1960-09-02 — Page 6

Weekend selection by Friell

"We were just wondering, London, if you could make some discreet inquiries of those Burgess and Maclean

fellows we used to rib you about ?

MANNED PLANE FLIES

2,150 Midd

"The trouble is if we go much faster we won't really get storted, before we're over someone else's territory.

"I never have any trouble with our butler. He won't speak to me."

THE CHINA MAIL, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1960.

IN THE BOYHOOD OF LESLIE CHARTERIS LIES A CLUE TO HIS SUCCESS

Is this the secret behind

the Saint?

"AN

the

Safnt

embles.

ND with a face of iron he broke Strange's -—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—---

back across the chair, as one breaks a rotten stick." In his rooms at Cambridge a lanky under- graduate read that sentence with satisfaction. He had just written it himself.

It was the climax of the novel for which he had neglected his studies; which was to estrange him from his father for ever,

At the time you would not have guld it was worth 14.

The novel told how Aristo- eratle Terry Mannering, dis- Ruised us the mysterious musk- ed "X Esquire," crushed a piot lo destroy Britnin by distribut- ag lethof cigarettes which did not retually start to kill und 10 days after they were puffed.

The delayed aelion trad

thase 10 feurful purpose: “In days they would be smoked by millions, and tens of millions not only of those who received gift packets, but those with whom they shared them, and the poison would pass to every- one with whom they spoke...

USUAL TOUR

1

Improbable. yuu Yet let us look at the author of those words 33 years later,

leaves his saint

Mannering loves a laugh. So does the Saint.

Take, for example, his re. setion in a later story when he sees a car belonging to a

whom, he suspects to rotter.

By ROBERT PITMAN

creator of the Saint, and one of the most prosperous authors in the world.

the

How has Charteris done l? while he has been et Connes I have been searching for

formula for his type chemient of success. Here is my report.

First, the central Ingredient, Simon Templar, the Saint him- self.

A year after the Cambridge stony of the nation-killing cig ottes, the world got its first gliange of him in a book onled Meet the Tiger.

START be

„SLIE CHARTERIS

surrounded by aveite women them secopted. And the world Like the Saint, they saunter accepted them too. For all their constantly through a world faults, the power of yearning where cars are high-powered had lit them with an indednable and clothes are immaculnie. poetry and magle.

A SURGEON

What of Cheyney himself? In Who's Who, his entry reach "Major Reginald Evelyn Peter

could the De true of

But you may say Southouse-Chenau. Father suma possibly Arthur William Thonias Charter's too? Could this be Cheyney, Co. Clare, Ireland. the secret ingredient? Is there Cluba: Public Schools, Devon- anything

or under- shire. Recreations: Fencing, privileged in 'his upbringing?

polf?

DEBONAIR

Yet Cheyney's-parents were murried in Limehouse. His father helped with a Ash-stall in Billingsgate. His mother had a little corset business in White chapel High-street.

JOHN

I ALSO STUDJED CREASEX. Today Creasey - has

have

poor

Not poor, certainly, His father won a prosperous surgeon whọ disowned him when he took to mare authorship. Before Cambridge he went to Rossell, the public school.

And before Rounil? Chartoels

was brought up in Singapore. The name of his father, the was 8. C. XI. For Surgeon, Ha father, was Chinese,

of seconds the "For a spser

Saint répartied it, Angering his chin, at first thoughtfully,

a mansion near Sallsbury. Few When I met Leslie Charteris and then with a secret devil more closely. He could find no writers in Britain

ever this summer we talked about of merriment puckering

On the flow there." The girl, Patricia matched his Income. the his days at Rossell when his corners of his eyes. Then he Holms, has embed with him, door panel of his Rolls

name was Bowyer Yin, - weni dow the steps,

fuwbors, and ageless, to this day, inscribed the sign of the here the tool box found

As for Patricia's status, that who brought him fortune, And then,

with with arst Saint book ended moment, loving care, he proceeded to remove the nuts that secret the offside wheel."

