere move- makers, the Curtis-Wright ment of the stick to either side Corporation, are going to is enough to turn the air car, make a lot of money.

Two engines

These are the Faceless Men of For what starts rolling Socialism, and it is inconceivable off the assembly lines next that the Liberals-who place the month could well be the highest premium on individual

..

This is ploneering pocked with futt. I am sitting in a sports car, speedboat, goods truck, and helicopter all rolled into one.

I got a glimpse into the future from the hundreds of inquiries and potential orders which have poured into the maker's offices.

An ell company. 1s thinking ki the merit will agree to coalesce all-purpose utility vehicle please This will not

terms of a feet of air Cars for with a party which retains them of the future, Bul Abdullamites*. tho Socialist

they no longer possess the power es its sheet-anchor.

This is no American surveying 1 ol! pipe lines stretching &CTOS! the desert to impose a velo

The new party will have to be luxury gimmick toy but wastes of the Middio Enst..

leadership "W!ll Jo Grimond play?" Under to return the government they

what precise, concrete arrange- criticised rather than risk ments can a merger of the wo elternative of Socialism. parties or even an alliance--be hrought about?

No scapegoat

Morgan

their wounds and pon- dering over the casualty possible squeak of energy out of an obvious

figures.

Agony

ΠΟ

Liberalism clearly tas future 11 merely continues to Scannibalise Labour.

For this Ja now scen Phillips got the inst

conclusion to be

The machine,

probably drawn from an analysis of the end saved the party half-a-dozen election figures. scats.

Bevan and Cousins remained discreetly in tite background

Castle Barbara

possible Earnest economists have candidate for scapegoat - nat been commuting from Ox- only retained her desperately ford and Cambridge. The vulnerable seat but dramatically dry sherry has flowed free increased her majority. ly. The dry humour has been stopped at the source,

bo

If the Socialists are ever again to achieve office, that There is simply no culpable right wing will have to neck on which the uxe can fall. recovered no matter what In short, it is idens, not men, the price in terms of policy

The and personality.

for

F

But his price, though limited, is precise; the abandonment of Socialism, os Q system of public ownership.

Swing

the

key

a merilocrtcy.

Romething

which could

It will also and I believe this turn the whole idea of to be crsential have to possess a new name.

Fortunately, an modern transport upside

at down. apt and honourable one is hand.

Radicals

of

The machine I flew in is a clumsy effort compared with the sleek-lined craft- for production. designed But its performance is really something to excited about.

get

Sheer delight

Farmers in the vast parched acres of Kansas see the air car

the &S

only possible mobile method of inspecting their miles of ditch-irrigated lands. They feel that they can kiss goodbye to hours of weary-

coon

ing foot slogging.

Pestmen who serve outlying areas would be thrilled if they knew of the U.S. Post office's interest in the air cur,

Bevan is now virtually cut the running for office, and has lost his following among Hence, Crimond is ready constituency workers.

bid-as take-over

Cousins,

deplje his Labour fought the battle on ready, indood, as Labour is position as leader of the Trans- port and general Workers, has failed to follow the singularly the assumption that the Liberals to make it, Tepresented the left wing of the Tory electorate.

Instead, they

trades pattern of his predecessors and

the mood of the turned out to be the right wing

In the great days of 19th- ot

century pf Labour.

reform, before Marx union movement.

succeeded in diverting Small clusters of Socialist had

thinking tropressive

into theoretical channels, die-hards will struggle on parrow,

the small band men who It is powered by two

In the pace

parliament

of neither

aircraft-type engines united

For the military top brass in ΠΟΤ class. But they 300 horse power. A flick"

Ultie; common

of the ignition key, a few Washington the arrival of the air car has been nothing but themselves Radicals.

seconds while the air built

sheer delight. "Oh, if only we'd up beneath the craft, and had a few ficcts of these for the suddenly I was 1 ft. taller. D-Day landings," a brigadier "What a difference Hovering like 2 giant told me.

they would have made." bumble-bee.

And there is a place for the Two powerful propellers, housewife in this flying saucer Bet in tunnel-like chambers, age. A leading vacuum cleaner maker has produced a floating beneath the cleaner. push out air

it blows exhaust air air car.

It holds you in out beneath the canister and much the same way as naway it floats, never touching the

ground. water-jet supports u ping-

After the Tory debacle of 1906, which are now under trial. Balfour got a note from Lady mood is similar to that of the Salisbury which read simply Torics In 1945, when Mr Butler Fortunately for the Socialists, "DnDn, Dn." This

was called in to give the party the price has been. kept within has not been the mood of the

a mid-20th century look. His reason by the magnitude of the Sodalist leaders in the agony answer was to replace traditional Liberals' own defeat.

decisive defeat Conservatism with Liberalism of their most since 1931. There has been no Cursing there w-112 be recrimination.

Indeed, there is nobody to

blame. Gaitskell emerged as

3

in forgotten corners; but the set

were On all other issues-on foreign

A civil liberties, party as

whole will Ideology offairs, defence,

hod colonies-the positions of

swing to the called the two parties are similar or gradually even identical.

Gaitskell-Grimond axis.

the

What the Liberals will not

A new centre party, claiming stomach, and what the Socialists

replace the traditional

It now seems very likely that to Labour will opt for the same extremes, must be able to prove can no longer persuade ever a It can take voles from both. question, This the Liberals have signi relative majority of the elce- Excup: in

formula.

The dominan!

a indeed, at the gatherings was: flcantly falled to do.

the unusual circumstances of turate to stomach, le nationalisa North Devon, their few victims tion. It will have to an, and i were invariably Serialists.

Disgruntled Tory voters re- believe it will go soon. ferred,

when the choice came,

by

they

There will always be a place for Radicalism in British political

ilfe.

Ner will this be all. One of the factors in the Socialist deleat

It is now the task of was the dingy medicerity of its

of Them Gaitskell and Grimond muny selected simply on the basis of

to fill it. candidates, trades union service.

group of disgruntled 19th century MPM In permanent opposition.

Tomorrow: MORE SOCIALISM

(London Express Service),

UPERT

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الالافني

the relapse is heart-breaking anough, Mr. Wilson, but this one sang so well in the choir