1938-09-07 — Page 10

I'VE

10

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,

Reminder that

a

WEDNESDAY,

in world

harassed symbols of friendship

still endure..

I'VE just bought four times

dining-room chairs.

I'd gone into a modern the street, one on either side of that of Barchester;

tall, spare figure in her black frock "Cranford, About the poetry of

SEPTEMBER 7,

1938.

Friest, teacher; and friend. He left my old village when I waя Just grown up. and when he returned same years later as canon of the neighbouring cathedral I was al- ready at work in London.

But

our Iriendship cemained and deepened. We wrote to one another frequently, visited occasion- ally. He know all my Joys and Borrows, gave sympathy, help, ad- vice,

CANADIAN PACIFIC

STEAMSHIPS - HOTELS -

RAILWAYS - EXPRESS

BERTHING PLANS FOR 1939 ARE OPEN

Last year he was ill for the first MAKE BOOKINGS EARLY time in his long life; early this your

he died in his chair. He was rest-

to secure accommodatian desired

ing while getting up to do as he TO CANADA, UNITED STATES and EUROPE

had written to me a week cartier- "what passes for work in these anya."

......Noon, Fri., Sept. 18.

We

via Shanghai, Kobe & Yokohama EMPRESS OF JAPAN via Honolula

EMPRESS OF ASIA EMPILESS OF CANADA vis Honolulu

EMPRESS OF RUSSIA

His furniture was put up for aple. My sister and I said, “How wonder- As a treat the party was held in ful if we could buy the chairs." the parlour, So the chairs for a wrote to another old friend of a life- brief hour or two every year knew time in the neighbourhood and asked the joy of cheerful voices and him

Im to bid for us. We had been children's laughter, while an old prepared to make a big sterifice to lady brought out her best harlequlu get them. They were knocked down set of china from high cupboard.

ND now they have come, full of enchanting memor- ics, to beautify our London fat.

For the first time in all their

to be sent to fetch her for whose "David Copperfeld" appeared tnti told outrageously funny stor for 329.-the four of them. breakfast and "help mamma to sew." in 1849 and must have been all the If How proud we were to walk down rage; about Anthony Trollope's tales and Mrs. Gaskell's furniture store and bought and mob cap!"

the Brownings, the Rossettis, Mat- four chairs that first sen-

thew Arnold, Robert Louis Steven- WHILE she WIB WHI

getting son and William Morris (who also tence would have been the

ready to come with us went in for wallpaper designing and

Lewis Car beginning and end of the she would say, "Run down the gar- social reform); about story. And no one would den, my beauties, and smell my jay- coll's "Alice in Wonderland."

These were all hot topics when have been interested except mine," or "Go down the path, my

me.

years ever

Marely

illness which

dears, and look at my lovely my chairs first lived at the vicar-how she came by the chairs. He stead of Disraeli, Mr. Hore-Belisha;

about her "dear master." However, he always ended with a solemn one all about his dying, which restored our shaken respect for him.

Some years passed and my old changes of ownership. they are in friend had a serious

radio, a left her very poor. She decided to home which possesses a

telephone, central heating, an elec- of her good furniture that tric fire, and takes these things for sell she

used. Across the road lived another granted.

Instead of hearing about Bismarck bachelor vicar-the one who guided they will hear of Hitler; instead of childhood footsteps-who knew Florence Nightingale, of A.R.P.: in- offered to buy them one at a time instead of Dickens, Sir Hugh Wal- as she needed funds, but to leave pole:

instead of Thackeray, Mr. DUT round about 1000 the them with her so long as she cared

to

Somerset Maugham. have them.

But though times and manners academic backwater,

When she was too feeble to live and celebrities have changed, one alone she gave up her house, went thing cannot be changed; the after- to live with a niece, and the chairs lon which, through all their ap went back to their old home, the parently fortuitous 'changes vienrage. Again they were silent ownership, has inked cach previous witnesses

of owner with the last, and all with scholarly men.

one another.

across

B chairs passed out of this road to that little cottage pre-

for my old friend.

unt/I you could see your face in them. And there, at infrequent in

years later, I to sit on thein, and

aurlesias," and sometimes she would age. say, "Go in the parlour, children, But there's a

They story in my and see my beautiful chairs. four chairs. You see, I've loved were my dear master's chairs."

