1961-08-29 — Page 6

Page G

What I tell the world

about my mother

THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1961.

CONGRESS [OFFICIAL CARS ONLY

By

DONALD SEAMAN

MOTHER,

are you leading a secret life? Now,

it is awfully hard to think of my mother,

13 stone and in her sixties, as a Mata Hari.

Even her best friends would smile at that. suggestion, long before she sat down to play the plano in the village pub that she helps to run.

ask:

Nonetheless I have to Mother, what are you up to?

Wherever I go in this workri, suuner or Inter serne foreigner, usually a police or a Customs officer, will accost me and de-

and to know "What Įs the moiden name of year mother!"

Until this Werk the inost #agrant case was in Pam Penti. the pagoda capital of Cambodia, in Indo-Chin

Through no fault of mine, the

jel had broken down, and how

did I have to while away A butler-hot four hour

transil lounge Giving the

en game of my mother!

in the

3 ht to uplete art impres

site official document disclos

g her maiden name, Christian name, father's name, wife's: Ram, lates of birth of

children wven the line and date where I was born.

Mother, you may cell usk: What has it got to do with the Indo-Chinese?

Over the years I have saipped

the same

answers lo larvioss Stockholm. Calro.

irs Berlin,

Cupenhagen. Madrid.

'Bagiwi,

a bully, so when he asked me i tuid tim: "Red Riding Hood."

He seemed perfectly satisfied. It Just goes to show.

--London Express Sérvice).

CECIL

BEATON

MAPS HIS

"Our Chief of Aeronautical Engineering says the Russian controlled Space Landing is a lot of 'malarkey' and he should know.".

ROUTE TO THE

SUMMIT OF

TOTAL TASTE

Damascus MR CECIL BEATON is the most famous photo-

Birt Aleppo, Leopoldville, Johannes- burg. Hangkok, Vientiane. Saigon, Prague,

Bad

חיויביון

grapher in the land. (Actually I suppose there is one whose name is even better known,

knows where eler. Mostly but he retired young).

because I sought a visa.

I am pleased to see that some

countries have now

reduced

their formmaties. But not all of

them.

A DAGGER?

as wit and

Mr Beaton is also celebrated writer; as beau to Garbo; as designer of stage sets and costumes; as gardener, art collector, traveller, and man of total taste.

All in all, he is an elegant, exalic artist who for thirty years has fluttered gaily across the social scene rather like some belated Agent of Oscar Wilde's has a secret imagination. ite, this beneath her elook she hides a dagger.

Obviously, some still suspert that my mother

And the latest goings-on, this recently in Switzerland, really

made me tume.

There at midnight, I had to write down niv mother's maiden mone for a Swiss policeman on a remote mountain road 3,000ft up from Montreux on th shores of Lake Geneva.

All because my chauffeur- driven car had been rammed at Titov speed, right on top of the mountain, with me thrown out into the road and (ni the time details were taken) feetlig mite poorly.

I ask you Have you

heard of spelt balones?

u

ever

By PETER FORSTER

opera sols, tea with a peéress or two. dinner with some other favoured friends. ending with the sort of party at which Tellulah Bankhead threw 017

her

اله

clothes, performing

what she called classical Chinese dances,"

By now his snobbisme had come the full inevitable circle Duchess of Westminster, in New York with Loella,

seemed the ultimate in amusing

it

chip to visit a self-service cufe... ROYALTY

The royal seni was set upon his work Orst by Edward VIII, when the then Mr Simpson started Beaton on what he calls his Wallis Collection of photo- graphic sexvions, then later when Queen Elizabeth called him to Buckingham Palace.

the

Also, It now appears, Mr of course a

His prose gnapshots of these Beaton has kept a diary, and

1wo ladies are charming of early days can be

diary started in

Mrs Simpson telling her Bus- es good ax

tered mald before the marriage: pension scheme to a public

"It isn't always as bad as this mam in later days. So. It may Suon he was breathing the only if you're marrying Prave with Mr Beaton's The heady air of the artistic-social ex-King of England!" And of Wandering Years (Weldenfeld world of the mid-twenties a the Queen remarking slyly. "I & Nicolson, 30s.).

friend of the Sitwells and Rex is so hard to know when not to Whistler and Stephen Tennant, smile!"

