1961-02-27 — Page 1

THE CHINA MAIL. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1961.

BRAZIL'S ANSWER TO CASTRO HE JUST

A revolution and, for a change, a bloodless one. It is taking place in South America, hot bed of insurrection, where JANIO QUADROS, new President of Brazil, aims to change the country's whole way of life

ORD

Eight years' jail for unpaid £265

WIFE-HATER FRED WINS FREEDOM

From ALAN WATKINS

NEW YORK.

JANIO QUADROS, "the tramp who talks like a don,” is capitalism's answer to Fidel Castro. This shabbily-dressed ex-provincial schoolmaster and former lawyer is 43 and entered politics only 13 years ago. Now he is the new President of Brazil, South America's largest republic, and is Castro's one rival for the emotional leadership of Latin-America.

He is a right-winger and takes pride in his country's growing economic noblevements. With good reason. He can claim to have been personally respon- elble for many of them. As a famous Dutch admiral once swept the seas with a broom tied to his masthead, Quadros uses the broom for his symbol as he sweeps away the web of racketeering which for centuries has entangled Brazilian fr.

Quadros was born in Mato Grosso, the son of a doctor. He read inw and fought literature in a smail secondary school, But us the years possed he became increasingly dissatisfled. For he realised that because so many middle-class Brazilians

kept clear of politics and asked only for a quiet life, power was in the hands of a corrupt few. He

dagusled with was

much o what was going on around him and determined to change it.

Brazilian polities have always been boisterous with more than a him of fares. In no other country could a local election have been won on a write-in yote from rhinoceros; only in Brazil could a goat be elected to A city council. Such goings-on were commonplace unil Qua- dros' broom swept into action.

Quadros set out to clean up Sao Paulo where he was living In 1947. With no political mac- hine to back him, with only his meagre wages to finance his campaign, he talked his way into the city council. His opponents contemptuous of this ragged firebrand with his unruly shock of black hair, his Grou cho Marx moustache, his dark, restless eyes. They were con vinced he would never rise further.

were

They were wrong. He was elected Mayor of Sao Paulo City by an overwhelming majority. He became State deputy. Within a couple of years bis baltered hat hung in the en- trance hall of the luxurious State governor's palace.

un-

Quadros was the most orthodox governor in Brazilian history. He wrote dispatches to the Cabinet in verse, but how ever much their biting wit made the Government and the public laugh; few failed to realise that bis poems were a veiled attack on many aspects of Brazilian

He was determined to clean.

AFTER spending eight and a half years in a Woodland, California, jail, fi 67-year old Fred Block is frce. His offence: refusing to pay £265 to his wife under a court order. And he has still not paid. He was released "in the best interests of the taxpayers."

"Sure,

Fred said he did not want to of people think he's off his Block confirms that he could get married in the first place. rocker. The truth is he's crazy afford the money.

"Just Ile explains:

farming like a fox. along with my brother was happy.

"But this woman she was a schoolteacher-she was all the time crowding me: 'Let's ket married, Fred; let's get mar- ried.

"I tried to stall her as much as could. But when a woman sets her mind on marriage, there's nothing a man can do unless he joins the army or leaves the country. A marriage minded woman can wear ಬ elephant down. 1 finally went and did it."

That was in 1920. The mar- ringe was never Ideallly happy though there were two daughters-and 10 years the break-up come.

CHOICE

age

Fred objected to paying all the bills when his wife was working. "She wanted me in Dey everything," he said.

"He's got more than 4,000 dollars put away. He just does not want to pay it. He's ware down the county and they have let him go free. If I have my way, he'N go back to jail.

had more than 750 dollars. could have paid my wife any time."

But he is adamant..

"T going to fight her to the last ditch, Because It's not the money, it's the principle. Just don't deserve it."

LOYALTY:

She

By

Simon Kavanaugh

COULDN'T POP THE QUESTION

SCENES FROM MARRIED LIFE. By William Cooper.

Macmillan. 16s.

[ARRIAGE seems all too easy for most men to fall Minto. Before they know where they are

they're hooked, and perhaps only their brides know exactly what happened,

was

There were lots of girls,

and

panel of Quadros' financial ex- came to London for an opera parts and ordered to do some tion which saved his left eye. fost explaining.

The head of the world's

But to Joe, the narrator of "Icw months Sno greatest coffee producing nation this extremely funny novel, Within a Paulo was turned into the most has also made the startling pro-

Just the Londoners that

opposite. prosperous and honest stale. In nouncement

Ho Brazil. The public were delight- brew belter coffee than

New simply could not get himself

married. ed with Quidros; when he att Yorkers. nounced he would oppose Mar, Quadros Is married to A shal Lott in the presidential charming brunelte named Elga, elections they rushed

to his They have one daughter, pretly all the conditions of marriage support, wearing the symbolic 16-year-old Dirse, whom Brazi-were present except the actual broom in their lapels.

