1961-06-27 — Page 6

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THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 1961.

21 YEARS AGO: A DAY OF DISASTERS

THE ROAD BACK TO ST. VALERY-HOW DIFFERENT IT IS NOW

By DONALD EDGAR

I

SAINT VALERY-EN-CAUX. back becaitse the surrinder at forget the shame of that mo-

St Valery had n lesson to meut.

For one thing it was the first substantiat success of a man called Rommel. A

name that

SO

was going to be famous.

And then on our right was a French force, commanded by a in by the name of de Gaulle And he was to become fa- Haus, tou,

sea is blue this THE

morning at this little port in Nor mandy, but not blue as it was 21 when years ago,

But there were other facts nearly 20,000 men worth remembering. The High- -including the land Division had fought mag- Scotland, It expected to be evacuated pride of

through St Valery. Bu! the Highland was decided not to risk the Division dered to

mans.

surren-

ultierntly.

mit tu

shipes That was an example of the ruthlessness, of the Bri- the Ger- tish--a quality we rarely ad

And Th there were the 24 mnants of this pitiable 12th Division to which belonged. I was so ill armed merill trained that it was a disgrace to the British Army, It was a typical result of the govern

and Cham- ments of Baldwin berlain

It was a morning of disaster and, 10 #certain rætent, of of us it of exile in

shanne.

For

runt five years Germany.

And yet, EMS all the shame of atezair, the High-

Jand Division and the TEN- TDS of a terviurial dis iston, and the 12th. meade in around London, can take a cer- Jain pride.

The

kirk has

Dues-

Disintegrated

I have nothing but memories of shume, for I saw my battalion campaign after

disintegrate, mainly because its never really Deucers, drawn from the London fully explained Certainly, the middle-class, falled to do their Highland Division

job. When we

captured new credits

any of us were bitter to the Tonguificent eqüipment of the German 'Armoured Division. We realised then we had never

میں

WHE

never

were

went out to some of the villages where there was action during the last days before the surrender.

There is still the same smell

In the

woods. of wild garlic There are still the red and white There are still the Aint houses. rich eldis, the huge cattle.

And in Un

of the smallest villages, Manneville, I met the

ere, whose name is Abbe Mar- eri Simon. He was working in his garden. He was ginit to leave his priming to chane and talk about those days when he

in had to play a heavy part, profecting his villagers.

He remembers the British tanks just beyond his house. He remembers seeing them two or three miles away blown up.

The graveyard

And then he took me to the graveyard. There are only a few British buried there mustly Scots of the Gordon Highland- ers. But the graves are tended beautifully. There are rosek blooning over their bodies. Just a couple of names: Private D. Itek, Gordon Highlanders, Pri- vate G. A. Rennies, of the same reginent.

I feel myself now that it was a mistake to come back after 21 years to try to recreate some of the emotion which overcame me when 1 was a young man here.

The past belongs to the past. Perhaps it is all best forgotten.

had for a series of rearguard actions

the from Semme

thes southwards Lo port which were mosterly.

course, the town looks had much chance. very different now to what it

I made me hitter, for I shall 1940. Then was in

zaver forgive and never forgel flames. Now I find it difficult the shambles of the governments to recognize evin the streets which sent in many young men where the food shupa were, to their deathenselessly. These were the boys I was It was strange to sto to told to inck far in order to beach and see the childrett find enough to at for what play. For the last Une I saw was left of our battalion, it, it was a shambles of dead, own Cockney division that

wounded and desperate mea.

It's all very heat and new hure.

A

mistake

But out of the country you can feel the atmosphere of 21 years

ago more clearly. Per- haps because in the graveyards of the Hale churches and vll- lages you will tud Englishmen and Scotumun.

it

In one way, I felt that huck breas A mistake resur-

10 come back and

reet the memories, best for

But I wanted to honour a very great division, the 51st Highland Division,

at and the remnants of my

New casino They have built a new casino here since the war, right on the bench. And where unce men were dving now There is dancing and the local game of roulette.

I went

out to the crossroads where I remembered seeing General Fortune surrender.

