1937-12-23 — Page 8

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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAFI, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1937.

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A James Douglas article-remember, some people are

LONELY

HRISTMAS is the one..

season of the year

which makes solitude intolerable. It makes the lonely feel lonelier than any other holiday, for it is the festival of the family.

To be solitary at Christmas

is the lot of many. If we could

Showroom

Phone 27778-9 | ed..

The

Hongkong Telegraph.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1937.

COLLECTIVE SECURITY.

JUST NOW

take a census of all the Christ- mas solitaries who mope in their

Another factor which destroys I shall never forget my delight cheerless homes without love or always secure peace. Some com.

sentiments is home life is the servant famine. when I was invited to join in the laughter we should be astonish- munication of

commonly necessary to give vent There is a vast floating popula- gaiety of a happy homo filled old to the imagination, and discharge tion which migrates from one with laughing young folk. There are armies of

Do not take the happiness of bachelors and old maids who the mind of its own flatulencies. boarding-house or private hotel

without any per- others for granted. Call a family have drifted into a state of Some lady surely might be to another

conversation manent ties of society or bonds council and try to think of some friendlessness. They have no found, in whose.

intercourse. These lonely friend who may be shut one left to invite them to pull a you might delight, and in whose of social

their children out from the Christmas jallity. eracker. They are shunned and fidelity you might repose. The wanderers with

Try to imagine how miserable boycotted because they are not world, says Locke, has people are homeless solitarics.

of all sorts." good company.

Then there are the derelicts you would feel if you were com Dr. Johnson hated "drony soli-

pelled to pass Christmas alone. who have fallen The late George Moore was

on evil daya.

I am sure that selfishness is tude," one of these Christmas solitaries.

"He declared that "solitude is Their incomes have shrunk and often caused by thoughtlessness. I do not know whether all his

without dwindled. They find it hard to We assume that So-and-so is friends had forsaken him or dangerous to reason, whether he had forsaken all his being favourable to virtue: plena- make ends meet, and for them aure to be invited by somebody

Christmas is unutterably mourn- somewhere..

But if everybody resolves to friends, but he passed the last tires of some sort are necessary C

It is not hard to find these forget and ignore the friendless Like the helpless farmer who Christmas Day of his life alone to the intellectual as to the cor- In his lonely house in Ebury Porate health; and those who re- takes a last, sad look at his

sist gaiety, will be likely to fall lonely people. We all know one there is a wasted opportunity a sncrifice to appetite; for the them, and we are all apt to forget of sharing happiness, with the young crops while the mush-

I received a melancholy letter solicitation of sense are always them while we are making merry unhappy. room-cloud of the dust storm from him, begging me to take at hand, and a dram to a vacant in our own homes. If it occur- gathers on the far horizon, so tea with him, and I was sorry and solitary person is a speedy red to us to come to their aid at THERE is enough happi-

Christmas our thousands in China wait to-day for the old man, for I was unable and seducing relief.

own happiness

ness to go round all to go to see him.

the solitaries in the land. What for an expected blow from some

"Remember that the solitary would be doubled. His desolation at the end of mortal is certainly luxurious,

we need is a great share-out of new quarter. There are others his days contrasted strangely probably superstitious, and pos in this disturbed world whose with his long essays about his sibly mad: the mind stagnates

HERE is a plan which the Christmas mirth and good

would bring joy to all fellowship. hold upon security must be friends in Paris, in London and for want of employment, grows these lonely people. Let every Our pleasure will not be dimin- measured in hours or days. That in Ireland. I thought of the morbid, and is extinguished like happy home make room for one ished by asking others to take a

which con-

desolate friend who has seen bit of it. On the contrary, it famous peroration cludes Burton's "Anatomy of

better days.

will be increased. Melancholy," and the closing

There is no necessity for any-- adjuration, "Be not solitary."

If you have à apare roomt, see body to endure a solitary Christ-

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For

street.

a candle in foul air."

maids are not the only

people

sad

stepmother."

wine?

us. We

is the price man must pay for the failure of collective action

OLD bachelors and old in the preservation of peace.

