1937-11-04 — Page 6

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1937.

For purity quality

TSON'S 20

AERATED WATERS

Set

the standard of

perfection

Sole Agents: A. S. WATSON & CO., LTD.

THE

The Sensation

Of The

Motoring Ago

Studebaker's

Crowning

Achievment

EXPECTED

SOON

Particulars Obtainable from HONG KONG HOTEL

GARAGE

Tel. 27778-0

Stubbs Rd,

SHEET MUSIC Hongkong Telegraph.

We carry a comprehensive stock of the following well known editions.

"SCHIRMER" "PETERS”

THEO

"THEODORE PRESSER"

“RICORDI” “CARL FISCHER”

"DURAND et CIE"

Tutors for every type of instrument.

S. MOUTRIE & Co., Ltd.

_York Building...

Chater Road.

ARE YOUR TIRES SAFE?

.. When you need nów. tiros, equip with Goodrich-tho tires with sidewalls as strong as tho troad. Only GOODRICH

Gives

You

6-Point

as w\ -Ɑ

This

Protection Extra-thick tread extends over entire

ide-wall

All plics are gum-

InsulatedL

The piles look around the bead, holding it to place. 100% full floating cord used through-

out

Only extra-strong cable cords are

tised.

The famous Life- Baver Golden Ply protects against

blowouts.

Equip with

Woodrich SAFETY Silvertowns

BUILT TO ENDORE

Distributors for, Hongkong & Kowloon: GILMAN & CO., LTD.

40, Des Voeux Road Co., Hongkong

Tel. 30005 132, Nathan Road, Kowloon

Tel. 80711

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1937.

COLONIES AND MANDATES

Germany is about to fling the Colonies Issue into the forefront of affairs in Europe, despatches from London warn, Backed by Italy, Hiller intends

to re- pudiate the remaining clauses of the tattered Versailles Treaty, condemn the mandate system, it is stated. Just how seriously Germany Intends to strive for the return of colonies, lost when she signed the treaty which ended the struggle of 1914-18, no-one will feel inclined to guess, But to press the matter at a time like the present, when nations are bending every effort to put a stop to bloody conflicts In Spain and China, seems folly. Or it may be that the time has been selected, with the object of deliberately confusing the situa tion by adding yet another bone of contention to the pile where nations even now are wrangl- ing.

Although it has never been confirmed, there is good reason to believe that France and Britain have already offered Germany Tanganyika, the Cameroons and Togoland-at a price. They asked Germany to come back into the League of Nations, abandon the sinister Four Year Plan and enter into a scheme for freer world trade, it is popularly believed. Hitler is said to have refused. Germany did not want the colonies badly enough to make concessions, the story goes. Many would jump to the conclu- sion that Germany did not really Iwant these three not-particu- larly-valuable tracts of land.

18.

F somebody could only persuade Mr. Cordell Hull, who is the Secretary of State (an office which corresponds to. Foreign Secretary here), to stop speaking in lofty generalities and to come down to brass tacks he might yet lead the world back into the paths of rea-

son.

But it is not in Mr. Cordell Hull's nature to come down to brass tacks. He doesn't like them. And he knows that the people of the United States of America would be very cross with him if he did.

He also know-and in this, among the Foreign Ministers of the world, he is almost uniquely wise that politics and econo- mics are indivisible to-day; and that if you remove the causes of economic discontent you are go- ing a long way towards suppress- ing the philosophies of political violence.

But, because freckled Mr. Cor- dell Hull is a Southerner, he doesn't think that time matters

Secretary of State Cordell Hull is another personality in Philip Jordan's series of

important Americans

be a tidy document with no loose ends. Mr. Cordell Hull likes formality and despises sloppi-

ness.