Ne

IN A

Д

Such fun. Especially when know that the car cannot you

through plough possibly

people, for crowd of innocent that sort of thing shinply does not happen in the Saint's world. Denth, at his hands, is reserved chiefly for drug-traffickers and tea white-glavers--the sort of people you can enjoy killing slowly without censing to be a gentle-

In the first chapter, after

the might say, drinking

morning brought by his valet, the Saint leaps out of bed, skips for 15 minutes, shadow-boxes for ava minutes, then swims a quarter of a mile at racing speed in the which waits conveniently

He is making his usual sum- mer tour of Europe before ra- turning to his home in Florida.

Seu

But wherever he goes he will people reading his books.

He may not always be able to translate the titles, but Bomé- thing on each cover he will spot from yards away. A pin- figure drawn in scarlet with halo above its faceless head.

BEW

outside,

man.

NO FLAW

race, the valet, bringing along

two cups of morning les;—

"He paused outside a dopr,, and put the cups down so that he But he did not could knock. knock. Instead, he scratched his chin and argued with him- self long and carnestly. Then heeked up the cup again and went back to the galley them himself. and drank

could upset Only me thing Orace's ingrained Benze of discipline, and that was his Ingrained Benac of the proprieties,"

That here was born not long #boy's Mor the Saint, in magazine enlloc The Thriller, Ffls first story began:--

"The unhappiest days of my life," he said.

Not hard to understand why, in those times, for a lonely boy with a Chinese name. Nor hard to see how such a boy should "In the murky saloon bars of later develop the unseen mugle the East End of London, and which can speak to the under- the countless grimy

doss privileged ml the unhappy

houses in the side-streets dreumers the world over." where the scum of the earth

10108

AL

Д

vot drunk and the chief topic For that in what Charteris of conversation

erline, has done--and sometimes with they called the Hon. Richard bizarre results. Again and again Rollison the Tof?

In the newspaper alles there-are cases where juvenile pilferozs Like the Saint, Creasey's Toff have left the sign of the Saint ip suave, dobonair, impeccably at the scene of their crimes. diegod. Yet note when his And the Park-jane glitter of creator's cancer began.

Fulhem when the Saint? Could foreign blood counal sohool the head mastur told a small square with that too?

Well, remember that when bay

with

pollo limp:

Bowyer Yin was at some day you could young

Rossall, a novel about Mayfair make a living from writing."

by an author called Dikrez Creasey left school at 14. Ho Kouyoumjlan was still the rage. Thirty-two years ago, soon

become an office boy. Often be He was, en Armenian, after his first bout of skipping

1 STUDIED THE LATE was on the dole. Yet ceaselessly His novel was called The and shadow-boxing, the Saint

slories Cheyney's he scribbled

about Green Hat and ha Pen-name noticed an interesting girl in PETER CHEYNEY. the local village. ("He had the heroes have the ethics of the Immaculate, athletic, aristocratic was Michael Arian

heroes. her face Saint. Like the Solni, they ate

In the end Creasey got chance of observing

So at first sight the Saint Is Yet with all that exercise the not far different from the heroes

10

of a thousand bays thrillers. Saint cannot be said be a advance Dn Terry

Sex? major

first immacu Mannering, the lately clad Charteris hero.

Mannering, as the mysterious In any language that means X Eequire, leaves a daubed X his outrages: book by Lestle Charteris, at the scene of

a

The reader never gets further beyond that door than Orace.

What then is the secret

that has brought "Cressy.. ingredient Charteris success? For a clue I studied two writers with com- parable success.

IF RUSSIA MOVES INTO THE CONGO IT COULD SMASH THE UNITED NATIONS

Is this the end for Mr. Hammarskjold?

HIGH up in the United Nations building in New

York, on the 38th floor, the windows were alight late the other night..

If you could look through those windows you would see a lonely man bent over his desk. A 55- year-old Swede with blond, receding hair and deep- set, blue eyes, heavy with weariness.

That man is Dag Hammar shewn that it Intends to treat skjold; Secretary-General of the him with contempt and to bring United Nations. For him this all his work down in ruins. day is the most tragic of his whole life. Today he sees the end of all his drums,

As he sits there desperately seeking an answer to the Congo erisis, his faithful staff working

by BRIAN GARDNER

of the

land of steaming jungler and ed as the miracle-man angry politicians.

