1961-03-09 — Page 6

Paris Newsletter

GHOST OF '30s TELLS OF HIS MEETING WITH SIR WINSTON

ΑΤ

By Sam White

T 71, George Bonnet, who was France's Foreign Minister during the appeasement years, is one of the most vigorous and voluble ghosts abroad today.

His step is that of a 10

30 years younger and his eyness, it turns out that he was aight is still good enough to take it well beyond the renge

of that astonishingly long Hose of his which along with Hitler's moustache, Mussolini's jaw and Chamberlain's umbrella

one of the melancholy cartoon symbols of the period.

HIS MEMOIRS

He has just completed n book of memoirs covering those dia- astrous years and I had the chilling experience of discussing

It with him.

The book will give details of what was apparently some- what

interview stormy

Str

only a fool.

MOVING

saga of Lady Diana

THE Cooper's prolonged so-

journ in the Chateau St Firmin is at an end and am happy to write its epilogue.

The chateau, It will be re-

called, was made available to Lady Diana and her late hus band by the French Institute as a weekend home when he was British Ambassador here after: the war.

THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, MARCH 9,

CONSTITUTION TOURS Comfortable (quite) Dignifled (almost)

India

WAY OUT FOR WHITES

1881.

WAY OUT

FOR WHITES

10

Cummings

"The destination's the same, Sir Roy Welensky, but you're perfectly free to choose your transport.....”

London Express-Bervico..

HARLEM SIMMERS People who

TODAY

New York.

in

Harlem, As the cult of black

the black city with.

in New York City, the

nationalism

music shops throb, jun- gathers strength across America

gle drums heat.

There are banner's

Winston Churchill had with him live in it ever since and occa- along crumbling Lenox-

in 1938.

Lady Diana has continued to

sionally to sub-let it.

Then the Institute received Bonnet found Sir Winston letter from Lady Diana an- "very bellicose" and at one Foint when Donnet claimed that

in the event of war Britain

could only provide two divisions

Bir Winston interrupted to say: "In the event of war it is I and zot Chamberlain who will be Prime Minister."

Statin was another one who was diMcult at the tine. He insisted that if Russia were to sign a military alliance, with Billain and France. the Red Army should have the right to move against Germany through Poland and Rumania.

"But these two countries re- fused to have the Russians, sald Mr Bonnel, and he added biandly: "How could we who were going to Aght in defence of small natious force small nations acceptance of the Soviet demand?"

A SHOCK

on two

For ex-

nouncing that she would leaving The chateau next month. HE'S NEXT

avenue and outside the where gaudy cinemas Frank Sinatra is playing in Can-Can. The banners say, "BLACK MAN

Don Iddon's Diary

[19

ARISE. WE STAND sion and the treatment of the Elijah Pool, who calls himself Thin there is the Meslem Who will succeed to

The WITH AFRICA. DOWN negro in this country. The Mohammad, Elijah is obsessed property? For many years

to the Nation of Islam. DO. solution, of course, is the.com- with ambition and lusting foreign ambassadors and others WITH WHITE

envious eyes on MINATION." have cast The Institute has in fact made up its mind as to Lady Diana's successor. She will be pleased to learn it will be someone as distinguished as she is.

It is 23-year-old Henri, Count of Clermont, eldest son of the Pretender to the French throne, the Count of Paris. He is mar- rled to 27 year old Marie- Therese de Wurtemberg and the couple have two children,

A

HOAXER

BOOK has been

D

Harlem, in which New York's 1,000,000 negroes live, is not yet In fermont, bust There are ominous rumbles, could spread at any time.

for power. The headquarters are in Chicago, but there is a thriving branch here in Harlem.

The Nation of islam has a claims

plate acceptance and partner ship of the negro."

Wilking and Edward Lewis, League director of the Urban of Greater New York, both

by making the iems, and violence say that only

coloured man equal can the am- munition be taken from the extremist Doups which urge violence and even talk of a black versus white "war,"

wave

I do not say this. The police at the precinct north of 125th- coloured street, most of themn themselves, gay I.

A black nationalisi

tenements.

A desire

Since

publication which America has 250,000 black Mos- I would put the figure at about one-third of that,

A nation

Brotherhood, which is opposed

leader, Talib Dawud, is married to a well-known singer, Dakota Staton. He says: "Our group has strength and purpose and has been established for four years. We fré osscelated with the United African Nationalist Movement,"

the

write poetry-how their fortunes have changed!

MRT. S. ELIOT, O.M., the elder statesman of English Literature, has declared that "poetry

is not a career, but a mug's game.'

But that dictum bas ap-

ghetto of the second-class citit rich.