Augustus John meeting restaurants, dancing with the Indeed, for all who knew Mr revue star Teddie Gerrard at a Beaton's pre-war

and world, party and

toid being

by remember its personalitics. hla her: "Oh,

beautiful diary recommends itself, for its you're beautiful!"

good stories, and witty descrip- flons-Lytton Siracher "bent as

For une thing, if it is bought only by the people mentioned in its pages, the sales should be quite spectacular,

WEALTHY

blue crovat,"

in

By the age of 20 he was

treated

na

a sloppy asparagus," Lady Violet

London Express Bervice.

THE MAN

MAN THE

THE JOCKEY CLUB

SIR VICTOR

SHIED AWAY FROM ·

SAS-

SOON, it was said, by

by CLIVE GRAHAM

had as many friends as

the end of the 1914-18 war.

he had enemies. Some accident which crippled him at of the enemies became friendly—but as

of his friends turned against him.

Sir Victor is said to have lost a personal fortune of £7,000,000 when Mao Tse-tung's Red Chinese

soldiers seized Shanghai,

As a pilot in the RF.C., he many was to take part in A demon- stration fly-past. He protested that his plane was nut air- He had, however, previously worthy. The C.O. overruled transferred as much, if not him. In the resultant crash he, more, away to American bunks. smashed both his legs,

Thot's what they were saying in racing circles in Nowmarket to illustrate the contradictory nature of this quixotic multi-millionaire.

THE DERBY

Sir

Seventy-nine-year-old. Victor, who died recently after third heart attack at his palatial Nazanu home, had, in- deed, several unpredictable sides to his character.

His days of dancing and ten- nis playing were over for ever. There remained for film wheelchair, crutches---and the Sassoon millions.

BANKING

Д

by

the

These had been founded his ancestors in Dagdad. in days when oplum was regarded as legitimate merchandise. The Sassoon octopus he In the fast eight years

outwards geographically won the Derby four times with Pinza, Crepello, Hard Ridden, upwards materially

realms and St Paddy.

of merchant-bonking, general trading and real estate.

first Pinza (in 1953, the

of this quartet) was ridden by Sir Gordon Richards who retired two years later, after a severe Injury, to take up training.

Richards hoped naturally that the Derby-winning owner would help to start im in this veature by sending him half a dozen of the 50 yearings which he bred annually at his stud- farms around Newmarket.

"Why should 1 let a beginner horses?" take charge of my retorted Sir Victor, in one of his splieful moods.

DICTATORIAL

into

spread and the

Sir Victor was immensely rich from the time he succeeded his father (from whom he inherited the baronetcy) and he learned from his father penny-wise sense of economy, nover entirely lost.

this friend's hotel with 3,000 dollars ia travellers'

cheque. Os Els instructions, though- there was also a bill. For the

stamp duty.

This was the attitude which allowed him to take a sulte at London's Ritz Hotel and insist that he should personally launder all his own underwear,

Ten years ago this Western millionaire from the East Was taken sick on a visit to America, Bad-tempered on occasion, iri ihealth, he had diMculty' iz finding a nurse.

Eventually, fair-haired Evelýń Barnes, fron Dallas, Texas, took over which ho

the job. In 1959 "Bar- nesle" became Lady Victor.

During the post-war curren ex-restriction period, a friend asked him for 3,000 Unlied States dollars, to be repaid in sterling.

"As banker," said Sir Victor, "I cannot agree to thin. There is nothing, however, prevent me from making over this ionty, ás a gift”

TRIBUTE

"I don't know why I didn't think of taking up marriage: husband on his last visit to. years ngo," remarked the to England in 1960.

Sir Victor's secretaty In New York arrived, as promised,

nt

The generous stregk vda never far from the surface with, that crotchety old man.

-tendon Expreza Beroics).

THE CHURCH THAT FORGOT TO FORGIVE

TWO shocking things involving West- minster Abbey happen-

recently.