I went a little farther along and saw the spot where I acted as interpreter for my CO to the first German fank that came

Kotten. But I wanted to come into the town. I shall never

wax

WHY EVERY WORKING MAN

And his wife too

MUST SAY: KEEP OUT!

MAKE no mistake, the Common Market

was designed as a weapon to attack Britain's leading position as a world trader.

Britain

I hope the Labour movement will fight and utterly defeat the proposal that should join.

Our special strength iles in our political and trading links[ with the Commonwealth and the areas of the underdeveloped world.

The

hungry. They

Germans are expert

need Bikio's obsorb narketa to

their in- dustrial output (built up with massive American gifts at the

end of the war),

And, don't forget, i was the Germans who really engineered the Treaty of Rome, four years ago, that created the present threat est dragging Britain inter

Common Market,

Standards

The

that

་

mistake

many peale in this country make is to think of the Common Market merely in terms of trade: as just

buying and selling affair.

It isn't.

Bulter. It's a severe bread, and skills problem for us in the trades onions,

At the

the intment

unions bere can bargain directly with the employers. But what would

under happen

Common Market?

The men could go to the employers, asking for a rise.

a

And the employers could just shake their heads and say: "Well, look at these Dutch and

QUOTE!

president of the Socialist Medien) by Dr David Stark Murray, Association, at the association's

London conference:-

up

destroyed without MILLION pound structures are over the coun- much hope of doing any-try for ene business or another, but we still don't know what we thing about it on the want to put up in the shape of

hospitals. Somme in 1940. Now the

*

*

ì

children are playing on the--by Mr Ernest Marples, Minis- iet of Transport, chief guest beach in safety and hap-at u Variety Club of Great Bri

piness. Perhaps that is the

answer to the bitterness of

1940.

-(London Express Service).

tain luncheon in London

S do not get the salary of some of the men I have re- cently appointed, my wife and I are always pleased to get a free meal out.

-(London Express Serulco).

BRITAIN'S SECRET SERVICE WILL STAY SECRET

ANY competent journalist could write a detailed "Profile" of Mr Allen Welsh Dulles, head of America's Central Intelligence Agency; or of J. Edgar Hoover, famous chief of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. The histories, organisation and many of the successes and failures of these services are also well documented, But there are few, if any, who could write similarly about the British Intelligence services and the men who run them. And the present enquiry into the British security system will still not throw any more light into these impenetrable shadows.

The Andings of the enquiry Bre unlikely ever to be published. The witnesses will never be identified.

By ROSS MILES

mous-and the members, Bike- M.1.5. and M.1.0. are Indy- The C.J.A. building In

wise anonymou are senior pendent of each other but nro in Washington (there is a new one offleers of the armed forces and contact through the Joint Intel- going up) is pointed out to senior civil servants.

ligence Committee, It has its Tourists by taxi drivers, The

The Commilice does not itself group headquarters all over the headquarters of Britain's milit- engage in emionege and counter world at least, as far as that ary intelligence services are in espionage, of course. This is can be done on a notoriously

an obscure hiding in one of carried out by a number of miserly budget-and among its London's quiet back street. agencies run by the Army, Navy agents are patriots and profes No address or telephone number

and R.A.F. the Ministry of sional sples, Including double Jy listed.

Secrecy shrouds all. Amerlean Supply and the Atomic Energy agents. British foreign corres-

Authority.

It is not, a

pondents

correspondents in search of in- The best known of these enlisted. formation-British newepaper- men never try find themselves agencies is M.I.5.

landly shunted about between minor officials from the ome Office to the Foreign Office and back again. Nobody "knows,"

Anonymous official

In-

All the same, sumelent formation has become available over the years to give a skeletal picture of the security services.

The ultimate responsibility for the Intelligence networks and theh activilles is in the hands of the Prime Minister of the day. Under the .M. Is a Joint Intelligence Committee, The Chairman of the Committee is a

oficial-anony- Foreign Office

are

aiso sometimes

ts often assumed, the "British In addition there are a num- Secret Service" but merely that ber of other M.I.'s up to department which deals with M.I.15, in the last war, Each counter-espionage. Cinsely allled has a particular job.

to M.1.5. is the Special Branch

Obscurity preserved

Finally, there is Rear Ad- miral George Thompson (R.N.