But

not

There is, of course, the Com-parently been disproved by one gularly recurrent natural ab- munist Party of the U.S. itself of Mr Eliot's former pupils at normality, like the tendency to whose national secretary, Highgate Junter School, Mr have twins." Whites are usually barred negro, Benjamin Davis, says: John Betjeman,

But today this "abnormalliy" from black cult meetings, but we want a negro nation to be Mr Betjeman's latest book

rather bigger dividends lately we have been admitted as carved out of the U.S. through of verse, Summoned by Bells, thum

than ever before--though The blacks seek publicity, self-determination for negroes has now sold more than 40,000 necessarily in print. Mohammad saysWe want in the black belt:"

cupies, His Collected Poems

Christopher Fry, for example, the murder of nothing more and nothing less

have topped the 80,000 mark. having followed My Ellot into Wove is Lumumba, Harlem and coloured than a separate block nation.

Me Betjeman's Muse has struck the theatre, has been intensively published here on the washing over the siums and scations in other major Ameri- The United States should hand

Today most of Harlem, extraordinary life of

can cities have simmered with over several States for thio

Other poets, lacking the patro- Wooed by film producers. Since and desire anger

fur revenge.

zen, looks the other way, Spanish painter who died There are today in Harlem

purpose."

been asked to tomorrow it could fall in behind nuge of Princess Margaret and Ben Hur, he is reported to have

that Mr Biblical epics. black

The black Musters insist they the nationalist The biggest nationalist negro

black nationalists. And the Telly, maintain Mostem and pro-African organi- cult is the Nation of Islam are not Communist in any way, that could mean riot and blood-Betjeman's sations planted strongly and founded in 1957 and led by as do the other groups,

nothing. I beg to differ. beginning to Bourish like weeds:

Some of them are so extremist, calling even for the establishment of a black repub- that most of the city's decent, lie within the United States,

hard-working them.

war,

one

of his before the 1914-18

in named Torres Campalans. The book described his life in elaborate detail and carries reproductions of his work.

M. Bonnet boasts diplomatie triumphs. ample, he told me that he vited Ribbentrop to Paris in 1938 on the understanding that Ribbentrop would make speech renouncing all German claims to-hold -Alsace Lorraine.

П

Recently after the book had "This was magnificent news, received wide critical acclaim said Bonnet, "but you can ima-

and after Campaians had been halted as a major influence on gine my shock when un the

Picasso, its author, the exiled very day Ribbentrop arrived

writer Max Mussolini made a specch

Spanish de-

revealed manding Nice, Corsten

hitherto Tunis.

Picasso.

and

"Tibbentrop

he told

and

was outraged me that on no

account would Germany go to war in support of these Hallan claims.

the

secret shared unly

with trait.

didzon

negroes

shun

groups

in some in-

But the black cult Aub, have branches or he has stances headquarters in De- Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, and every day they get stronger militant.

Campalans never existed,

QUOTES OF THE WEEK: Actress Helene Perdriere: "Nud-

and more

ity is incompatible with dign-secretary of the National Asso-

it

"So there it was-at one strake I had received a major "Playwright Jacques Deval; German concession and split the "Women only use their Intel Axis Pour M. Bonnet, Vitined ligence when they need to prop before the war as the embodi- up their intuition." ment of cunning and devious--

-London Express Service).

» We'll have to stop

my

threting like this

wife's gelling cumplelour."

بین هایی را

CHARRY

Roy Wilkins, the executive

elation for the Advancement of Coloured People, a moderate pro- greasive group which has na time for the black nationalists, lold me: "The white public in far from realising the repres-

FRUIT CAKE

PARE 1 FILE

3 EGGS

Par Flok 4. Fi

"I knew her Alf had been inside look at this recipe ako ioaned me!"

shed,

THE FACTS ABOUT

THIS FATHER-IMAGE

Success

proves

Of course our unofficial Poet READINGS

work on 23

Rather less glittering prizes

In the

in

Laurenty is 2 delightfully special case. But his jackpot sales point, I think, to help to encourage poets on both national trend, Poetry is coming sides of the Atlantic. IN. The publie for verse is U.S.A. around £10,000 a year,

estimale. Is avaliable growing.

True, the iveroge silm volume awards. In Britain as yet the still sells only a few hundred prize booty is more meagre, but about Read poets can qualify for Herbert coples, Sir recently opined that only about £2,000 a year.

Apart

from the £450 400 people in Britain, regularly

Maugham Award, buy verde, and around 2,000 ac- Somerset tually read it voluntarily (npart which has been won by poots and are made to such

Thom from those who

Gunn Jennings, swallow it n school or univer- Elizabeth

around £800 sily).

year is provided—either in brand-name prizes or at the the Cheltenham Festival-by Guinness family. One of its

ADENAUER CREATED 800 MEMBERS

BONN.

A FAVOURITE story here today is about an eight-year-old boy out for a Sunday stroll with his grandfather. "What would you like to be when you grow up, little man?" said grandfather. "I think I would like to be Chancellor, grandpa,” said the boy.