A verger there, George ryon, was brought to court

was

by NANCY

BANKS-SMITH

It was this sort of reactioned Cerit Walton Hardy Benton fashionable and sought after. Bonham Carter "like an Elrus- which stopped his being elected was hurt in 1904, the son of opening ladies in canch shells can horse, talking with the a member of the Jockey Club wealthy timber merchant. After and Inventing pholographic mouthful

of marbles common although his colours had been Harrow, he went to Cambridge, fantasies that were funny but to Bloomsbury

for stealing £6 from a col ceived a letter dismissing him. intellectuals;" registered for nearly 40 years where he arrived "wearing an never, never vulgar,

and "the most beautiful English- and no murmur of geandal had|fection bag. And the Aħħay, The dean, the Very Rev. Erie evening jacket. red shoes, black

woman allve," Lady Diana been attached to the running of tacked kim,

Abbott fa bachelor, earning and white trousers, and a huge self

His diary gets gaudier: he Cooper. iting in her box, any of his horren,

Ifttle lion.

her nose" It was fell, perhaps, that he

There is something shocking. £3,000 a year plus a deanery), away on business. gous le America and finds him- energetically picking

Would have proved at a Venetian gala.

in this irreligious age. too even

His deputy, sub-dean Canon argumentative, too dictatorial about stenting from a church; &

Adam Fox, did nat know that he would not have Btled ini, sense that, though the rest of

of the diernissal of the SO RICH

Much of his grauchiness with

us may be fair game to a thief, Abbey servant ohtli fold blin, due, no doubt, to the plane church should not be.

but he approved. But I don't know the Abbey's response shocking still.

George Bryan was a man of Ho previously good character. is married, with two sons, one ten, one nearly five. A man of courdge: he holds the Military Medal and the Croix de Guerre. As a verger he was paid Ell a week, with an extra 358. during the summat. After, pay-

My driver was in no way to blame, but oven he had to declare

mother's maiden name to the pullee.

Petty oficials all over the Here he began his diary. There is a hilarious description world, it seems, enforce this deciding Immediately that Cain- gf n New Year's Eve In Call- stupid. prying rule just 10 bridge

was like Horrow nit fornia, as one of a trainload of justify their jobs.

[over again, only more lewd! Hollywood cronics and toadies fantasite ranch We Having been fancinated by party by the now paper magnato photography over slace his William Randolph Hearst. mulher gave mttle box camera on his tenth birthday. Beaton came down from Cum- become sa

They may be in the Space Age, but forin-fling goes on regardless,

KNOW. want to

ON THE MOON bridge hoping to

artist in the new ari,

taken out to

•

Especialiv there is a long. brilliant account of Mrs Patrick Campbell, fighting off nge and poverty In New York, Jpmenting "Oh, why must I look like a burst paper bag?"

QUOTE

REPAID

I guarnolie that when the

But soon his father was shout- first immigration form is drawn ink "Why can't he do

and taking him job

sume

On another telp Beaton mol But this makes rich reading by Sir Garbo, who also kald: "You're also for there to whom most of Pearce,

Edward

I

Lord

of your mother?

so beautiful!"-a compliment he Beaton's cast-the Tom and Appeal; has repaid by photographs and Bobbles and Gordons and Davids

Holroyd Justice

of

And his 'words were is not more tonishing.

N English Jury is seldom ing the rent and other bills and

that kunting in the City. It gave him a remarkable pen portrait of the and Myrtles and myriad others bored, since the task of Handing over the housekeeping.

As far as visas are concerned. the authorities tell you this

& PRECAUTION.

1

"Forgiveness docan't cothè into " he said,

The administration of West minster Abbey, has, to be at least as practical as that of the Westminster Bank,

III-served

HWC have 13 vergers here and the others would be very surprised, I'm mire, if they were asked to work alongside Bryan." So the Abber authurifles wash their hands of this man.

like George Bryan. But by mdn of higher station who are not struck by

the contesdiction between their office and their behaviour.

It may be that a hallózat manument kuce the Abbey, must be run "ike a bank." But if It must, then it must not be a church.

For we go to the bank for money and commercial probity. We go to a church for the love of God. For the teaching of kindness and gentleness and charity and forgiveness.