In spite of years of isolation-

who lead lonely lives. that it is offered to somebody mns. Is there a single dinner- DR. JOHNSON detested There are thousands of childless who otherwise would be an exile table at which there is not room ism, the United States is stirred

solitude. In a letter widows and widowers to whom from Christmas fun and frolic. for an extra chair. an extra by

an event which occurred to his friend, Mrs. Aston, he Christmas brings only

At least we ought to ask one plate, and an extra glass of

to spend thousands of miles away from wrote:--

memories of happiness long past. friendless solitary her home shores. Now the "You know, dear madam, the There are many

young people Christmas Day with

Some of these lonely ones may fallacy of that outworn doctrine liberty I took of hinting that I who are lonely at Christmas. should open our hearts and our be your neighbours. Think of did-not-think-your present-mode-Their homes have been broken-homes to the wretched victims them and take the trouble to find. of life very pregnant with hap- up by unemployment.

of poverty and adversity.

out whether they are forgotten any nation which expects to piness. Reflection has not yet The old-fashioned family re- When I came to London as a by everybody. send its ships and men of com- changed my opinion. Solitude union at Christmas is impractic- young man I lived in dreary If every happy home in the merce into foreign lands, isola- excludes pleasure and does not able. Sons and daughters are rooms, and I discovered what land were thrown open to one tion in the political sense la;

separated by distance from the De Quincey meant when he call outcast there would be no out- old folks at home. They cannot, ed London "a stony-hearted casts left alone with uching obviously impossible; and to

as Britain in the Mediterranean, afford to pay the fare. that nation must fall a share for instance. On the other hand

hearts on Christmas Day. of responsibility in maintaining the British contention that the conditions in which its enter-Mediterranean sea-lanes shall; prises can operate without dan never be interrupted and her! ger to investment or to the determination to keep them well protected are points of policy people who guide them..

which give advantages to other Sir Archibald Sinclair re-traders than her own. The

Here is a description by an ex- cognises the truth of these con- Mediterranean lanes are vital to

officer of His Majesty's Navy of obtainable to the mast heads. tentions. Britain, ha told the Great Britain, but they are also

Christmas on board a battleship. ships are judged by their trees. It is written in a light vein, but at

Half the ship's company will be House of Commons, has no right important to other powers. It

well be

the same time succeeds in being on long leave (the Christmas leave possible that

Alter breakfast all hands will be period is fourteen days) and hall to call upon the United States American commercial interests

exceedingly informative,

the "Watch on board" 1.c. those not employed cleaning ship; the watch for co-operation in the defence will find that British support in

on long leave will have been ashore on deck polishing brightwork and the freedom of

for the afternoon, evening and night putting the finishing touches to make of purely British interests. The preserving

Christmas

the upper deck "ship shape"; the implication is that Britain could Atlantic or Pacific trade routes iRISTMAS day starts early on The night leave, given daily when "watch below" clearing up messdecka

flats

those the is desirable. Such an argument board a battleship.

ships are in their home ports, finishes and expect co-operation from

Long before the carllest landsman at seven o'clock in the morning, and Christmas decorations witch for do

have been making their ap United States when the in-leads to the conclusion that co-

operative rather than parallel has rubbed the sleep from his eyes just before this time streams of blue-past have terests of both are affected. action is the, most practicable and crawled out of bed, long before jackets will be passing through the pearance. For on Christmas Day, a At about nine o'clock the hands ure There is a common cause in the cure for the world's ills; and the most enger child has sent ex-dockyard anxiously eyeing the ships mess deck is judged by its decorations.

stocking to decorations and hoping that their own

itas will have surpassed the others.

piped to "clean" in to No. 1 dress. Far East. Once it was ap-that collective accurity, based ploring lingers down

see what Father Christmas

Work on Christmas day is cut down their "Sunday best. In the Navy such parent, the Liberal leader went on the League Covenant, even brought, sailors and signalmen have

By the time the they never talk of changing on, that Britain intended to act though it is not yet universally been aloft securing bunches of hally to a minimum. to defend her own interests, the accepted, is the surest way to a mistletoe to the yard arms and night leave men are returned on- and such dress-it is always "clean- United States might be expected

may

peace.