"Oh, my,

chortled my," grandfather, "that is not possible. You see, the Constitu- tion allows at only Chancellor, "*

ono

Grandfather la Dr Konrad Adenauer-Chancellor of West

Germany.

ties,

BY

COLIN LAWSON

43

It is also true that the admir leading dynasts. Lord Moyne, able Poetry Book Society, which is himself a practising poet hoped for 3,000 members when a Bryan Guinness,

There are pubile rendings - founded seven years

from which the poet may earn

ve to 10 guineas a time.

it was ago, still numbers fewer than some subsidised by the State

000

subscribers. Ant its secretary, Erle Walter White,

that nine out of 10 There are lectures and even books of verge are subsidised by

fellowships at universities, For James Kirkup and John Heath- their publishers.

But more poems are being Stubbs at Leeds, for W. H. Auden and Cecil Day Lewis, new published books of new verse appeared, Professor of Poetry at Oxford.

There on average, every week in 1950,

are readings on the quite apart from

BBC, paid by the line, which anthologies,

may bring anything up to 50 translatione and new editions. The total for 1900. I belleve, tuineos. is even higher,

every year. Two

And above all there is poetry Long-players are al-

And I hear from perhaps the on dise.

There are various possibill- democracy. I intend to be that most respected publishers of ready helping to widen tho

But do not bother your Chancellor,"

No is 05. And the anecdote head about the matter. Indicates his Indestructible

rells

for power, bis desire to go on for ever and ever.

"I am," he says, "In favour of anything which is for the good of the Fatherlund."

According to popular myth, Adenauer was a shy Lord Mayor of Cologne who entered power polities reluctantly and became Germany's most powerful Chancellor since Bismarck ac- cidentally'.

Confident

It is not a problem in the foresco- able future."

Giving up office has never been Adenauer's strong point,

The Nazis fired him in 1933. Not because of his activity os Lord Mayor of Cologne but be cause of his standing with the powerful Zentrum Party.

Frankness

He got his job back after the war. And then the British

neked him in 1046,

The truth is that the rom- The full story of that has yet rod-stiff leader of the 12- to be told, year-old fepublie had his eye

poetry Mr Eliot's own firm, publie for verse, by teaching it Fabers that sales are steadily to listen. He decided, long before the (if not spectacularly) On the One_recording company alone war was over, that Germany's climb.

tina cold a quarter of a million only chance of survival as a

Although the poet may-arid LPs of Dylan Thomas reading nation was to climb on to the does--complain about his neg- his own work.

U.S. bandwagon.

1

Germany, he decided, would

lect by the public, it seems to

me that he'd never (if you'll A FESTIVAL

apardon the unpoetle publisher's

cliche) had it quile no good,

Ko to any length to prove, the years rolled by, that sho was the most loyal ally of the U.S.

The Image, which Adonator has succeeded in portraying to the world in that of a benevolent, kindly. ready-to-see-all-sides- of-the-question Chancellor.

Tough

He also hopes he is seen as the father-image of his people

Although

such rewards are The fact is that only a hand canary-seed compared with the ful of

avallible to poets in the past have loot

successful ever carried a living from their novelista or Grimatists, they show that poetry is Binding & verse.

Paradise" Lost earned- Milton new audience which wants £6, Burns made. £20 from his verse not only to be seen, but first book. In 40 years Words heard.

worth earned Foss than £1,000 Now our pocis are to cele from all his books. 'Yeala's brate with a week's festival In poetry never brought him more London, at the Merinald Theatre |than £5 a werk, unill he was in July. The director is John

50.

Wait. And Mr Wain "believes Mr Ellot himself holled that the time la ripe; £3 2s. 6d. from his first book, "Poetry, which was gradunlim and his world-famous The expiring in the too-amorous Waste Land sold in a year loss embrace of the printing press,"

on the Chancellery, in Berlin's But one reason behind it was Wilhelmstrasst.

from

the int Adenauer Was already In fact he is tough, uncompro moment he entered local playing politics at the highest mising and utterly ruthless. than a third of the copies sold he says, "has been gradually government politics in 1917. levél,

He is facing a general elco- tion in September, with cen- Adence. He Intende to remala Chancellor.

I asked túm last year: "Who do you

see a next Chan. cellor?"

Foru shoment he looked calmly at me, then

Gald:

You SATI

Sev what his daughter in n fortnight of Mr Alan freed and led back to light, gir Already he was laying the Libdth one of seven chlidren Sillitoe's first book of verse, out and movement by the radio, by

of the Christian from his two marriages-once last year.

the gramophone and L.P. and foundations Democrotle Party, of which he said of him:-

Bea why Robert by an increasing pubite desire to was to become notional, chair.

their own Graves has sold that "lo be a hear "poets reading "We were a huppy poet la a condition, bot a pro- work. man.

family.

fession, And one crific, Poetry, indeed, has he says...! "Father let us do just as F. Bateson, has worked out moved over ALIME before the way thred: we liked, provided he had average in one out of every "Kermany neoda a` Chancellot told us to do it first,” Who can return the polistry fó, *(London Reprem Bervicé).

motment of un- And in a expected franitness čia told me,

} that this 'condlifes is found, on

[00,000 Englishmen through the Jcenturies -- "appiratilly a ča-

to the attacks,"

Richard Findlater

(könäan Exften Betétő),