A letter

It is hard luck on the officials who have to ba the Abbey. But they have accepted an office wider demarids more of them than a bank demands of His staff,

You might forgive the Abbey omelala If as unworldly men, they forgot that an employeo may have problems that a good employer alıbuld discover.

Its hard forgive a minister of religion for forget- ting the Teller that Paul wrote to the townsfolk of Cortath.

to

producing « fair decision seems to had just 1 a week for him to them enthralling. They feel self, qut

of which he had moniident of their ablilty. In 17. Del, fores to pay. fact we sit think wa havo A

nearly 2,000 years ago. Bis wife needed more house. vast alere of common sense at keeping; and he had bills to our disponat.

meet for medical treatment, foż [shọ, had bròn 11, Not sur

prisingly, he was in debt.

up for landing on the moon it work?" will include a question asks: What is the maiden name e impression of a lut of dirty greatest woman Alm ster. are merely so many not-very-

beetles fighting for existence.". "When happy she is childishly darling dodos,

uninhibited, walking on chairs Eventually he was placed as and labies, climbing trees and

The diaries have been left na Iclerk in the Holborn ofte of a tanging from the branches." It wrote them at the time, and Danish busirica maa named By his late twenties Cecil convey vividly, even touchingly, It makes you laugh, doesn't it, Schmiegelow at a pound a week. Heaton

This was a sad time

was a success, a celeb how a preit, uncertain, gauche, when you think of wil the sploa

for rity,

ambitious, super-sensitive gay. owner of a suitably in-

young man made his way, when he was taken to see dean wants his camera to become an-by Sir David Eccles, Minister

Once he remarks that he Cocteau smoking oplum, "Eindirument for "a solut of view of Education, In the Commons- considered that adult life could and, if possible, to make a cont rench no lighet,"

ment," But this was

Heston that obviously

aud crooks who get away with Benton, die knew he would not accessible" country house where wrong-doing for years and then Aurvive in the holl A Holborn, le dave fancy dress balls—and skip the country at leisure. All but where to go? He was even they do is obtain

"fulae | turned down by the BBC. A passport. Giving a false naiden namic for

their mother, o!

coured.

Mother, I ought to tell you→→

in case you are ever queattoned

SUCCESS

never

T CONSIDER the use of the

Astonishing

Well, this man stood in the

And the 12 remaling vergats will not be asked to exercíka thelt forgivÖTEKK ahd their chatily either.

George Drynti had always wanted to work th the Abbey, and loved his soli theen,

fle could nat népaći to go on

carrying the epileelion has. But

It is the measure of Mr Dewton's Ine-his camera lins cane-though it may be dock in his home and with his However, by means of private half-believed Lile; mind that he words, "the glass of fashfurt and feare

he only always been merely, in flomist's necessero admission of good name shattered: he said he in all thai mietity and exued- 四 the part of the || was sorry and ashamed, and the sivd Abbey, bijit dedicated, and I told Île ofice, whieri coinsmissions ite gradually per- did half-holbove it,

the mould of förin.“

lencher. It is abtehsiely certain | magistrate was merciful and deviled over the years to Gol, quadod his fattief that (hero wag ny, the mid-1930's, a typical

And, oddly enoughs, fort of that the use of the

ému | granted him a condiilona) dia- waft thert one Job without falura for him as a portrait divsion day apparently involved the photographs reproduced itere only have Nai Hood Silves if the charge.

femptation for him, The man I spoke to was photographer, and by thee härd worldy, in fijo Park, a dish to are rather goor.

feacher himasif Usileves in miing }, "The "Abbey was left méreltul. viciously anti-while and a bit of Work bogati te amocard;

*London" Képrent švitice),

"""Next day Geörja. Bryan co-

Answered thin eternal VIP

questp đôi tri thờ Condo.

7

How ill-served the Abbar Lt, Not only by unfaitliful servante

own

The one that saya "Charity suffereth long and is kind.

beketti fot her beareth all things, beiloveth alt ilings, hopetts, ali sidureth all things

things.

His cards

Yes, the cliurch has been bra- ly served by. Georga Upyati.

And by the nutitafiles who

when a man takes their codt, give him not thele cloak alao but tiên cutie..

-(London Express Errulée),