How much the world needs

CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE FLEET

(ny Lieut. Comdr. H. de L. Standley,

R. N. (Ret.)

For

i scrubbed, and the hunds will be going.

to breakfast.

Cleaning

Inte

Axing the largest Christmas trees bonrd the decks will have been inc" wons, which correspond to un

to take parallel action. It seems very likely that such pectation is well founded. effect of parallel action would the prospect of profit from his

an ex- peace, how grout is the need of HUMOUR IN THE OFFICE

the

The

security before mankind can contemplate with any certainty

of

very

the

STATE EXPRESS alliance, however vague, with a enterprise.. Just as the mount-out or the day-

ing dust storm aends the farmer

777 CORK TIPPED).

COUNT THE

"TELEGRAPHS"

EVERYWHERE.

Instance,

WAK

Army parade, take place at nine- thirty. The ship's company talis in by divisions and inspected Brst of all by the divisional officers and then by the Captain, or if he is absent on leave by the senior executive officer Office life is generally regarded fund raised a laugh at the same time on boord who, in the absence of the 55 being

monolenous, and by putting up this notice:-

Captain, is the Commanding Officer. be precisely that of joint action, labours, is pitifully apparent while this is true to a certain extent, "Closing Time ... I p.m. Lighting-up Time @ p.m."

Church but apparently

United Threats of war and famine and anyone with a sense of humour can

The telephone occasionally yields n

Then follows Church. It depends States is still shy of making any pestilence take the heart out of derive quite a lot of quiet amusement

provides the Arst emile. The manager's son rang up!

his on the clans of ship as to where one day, and thinking day. My firm, for smile

received orders from his father speaking, sald cheerfully, church is rigged." In come ships European power for fear that home with listless hands and customers by letter that reads no

"Hullo, is that you, you old skinflint?" the service may be held on a mess she will be embroiled in the hanging head, so the political follows:---

Whereupon our office-boy gravely re-deck; in other ships, a large "01"

be rigged s

church. "Please send me a sleeping suit for complicated political and econo-storma which sweep the world

just now, Biri" mic troubles of another part of are apt to leave the victims of

The arrival of a new ofice-boy is class, church, during the winter "I wish a cardigan for an old Indy lethargic, saying: Why'

always the signal for some clumsy, month, is held in large space the globe. She is not to be war

One of the best morning smiles we attempt at a practical joke on the called the "half deck." During the summer, church is rigged right aft blamed for this caution; but at should we build again for de-of chasic design but still pretty,"

ene under the Quarter deck awning and the same time it does seem rea-struction? And workers may ever had was supplied by a man who part of the older clerks.

Great glee resulted when

six-the services are

are held under proffered

the youngster took the

grim muzzles sonable to expect that if parallel row apathetic, saying: Why sent a letter complaining that some

of great guns. should we work only to destroy 7 underwear suppiled had shrunk.

rather Ink. The jokers got a shock, nction is applied in one. sphere | War and its aftermath can be am sending you all that is left of the pence to go and buy a bottle of Invis ship's band, or

vest I

received. The rest vanishedible

Ind returned string portion of it, provides the It should be applied in another,

The enclosure however, when the wash-tub."

with a nice clean empty bottle music, and there is something sout especially where interests in prevented; but only by the col-in the

lective determination of far-was the firm's name tab!

When some of our clerks took to carefully corked, and no change! stirring in the volume of full throated volved are similar.

sighted peoples who having

Christmas hymns, so well known to learned to rule themselves, may smoking a cigarette in the office be- The office-boy is not so easily gulled monte voices folning lustily in the old

fore closing-time, our manager very nowadays,

5. D. M.

(Continued on Page 8.) rule the lawless.

ingeniously put a stop to the practice:

It is not suggested that America has the same interests

boy without feet."

ntiert. "I'm sorry, the cushier's not in my ships of the Queen Elizabeth

In

The

the