We were very young, my sister quiet them for forty aince

I first remember secing and I, when we first knew that her the

"dear master" hud been the vicar pared them, when I was "less than 80 of the parish, and she had been first

his housemaid and then his house. And there they were polished high.'

They are beautiful polished ma- keeper, and had married late in hogany chairs with carved ends and only when he needed her no long: tervals some Alteen

This old mun died In the middle red leather upholstery. The sents are wide, soft and comfortable, the eighties after he had been vlear was allowed

a year the old lady gave a thn back Ats into your back restfully, tur more

forty years. Just once and there are no spindles to get when he bought the chairs I don't party to my sister and me and her

three nieces and small nephew. scratched, just four solid, well- ow, but he must have had them shaped legs, the two front ones are by about 1050 when my old friend carved, and the back ones finely Jolted his household. curved.

He had not always been an ee- centric. He was a learned scholar, Doctor of Divinity of Emmanuel became College, Cambridge, and from time friendly with my chairs to time men of great crudition dined they were in the front parlour of a at the vicarage, and doubtless oc-

WHEN

I frst

village cottage, owned by on old casionally were accompanied by

מטרווסין!

who, next to my parents, their latties in crinolines, and later |

on in bustles.

was my best friend.

She was then a widow of about I wonder, as I look at my chairs, sixty-four, and we never passed her what was the talk round this par- collage without running in to see son's dining table. They would her. She and great understanding have something to say about the of children, and could always be Great Exhibition at the Crystal counted on as a champlon if we were Palace just as we, to-day, are talk- in trouble with authority.

ing of the Empire Exhibition at Glasgow.

On days when my mother had n lot of sewing to do we used some-

HUMOUR FROM THE KIRK

IN

TN the old days of Bble-thumping preachers nothing was admired more thon a fiery discourse when the minister would "ding the stoor" from the pulpit Bible and terrify his hearers with awful warnings about hell-fire.

The Crimean war, with Florence Nightingale's example to women, would surely be discussed in a country vicarage, and Darwin's "Origin of Specles" in 1859 would create a good deal of full-throated | obloquy.

F

1 expect, 100,

they would talk about the best-sellers of the day: about Tennyson, made Poet Laure ate in 1850 and just bringing outf his "In Memoriam"; about Dickens,

THE MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LIMITED,

Head Office:-15, Gracechurch Streak, London, R.C.3. Authorised Copiiatem ... #3,000,000

Subscribed Capital "Hood'dye like the new meenis-Tald-up Capital .... ter" an elder of a country parish Reserve Fund and Rest was asked one day.

BANKERN:

1,800,000

1,050,000 1,247,830

"Och he's no' that bad," was the The Bank of England & Midland reply. But he'll never come up to

the auld ane. Jinga! yon was ዜ preacher! He kent mair about hell than the de'll himsel! It ye'd heard Bangkok Bonbry 15 describe it, ye wad think be Calcutta had been born, bred, an' brocht up Colombo there."

Delhi Galle

"Is the mecnister ony better" alongkong member of another country parish | Howran asked the beadle, hearing that the preacher had been laid wide by 1-

nesa

"Na," replied the beadle. "He's still bad."

Hark, Ltd,

BRANCHES Ipoh Kuantan

Madras

New York Kandy

Penank Karachi

Hangoon Kota Bharu Shanghol Kuala Lipis Strain Kuala Lumpur Singapore Kuala Trengganu

HONGKONG DRANCH. Every description of Banking Exchange Buahjess transacted.

and

TRUSTEE AND EXECUTORSHIP UNDERTAKEN.

"Has he got a locum tenens?" "Na; he's got naething of the kind." and Fixed Deposits at Rates that may be

sald the beadle, indignantly. "It's Juist the same ould pain I' the sma' |

o' his back."

An instanco of unfortunate word- ing appeared in a church magazine, where the minister had inserted the

notice:-"The ministeri

following

will be pleased to hear of any ill-

in the

village."