Bans affectionately call Tulu ceremony. The campaign was crowded Her popularly reached a peak with drama. Ignoring oppor- during the cicction campaign ents who smeered that he had when she slipped quietly away deliberately torn holes in bis with a 24-year-old newspaper suits before appearing in public, man and married without fuse Quadros delighted in his role in Sao Paulo. of the little man standing up to the massive political machine. Only at the last moment did the powerful right-wing party, the National Democratle Union, offer him support. And he ac- cepted it on condition that he was not bound to carry out their policy if he took office.

Unshaven, dishevelled, Quadros swent to easy victory over the inarticulate Marshal Loft. Hl molte was: "the penny against the million,” his policy, when he was pressed to outline it, was "adaptable according to circum- stances."

Now that he has moved into

the magnificent Presidential

*

WH3

He found himself contimially putting off the act of proposal until eventually the affair terminated or petered out.

This inability was, as he and his friend Robert decided, "his recurring pattern."

Readers of Mr Cooper's bril- liant earlier novel, Scenes from Provincial Life (now reissued by Penguin Books at 3s. Ed., and strongly recommended) have met Joe and his recurrlag not pattern before.

in his Putney flat. But that pro- posal of marriage, which" ho keeps meaning to make, never will come out.

It gets, more and more embar-

rassing unil at long last, almost accident IL one day does. And before minds can be changed. the are hitched up in a matter of days.

The amazing thing to Joe is that marriage so long delayed turns out to be wonderful success. But there are other ups and downs, two particularly mosty downs. He alt but gets manoeuvred out of his job, and It takes all Robert's skill to out-

Then his new novel runs into obscenity trouble. The novel has described sex (as this one daca) us actually enjoyable. The pub- lishers are scared and call in their fathead lawyer to persuade him that such a view is likely "to corrupt and deprave. any young people into whose hands It should fall."

"The country loved her for de- liberately avoiding pomp. "We wanted to get married while ALL TROUBLE wit the enemy. Daddy Is still Daddy and pot the next president" she Ex- plained. And she added a typical | Tulu-Em": "Daddy can beat the reat of politics, but 1 can still beat him at chesi.”

Quadros is teaching his coun- trymen that honesty should be taken for granted and treated as a rare virtue worthy

In that book he was a young of roward, He set about this task in subtle fashion. When he man. Now he is approaching was governor of Sao Paulo, ho 40 and the pattern persists. learnt that a 14-year-old boy is a novelist and a civil servant. Joc (like the author himself) found £54 in the street and handed it in to the pollee.

praised

Its navels are le

SO WITTY

callics, fortilled by the success of Bus he copes with these dif-

Mr Cooper has a delightfully

room,

pakce in Brazil's new capital, Brasilia, Quadros is getting down to the task of Improv "Marvellous", exclaimed Qua- but do not sell very ing the national economy,

dros. "Anyone who returns only a temporary civil servant, his marriage, and he ends up the He has declared it his aim to

money not belonging to Pzina j war entrant, and is continually proud father of an enchanting turn Benzll into a Western con- deserves to be protected by the in trouble with his pompous, little girl. sumer's paradise before Castro

government." He made the sur- permanent bosses. manages to dominate the entire prised boy a palace messenger In fact he only keeps his jcb continent, to rid her of the in- with the official minimums salary by the cleverness of his influen- sly, conversational way of putting feriority complex which has for of £10 a week. And he made tial friend. Robert, who is a over his comedy. He might be centuries been a feature of sure that the news leaked to the few years older and a rung sitting with you in your Latin-American outlook - the Press.

higher in the Civil Service.

sloping your brandy, and talking product of fear and ruthless ex-

about his life and the people in This is the story of how Joe it. So witty and beguiling is he ploitation by foreign countries.

posed

to the polley taking decided to tackle his recurring that you would keep alling his * honesty for granted. Quadros, pattern, which is going full swing

the glass in at when the novel opena. htt almed to Paulo however, São

wouldn't stop. Brazil's national conscience by should be regarded as an ex- exposing the unique nature of being kept hanging about, and Sybil has got browned off with ample of successful capitalism,

And you wouldn't, notice that Brazil is brawny enough

such an event.

has left him. But meanwhile he had not through a whole bottle, in her own right to treat the with nias

Janio Quadros does not prick has met Elspeth, and decided in much less complain. It would

when he can luncea flash that she is the one for have been so well worth it. foreign investor as a working with the sword. partner rather than a polential

him. She gets virtually installed

-(London Express ServiOS), slave owner.

*

He insists that

He is no doctrinaire. He is

that

up Sao Paulo. He ordered every willing to talk to Castro, payroll to report to their re- man and woman on the State Khrushchen, President Kennedy new ruler of his own age- spective offices on n eertain and anyone else with something morning for what he described to offer. "To hell with ideolo- as "a personal inspection." So gies business is business" he many turned up that they could says. But he is certain not cram into the legislative capitalism can raise living stan building some arrived without dards faster than ony form of even knowing where they were state socialism. supposed to work,

Quadros docs admit to being Political appointees who had strongly pro-British. He is an been drawing fat salary cheques avid reader of British history, for years without doing an has studied her constitutien, and hour's work found themselves he owes her doctors a personal bauled before a grim-faced debt of gratitude. Last year he

A NEW ANGLE ON THE

GILBERT HARDING CONTROVERSY.

What should

"IT is amusing to tel!

these ties now.