In ten minutes with him you will meet with greater formality than in an hour with any of his colleagues; and if he docsn't want to answer a question he will tell you so: he won't bent about the bush, ns most men will, pretending that he is Answering you when, in fact, he is doing nothing of the kind,

He won't tell you, for in- stance, exactly how far the... British Government will go to nchlove this vitally important agreement which the Foreign Office would obviously welcome but about which the Board of Trade has always been ridícu- lously sticky,

But although he will tell you nothing, although he will em- phasise and overstate the Bri- Lish case, which means the barrier of the Ottawa Agree- ments, he can't help giving you. the impression that we are being rather silly about the whole thing and that we won't see that the political side is what matters; and that the

HE WORKS FOR ANGLO-

U. S. FRIENDSHIP

very much; and because he is an men: I do not know: I only behind the terms of any Anglo- trade side must in any case be American, and therefore remote suspect that he has for them the American trade agreement would comparatively unimportant. from Europe, he, doesn't know same kind of amused contempt lie an unspoken, unuttered and that the pace of history is ac- that Stendhal had for America; unwritten political alliance, by wouldn't admit that the politi- In a month of Sundays he celerating all the time; and that, and that, as Stendhal knew, he whose strength not even Hitler, cal side of such an agreement perhaps, before he can say "Jack knows that to attempt to thwart not even Mussolini could fail to is what really matters, because Robinson" it will be too late for America's synthetic popular feel- be impressed. him to postpone a war into which ing is to kick against the pricks.

that would be a betrayal of he knows the United States of

Indeed, it would not be de- those principles of economic But Mr. Cordell Hull knowa manding too much of any Bri- nationalism to which America America will once more be drag- that there are ways round every tish industry that it should, if still pays lip service, ged.

thing; and that the shortest road need be, sacrifice something to But if he speaks in lofty gen- is not always the best one to achieve the completion of that an

Mr. Cordell Hull used to be eralitics with his white hands take.

economic nationalist; and clasped in front of him like a

agreement upon which, I believe, it will always be remembered to bishop's-he does so because he

Mr. Cordell Hull has set his his great credit that in old age heart. has a lofty mind which sees a

he abandoned fallacious theo- His policy of making trade great deal further than

When Mr. Cordell Hull, im- rics and went on to reality. A the agreements may be the longer mensely tall and pale, stands rare quality in any statesman. minda of almost any one of his road, but there can be no doubt over you and, with exquisite colleagues in the Administra- that if he is allowed to complete courtesy, tells tion; and if his opinion of man- it, and that if the folly, greed nothing, you begin to wonder if, history wore to make him the you precisely It would be an odd fate if kind is rather higher than man- and short-sightedness of the after all, his detractors are not saviour of the British Empire kind deserves, that is something average British Protectionist can right and that he is, perhaps, by persuading her, in her old on the credit side of Mr. Hull's be overcome, it will not be long nothing but a woolly old gentle- age, also to abandon fallacious personal rather than political before the people of America man in whose company it is a theories and to turn to the ledger.

will welcome what, in its poli- pleasure to be. tical effect, will be little else than Mr. Cordell Hull belleves-and

urgent realities of the age. It But later, when you think over would be an odd fate if he, of in my opinion believes rightly-

an Anglo-American alliance.. what he said, and when you be all men, were to save capitalism that the one sure guarantee of off an Anglo-American trade ridors of the State Department, precisely that

If Mr. Cordell Hull can bring gin to ferret about in the cor- by admitting into its practice part of the

pcace

***

in this troubled world agreement, however slight may you realise that he knows what Marxian doctrine which is cor- would be an Anglo-American be the provisions which it con- he wants and that equally im- rect-the indivisibility of poli- alliance. But Mr. Cordell Hull, tains, he will have achieved portant he knows just how far tics and economics. for all his lofty generalities, is something for which the dome- he can go to get it. And within very far from being a fool, and cratic peoples of the world will those limits he has fitted the I have an idea that the shade of knows that the tomper of the never be able sufficiently to framework of his desires.

But it wouldn't be a bad fate. American people being what it thank him.

Mr. Cordell Hull would not be is, he might as well ask for the

If the Anglo-American trade offended if a future generation: Mr. Cordell Hull, with whose agreement-which we so foolish- were to raise a statue to him coupled that of the President, Davies last came to Europe to be very classical and name in this instance must be ly threw away when Norman in Whitehall. But it would have is well aware of the fact that should ever come to pass, it will traditional in design.

very

moon.

Perhaps Mr. Cordell Hull de- spises the bulk of his country-

I Wrote 70,000 Words

And 10 Words Were Used

A NUMBER of authors who have worked for film companies have found in their experience material for satire. Fiction-stories have ap- peared successfully satirising (to the lay mind) the nerve-storms of stars; the violent acrobatles of n director on the set: the

Incompetence

and ignorance of producers,

They make good reading and good fun on the smallest busts of truth. But this astonishing business of making talking pictures lends itself easily to such leg-pulling.