1950'the cold, super-efficient, Because be known today that calculating Dog Hammarskjold, Kuesla's new move in the Cunzo who was hailed when he arrived of at the United Nations in 1953 could be not only the end

the world's t Career PB International us the answer 10 superman but virtually of the prayers. What position-to be bamboozled and successfully delled by Lumumba, an ex- post office clerk with a criminal record.

nited Nations itself.

'Miracle man

a

When he went to the United Nailons Hammarskjold certainly What a desperate turn of for--looked something like a modern Now "Russia, too, bris finally that he had never heard of that tune for the man who was hail- superman

Not only has he been defied in-shifts, what a tragic figure he - bya petty dictator-in"The Congo. presonis-How

he must wish

(INTO OUT PACE

"A pity they don't invite Mummy to be what, did you say, Herbert?”

His father had been

Prime were

DAG

HAMMARSK

-JOLD

astonishing

ZUMU

He spoke own right. At Suez li was bo Minister of Sweden. He came fluent German, English, and who rallied the United Nations from a family of aristocrats and French as well as fils nutive against Britain and France.

P brilliant infuential intellectuals.

tongue. He was

authority On His attainments, it was said, gonomist; an

Keynes.

He was known as a meticulous seutralist. He had belonged to no political party, although he

Left in fashionably

was

economics.

Dedicated

He was steeped

culture, and

his

in European

soomed

-(London Express Servicz),

In. Kalanga he achieved noth- ing, except that his hand of troops were allowed to stay in a school outside Elisabethvil Ho treated the action 68 thene was nothing for them to personal affront. For days he do,

men studiously Ignored Britain's re- Meantime, Lumumba's

two beat up unarmed Canadian presentatives. But within years cracks bogun to appear soldiers at the airport. in the superman legend.

Finally, Hammarskjold I When America

into been handed Moscow'e_demand Canadian to ward oft the Lebanon.

of for the removal Nasser attempt to take over the troops, country, Hammarskjold

maved

A

was

again affronted. But this time

he could do nothing.

Graver

Somehow this world repuw- the well-known image,

Earlier, he himself had pros to tlan this

But remained.

behind the

the tested to Lumumba OVER make up for his Ignorance on

the pollicions had

way the Canadians had been Africa

and the East, about scenes

stammed the man up. In India, treated, But the Russians have which he knew little or nothing.

Nehru blatantly ignored him insultingly preferred Lumumbs't Ho

had

had

fastidious

Russians vorsion of the incident to over Kashanir. The education.

began to treat his efforts with Secretary-General's. cynical disregard.

#

He had the right sort of training

'ps the backroom power of the Swedish Foreign Omice.

Above all, he was a singularly dedicated man, a bachelor with ปี personal preference working on his own, AU this made him seem, to many, the ideal man to run the Unlied

| Nations executive,

From Moscow

And

the

And that is not all. He must. now fear that Russia is pre pared to Intervene 'with troops. That would mean the virtual now the Congo. No break-up of the United Nationis; United Nations troops for longer well thought of by any The

of the world's leaders, he would have either to fight or phoned frantically round the withdraw. world. He received uæritances Of course, those troops have everywhere. But that was all. had a mejor war on their hands

The Belgians behaved as it before--In

Korea, But i they had never heard of him; Korea they were fighting the unly after repeated requests diti Chinese Commmists, who were they withdraw their troops. not a member nation, :

Nkrumah listened to Em, For Dag Hammarskjöld. When his name was put for-

thes openly went on playing not, let us hope, for the world ward as Becretary-General of

his own game for power in this, is for grover. The recent the United Nations the whole Africa.

NOWE 'SHOTDe to mesin that the world seemed to be in his

Evon when Hamrunarskjold's whole fabric of his power has favour. His appointment was sealed when the Ruslans gave own troops finally arrived, the collapsed for ever,

-(London Express Mervico)) to his humiliations did not ocase,

An affront

a enthusiastic "Yes" nomination.

Qusolly, condently, he took control of the giant slab of glass and concrete" in New York. Carefully he arranged a staff of dedicated Internationalists

pround him,

TUNNED fried grasshoppers, smoked sliced salthe, and beer were among commodities tested by the And soon be was erlabijahing | kimsejt se a world powm in hial Buckinghamshire Public Analyst last yours