In the absence of the minister an

ឍ

old

elder was called upon to visit

111 summoned

the pick. One old lady who lay very him to pray at her bedside. The elder, who did not at all care for the job, tried to evade

dutles, but

his

Interest allowed' on Current Accounta

ascerlained on application,

at length his wife stops pain" persuaded him to set out. Soon af terwards he returned with a very

in 3 seconds Jubliant expresston on his face.

"Hoo did ye gel on?" asked his wife anxiously.

"Graund!" quoth he, with satis- faction. "She was deid afore I got there.

In begone times the country folk had rooted objection to "read" germunis. On one Occasion the beadle cemonstrated with his minia- tor on the subject, only to be an-

swered by, "But, my good man, my

memory needs assistance, and I must refer to the notes I have made."

"Weel, then, meenlater," and the beadle, menningly, "gin ye sne sune forget your ain sermons, ye canna blame us gin we follow your exam- Plone Sunday the minister dis-

covered a young member of his flock busily engaged. In fishing by the burn, with several trout lying beside him. "My boy," said he in a pained valce, "what have those poor fish done to deserve such punishment on- the Lord's. Day?"

"Och, ld the culprit, uncon- cernedly, "that's, whit they get for laupin' efter wurrms on the Saw- bath."

Lavinia Derwent

D. BENSON,

CORNS

Manager.

aro killed and loosened with just one opplica tion of Gets-It. A drop or two ends the torture of throbbing corns. A few days later you can lift off the corn -- rool and all.

:

GETS-IT

Makes you forget corns,

COUNT THE "TELEGRAPHS"

EVERYWHERE

I

to the

conversation

DIDN'T lose sight of them. Their new owner Was another champion of my childhood:

Land of

10.00 mus, Fri. Bopt, 30. ......Noon, Fel., Oct. 14, Noon, Thurs, Oct. 21,

Air-conditioned equipment on C.P.R. Trans-Continental Trains. Frequent Canadian Pacifio Allantio salilogs to European Port

TO MANILA

EMPRESS OF JAPAN

Union

Building

.........................................5.00 a.m. Fr. Sept. 9.

Canadian Pacific

Telephone

20752

BARBER-WILHELMSEN LINE

Hilda Coe!

M. Hodza, Czechoslova kian Promior, speaking

at a recent mogling.

Three Scourges

HAVE just been in that.

borderland of

3lovakia

Czecho-

which marches with the German Reich, and which is to-day-save for torn and tortured Spain-surely the most tragic country of Europe.

It should be a pleasant and a prosperous land.

For it has a fertile soil, well farmed for generations; it has good store of timber; it has rich wealth of brown coal and highly developed industries, manned by akilful workers; it has world-fam- ous spas and health resorts set in a lovely scenery.

But it is a land scourged by thres Scourges: by economic distress, by racial struggle, by the ever-present fear of war.

ACH nione would be bad enough. That the three

tragedy of the, Sudetenland.

These once thriving towns and villages are passing through the same ordeal as our own distressed arcas.

Everywhere you may see silent factories and dead chimneys, you may talk with men who have been out of work for four, five, six years. That is one grim aspect of this "Budeten problem", which the Czechoslovak Government has to solve if the. Republic is to And. stability and prosperity.

It would be no easy one even though the population were one in' race and lauguage and feeling with that of the rest of the state.

But fate, or chance, or history, or what you will. has ordained that, while the core and centre of Bohemia are Czech, the people of these border districts where the distress in deepest, nro prodornin- antly German.

And to be a German in Czecho- slovakia to-day is to have a senso' of grievance.

Again, the history of it all matters comparatively little, The sense of grievance is there-and not just among the Honiginists. The Social-Democrats have it, too.

Between the statements of those grievances put to me by Bocialist leaders and by the saner of the

-by

W. N. EWER

Henleinists there was hardly an ounce of difference.

∙I underline the word saner, for it is important to appreciate that there are Home Henisinists who, while they have a feeling of deep grievance, do not believe the best way to meet it is by absorption in the Third Reich. It is upon an in- crease of their influence that the best hope of settlement rests,

They feel deeply that though the Germans aro one-third of the people of Bohemia their language is not given full equality with Czech-is discriminated against in n hundred ways, none the less in- furiating because often petty.