I have been through the mill. have worked for

a company and

written over 70,000 words, of which ten (ten words, not ten thousandi) were eventually used.

Its small significant actions, so that author. A scenarist's job is to take Instead of being an integral part of a story and adapt it for the screen. the story it has become an unhappy He understands what screen-con- I have written my first script and ghost wavering through several thou- tinuity means (the narrating of the to find that it has been handed over had it received with enthusiasm, only sand feet of celluloid.

story in a clematic sense as opposed the next day to a writer who was

I have worked from nine to five to a literary sense) and what makes iike a clerk in an office, clocking-in telling situations. not even on the staff,

and clocking-out. I have worked nli He knows how to link Thave developed stories to lead to through the night, laying down my sequences, when to "cut," to "dis- up his a definitely bulit-up climax, only to

pen at dawn, and at a ten o'clock solve," to "fade in" and to "Inde story And the completed picture has en-

conference torn the whole out." But that doesn't make him an tirely missed the point.

work up. And I'm not grumbling. Author. He's a film-technician. He

I am not grumbling at all. And is adapting material into which the the reason is I believe the author has breath” of He has already been got to play in British pletures of the breathed Its original Creator. I have evolved a character und future a for greater part than he Now there are scenarists who exist worked up essential detall, to find the has been permitted to do in the past. in England and who at the same time character remains, but stripped of A script-writer isn't necessarily an have authorship. They arc not numerous. The man or woman who can originate a story, put it into treatment-continuity, carry the

On the face of it the former German African colonies are not worth quarrelling about. The only reason that Britain opposed to surrendering the mandate is that they might pro- vide bases from which her trade routes and her own African possessions could be threatened. From Togoland and South-weat Africa tho sea lane to the Cape is assailable. From Tangan- yika, facing Konym, the Suez is within striking distance. Land forces from Tanganyika, work- ing in conjunction with Italians could force the pace of present the homeland's exports. Simi- only two solutions possible for material through to shooting-script in Somaliland, Ethiopia and immigration Libya could apply a strangle-

South-west larly, in raw materials the Ger- Germany's difficulties," says von complete with dialogue, is rare. I Africa (1,000 a year) and Tan-man colonies could only supply Ribbentrop, "elther through a have heard it said that such a one is hold to Kenya, Uganda and the ganyika (800 a year) ten-fold, a fractional portion of what return of her former colonies, gifted above his fellows. I don't be Sudan. Moreover, South Africa is adamant against restoration 450,000 a year increase in popu-

what is that compared to her Germany required.

or through the German people's lieve it. I wish producers could be of South-west Africa to Ger-lation? What is such a figure heading under which such a sub very like a threat, and while

Prestige is the only other own strength." That sounds made not to believe it, many; claims even restoration compared to the "ten, twenty,ject can be treated. Admitted- British instinct is to help the of Tanganyika would threaten yes, thirty millions more popula-ly the winning back of a Colonial nation "down in its luck," Bri- many pictures is because the story her security.

The cause of failure of tion" for which Dr. Goebbels re- Empire might brighten the Nazi tish feeling has

grent. an odd way in itself is trivial, unconvincing, com- cently appealed, adding: "We pride. They could say they stiffening against hard words. monplace. Too many cooka will know where to find room for had recovered what a

formert If Germany wants her former stirred the them." Not in Africa, surely. regime had lost. But is the colonies who would be wise to the flow of the tale muddled.

original conception has been

•

As to the intrinsic value of these African possessions, it is For white relatively small. settlement all but South-west Africa are virtually impossible. Only a half-caste or native stock can survive, it has been said. But even admitted that Germany

in

turgid

have

soup. The

lost,.

Tom, their

As for trade-If in 1918 the possession of these lands worth support the mandate system Dick and Harry have, added German African colonles had a struggle at this timo? Is it which the majority apparently little bit. bought all their goods from worth disturbing further the approves, because on that basis The cutting-roon has sliced away Germany the total would have relations of Europe in order to alone is she likely to obtain at Harry. Diek end Tom, The clear-. 'represented just 0.7 per cent, of Win, this point? There are them."

cut outlining of a situation has be

(Continted on Page 5.)