Retd.) who works na PRO

at the Latin-American Cen-

tre. But spart from whatever

It may be that a public rela-

tiona omeer does at the Latin

American Centre, Adm. Thompson, who was formerly the wartime censor, has an- other job-keeping undesir. Information out of the able papers

Italian Wages; they're much Jess than yours,"

The point in emphasising is nut be British that it wouli

past standards conditions and

would influence of living that the satment of disputes. We with our higher standards of living. would all be decisively intuined by Bie lowest of the standards in Europe.

Tribunals

And what about our present arbitration canets and tribunals? What stands would they have to take? British standards? Or the traditionally depressed ston- dards of countries like Italy!

It is said that if we go into Europe we will improve our trading position. I don't belleve this for a moment.

European economics compete with us. Commonwealth econo- mies are complementary to ours. We are Europe's rivals: we are the Commonwealth's workshop. It is as simple as that.

Political

But this is the very point that people in top places are trying

the to hide and obesure from

by CLIVE JENKINS

General

of

Secretary of the Association Supervisory Staffs, Executives, and Technicians

Bullish mon-at-the-bench and the man in the white collar,

Again and again am deter- mined to put forward to mem- Lers of my own union-and to all unionists that really a political set-up. One in which the

wishes

Britain's $3,000,000 people will have to give way in the end to the de- sires of the West Germans, the French, the Italians, and so on.

of

י

And it's the Germans who ment-or the will have the decisive say.

UNION LEADER Clive Jenkina, 34, WILL propose to the Confederation of shipbuilding and Engineering Unions thle month that "it would be injurious to Britain to enter the Common Market." He li determined that mË 3.128,445 trade unionists in the country shali be aware of this.

But, in a Common Market, it would not be the British Gov.

British air craft firms either-thurt would decide whether to build such an nirliner.

It would depend again ou

unknown politicians

1

other

ships with the Commonwealth

the influenca and

that this brings with her allies,

Under the Common Market we become merely another off- ahore island.

The Americans would

then

Already they have infiltrated into the top policy-making position of the Come Market.

This means the power to de- of foreign Ministers saturate the English-speaking cide Britain's policies will move scuss the Channel-msiniy Bonn.

閉じい

countries.

to

I, for one, am not prepared to Minister of Germant

♫

Finanec deciding how much unemployment he will tolerate in Great Britain in 1964.

Let's lake an example or two. The Comunen Market Minis- tes might decide that Britain's cond or steel was too expensive. So production could be shitten to another country.

What would that the

mean

and British stee!

An island

1101

become

In fact and this too is con- stantly cloaked by the advocates of Canon Market-the British man in the street would longer rule his own country.

Ilis vole would to "devalued."

The or he coal

would put in power-whether Labour or Tory would not be able to carry out their election promises.

Always

there would be the overriding veto of the unknown veonomists of Germany, Franec, and the rest.

workers?

They would either have follow their jobs abroad, some other job at home, or unemployed.

to get be

Take the brand-new dustries. Our aircraft indtry itches to build a supersonie civil alciler, one to beat the world.

markets of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. While the Germa would be strengthen- ing their

grip on the Middle East, India, and the rest of Aala. The alternative to jolning the Common Market la not sume sort of centumie stagnatier.

We must urgently" build tip our trading links with the Commonwealth and, with their help, shape our own Industries and fully use our own special, highly developed skills to meet the huge needs of their peoples. Why throw this priceless 08- set of the Commonwealth away? With a Common Market We

not riok

only our present Influence in the world but our whole future standard of Utz.

There are powerful influences at work seeking to stumpede us into the wrong decision this

Britain today is still a world year. Power because of her relation-

-(London Express Service),

"EUROPE IS FINISHED, SINKING, IF I WERE A YOUNGER MAN I'D EMIGRATE TO THE UNITED STATES ”

-MR MACMILLAN SPEAKING TO LORD DALTON IN 1950.

THE EMIGRANT

EUROP

London Express Service.

Atom sub gets L-driver

F

| From FRANK GOLDSWORTHY: Aboard the.

nuclear submarine Scorpion, Firth of Clyde. TOR 20 minutes today I took over the helm and hydroplane controls of the $17,000,000 U.S. nuclear submarine Scorpion as she cruised at periscope depth south of the Mull of Kintyre.