I was not amused at the

a servant

got so mad I threw her out of time. Gilbert in a tower- Gilbert Harding fell dead on the it to £1,000

the house and locked the door.

"Next thing I knew the cops ing rage was

tell?

Because doesn't it seem down- secretary, poorly paid because proximity to a man whose own right disloyal for a private secre- he had never studied shorthand, personality, was larger than life. try to rush into print with a When he came to Harding his During his master's Hetime, book like this at any time, let salary was £0 a week.

the author explains to us, part of alone only a few weeks after Soon his employer had raised his duties was to ward of tele- а усог, with a phone inquires about rumours of an awe have never

steps of the B.B.C.7

generous yearly bonus into the rows and scenes in pubs and bars met Gilbert bargain. came and got me and threw me inspiring sight. I had Harding's

Finally, he was made where Gilbert hit someone or in all. They let me out, and

cx-secretary, but a director of Gilbert Harding's someone hit Gilbert. not known him for very his employer always spoke company. the law

his

Not

word about these And all the time he was being came after megan with long, and I won't pre- qualities: his helpfulness, his given su entree to a way of life incidents appeared at the time. court order in August 1081, tend that I wasn't patience, and, above all,

his that was not only beyond his The secretary was admirably saying I had to pay 730 dollars i

financial but also his social and discreet then. (£205)."

So when I read at the time of mental means. The Rox July a

his funeral how his secretary He superior court "judge offered This is what Mr Roger had been led away, weeping. "My job gave me A him the chalce of paying the Storey writes in his book

I stayed away from her,

"But pretty soon

frightened of him."

California

money or going to Jait. Fred published about his eight

chose fall.

Though hó unde two unsur-

ressful escape bids, Fred was

years as private secrotury

to Gilbert Harding.

not unhappy. He received hun. Of course, Mr Storey

dreds of fan letters from every nart of the world-ali tron meri And in fall he never did any heavy work.

enthusiastically

loyalty.

about

confesses 60 himself

by GODFREY WINN

2

out now,

Why drag them when the fire and fury of the sezial protagonist's life is over? Have they any real, any lasiing Importance at all?

many

Of course, there are references in the book to Gilbert Harding's work for charity, and his generosity. Hawas, as every- one knows, a most generous man. And I will take a bet that when his will is published short- ly it will be shown that a sum has been left to the secretary. But more than money was the next bequeathed to Roger Storey. Ho

which with my normal provincial mýddle-clans background and lack of attain

had never known before."

need no longer be afraid of from his master's grave, I felt standing Gilbert's wrath. But why pity and sorrow.

he

He

Play cards. Talk with some of

should think it I and myself wondering now ments describes the routine: "amusing" to shatter the whether my sympathy was not Get up at auven. Eat breakfast, public image of the man I misplaced. Clean up a little. Lic «around.

do not understand.

In the course of

the

sort of life on the outside," inclients," dug up how for

he says.

PRINCIPLE

public display.

Mr

Storey ndmits that he has "neither the know by duty-free

as a

of

It is not that the book is in sight years, Mr Storey had the was also left the highs trust of My friends. Eut touch. Rest I certainly did not And the any sense a concentrated vicious up. Play cards. Read a bit. Have stories that the ex-secretary has attack on the master, the hand privilege of meeting a multi- his office, the title that he uses

the cover supper food's pretty good. to tell at all funny, for they that fed blm,

tude of the famous figures of the with pride upon Watch television. Go to bed, consist chiefly of what

world of entertainment, politics, his book-PIVATE Secretary

Where is the Instead, on almost every page and pubile affairs.

privacy now? "Man can hardly beat that author describes as "disfiguring there are aly digs, such

I enn't help fooling that reference to the return

What brilliant and stimulat- many other roaders beside my- of his employer on one occasion from ng conversations he must have self, as they turn over the pages, himself abroad "flamboyantly influenced listened to. Yet nothing of that will feel a sense of shame for liquor on the side of his master's life is re- the disher-up of all this squalla

tittle-tatute, captured.

Loyalty to one's country, 10 emerges now many will feel is The author admits in poor taste.

Instead, except for the recur- si creed, to an employer, is only when Harding took

ring revelations of rows and mart of the most Important Into his service ho had drunken brawls, i la all trivio, loyalty of all: forally to one's achieved nothing in his own written down in the flat, un- inner conscience. career. An unsuccessful, small distinguished style part actor, he had given up the who, one can't help feeling, has position I could not have written of someone Ilad & teen in. Mr Storeta-

stage and . takten...... à post, as a 'nothing to sail except his chance, this book, Could your

Fred's wife, now divorced, remarried and working Sacramento, Collfornis, refusen

to give her side of the story Her lawyer 5030:-

"I am going to do everything

possible to collect that motivy

for her. No man in this coyne

ledge nor experience to attempt homeward plane."

biography.' And what

And not just that.

* Gilbert Harding (Bdr try is beyond the law. A lot vie and Rocklift $157,

that

im

Such ostentation

seems op-

JAK GOES CLIMBING

that hope

he

he

*Well, so much

for the fenthills

Condes Ekirssa perrlan