British newspapermen had been

It was the Arst time that

allowed to go to sea in an atom sub,

And it gave me a preview of life for the Dreadnought crew when Britain's first nuclear sub- mariae goes to sea next year.

He does this by circulating to editors the now-famous "D"..

notices, ecking the papers not to High spood

of the Metropolitan Police Force. But one job which is not en otherwise Scotland Yard. The trusted to British Military Intel- Special Branch, and T.1.5, to gence Is the formulating and print this or that, a certain extent, are under the wing of the Home Office.

Patriots and spies

For Dreadnoughts have basl- British editors, being patriots cally the Aame vast teardrop carrying out of polley. Unlike and responsible men, acquiesce hull, the same power plant, the the C.I.A... which has afle in this systent of voluntary same high underwater speed, sterally carried out operational policies in the field quile at odde censorship, even at its sillest, and

extreme manoeuvrability

For tho

I take over controls of Scorpion—and she handles like a plane.

A klaxon sounded as Scor pion's captain, 20-year-old ordered to bring the submarine For every three ofleers there Commander Norman Bessie

round 90 degrees, ordered the

a well-equipped cabin- crew to diving As I put the helm over one of which I am typing this alation. hours we ran abnuerged.

next tour Scorpion behaved as no surface story.

ship ever behaved an the turn: And for 20 minutes I

she banked INWARDS like an gripping an aircraft-style con-

aircraft. frol as I were "fying" the

the Scorpion.

Gently

100

De luxe

There are daily movies and recorded muste.

on

I had the feeling that had At high speed and

the trip been the mote unuál four weeks' submersion the crow officially declared speed of "in excess of 20 knots" is such a of Scorpion would have suffered Orders were to stay at 60 feet. monstrous understatement that no great hardship.

cannot officers

reblat a TAILPIECE: There is a legend As the depth indicator mark- her

they say the in Scorpion that aho has

stowaway-}}

mousd Keen to the policies of the State Do- as when they are asked not to needed for a submarine whose ed in Inches apun to show a smirk when

mission may be hunting foot or so Ics than that, a banking may be 40 degrees.

board after the ship had been partment, the British services are print information about British war

gentle push on the column sent

alongside the bullder's yard...... It with getting infor- weapons even though the Infor- other submarines, concerned

mation has

whole 3,500 tons casing It has, too, the same living the bees published in mation only.

so, it s not likely to be a radio- American azıd other foreign comforts which are now being down again: a little too deep and

with the activo mouse. Thon

Scorpion compares Backing there is one above- journals.

the

Built Into the Dreadnought to gentle pull would bring her

conventional submarine as ปี Protected trom the sub- ground agency, the Joint Intel- notices too, is the shadow of the care for a crew which may stay back.

nuclear car marino's

reactor a first-class Pullman parlour

by (submerged for weeks or months, Running straight, Charred with spring abroad ligence Bureau of which_the Official Secrets Act.

great ableida end from the M.1.0 indood it will chairman is General Sir Ken- But the obscurity which sur- Scorpion, which is to conduct learner like me was able to keep compares with a Tube train.

For each of the 65 ratings atmosphere by steel and water, works under that name. Even noth'Strong.

20

Britain's Burenu at rounds

intelligence engineering trials in the Clyde Scorpion's keel never lost than

are sailing tonight into the crow claims it is subjected to areo, had surfaced at the end 50 feet and never more than 02 who much small detall

least la open and above-board, services is preserved oven to tha

Revan-day underwater feet from the surface.

Holy Loch there is a foam rub- less radiation than a person in rumoured change of name The job is to consider all known inst, ironical fact, Nobody knows

Thon the hydrophone watch ber bunk, bedlights, and air- the open air. cannot be vecided. This corner information about hostile-and who tells Admiral Thompson cruise from New London, Con-

London · Espres Berige).. Allied (7)----armaments,

necticut, when I went aboard. warned of a flaking boat. I was conditioned blower. under the Foreign Offler,

what to put in bis "D" notices,

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of

even