They feel deeply because in a purely German town or village every ofolal (police, postmen, railwaymen and the like) may bo an imported Czech.

They complain bitterly of all kinds of economic discrimination ngainst the Germans-such as the bringing in of Czech workmon from other parts of Bohemia to public works in areas whers, there are thousands. of German unem- ployed,

All this you may hear from Ger- man Socialist as well; and almost as bitterly, as from Henleinst. These German Socialist workers—a magnificent folk-are in the most tragic plight of all ́.

T

HEY liave suffered most from the misery. of un- employment. They have suffered as a racial minority.

Now they suffer as a Party minority among their own people -bullied, Intimidated, threatened by the Honieinists, who, because of the Socialista' loyalty to the Ro- public, regard them as traitors to thair race.

I

To-day the Czech Government le trying wholeheartedly to re- move the gridvancos of the Ger-

mans:

There can be no question of the sincerity and the determination of

President Benes and Dr. Hodza to do everything possible to give the Sudetens every concession compat- ible with the integrity and inde- pendence of the State.

Equally there can be little doubt that the more responsible and moro level-hended of the Henlein- 1st leaders aro anxious for a reasonable settlement.

Between what Benes and Hodza would gladly give and what they would gladly take there is, I feel sure, a very small gap, it, indeed, any gap at all

B

UT on both sides sanity has to cope with insanity. the Race feeling on German alde, especially among the young, has been whipped into ecstatic frenzy. Race feeling on the Czech side, if less violent in expression, is well-nigh as formid- able in fact.

Ask

responsible Czech any statesman what are the chances he will settlement and of a answer, "We are doing our best. But it all depends on what Hitler Bays to Henlein."

Hero. is the third aspect of the tragedy of this land. It is per- manently on guard. Just over the mountains Hes tha Third Reich.

At any moment Hitler might de- cldo to strike: the planes might whir over the forests, the tanks Beck to break through the passes. Perhaps the danger is less since May 21. But the Czechs dare take no risks. They are ready day and night to "repel boarders.".

"Bee those haystacks in that neid"

says a Czech driver with a grin. They aren't haystacks at all. Machine gun posts." * Those hills just back there," says some- body else, "are where the heavy guns cover that pass ahead."

And the irony of it is that if it” came, these Budeten Germans, their villages, their factories, their pleasant towns, would be the first violims: as the wiser of them grimly understand,

A tragic land, victim of the in- zanities of sonsoloss strife and of the follies of governing men: which but for the grace of God' may be the starting point of yet wider and desper tragedy.

Monthly Service to

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

via LOS ANGELES & PANAMA CANAL PORTS

also taking cargo on through Bills of Lading for West Indios ports, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Rio Grande do Sol Buenos Aires, South America.

NEXT SAILING:-

M.V. "TAI YIN"

18th September.

DODWELL & CO., LTD.

Agents.

Hongkong Bank Bldg. Telephone 28021.

www.

OUR BRITISH. CROSSWORDS

ACROSS

1 The paker player's favourite

vehicle (10).

Fish (4),

10 It often comes under the ham-

mer (5). 11 Perhaps

celebrating

herein helps people with their prob. leris-they usually see day- light before they leave (two words-5, 4).

12 After consuming a first half would one be second half to

13

work this entertaining machine? (two words-3, 5).

With

no

no company and one end

15 The clerk of the weather call-

ing? (7).

17 N.E., gales are the making of

this part of Africa (7).

10 One of the family and a foreign

glont make a good show (7). 21 If you feel you want to put something on a horse, here's a suggestion (7):

22 I do it otherwise (5). 24. A.R.P, advice to towns (8). 27 Not in good shape (0),

28 If this is good it may be had at

a party (5).

20 This bird should build a good

neat (4);

30 Fly around with no cars but

with courage (10). DOWN

1 An order for a car (4).

2 Exposure of a sculptor's work?

(0).

3 Not a tenantless - bit of land

evidently (D)

4 What a lady has and a sidesman

does (7).

5 A lady from 17 across perhaps

(7).

7 This sends messages in a flash

(5).

BA Sunday gathering usually

(two words--ő, 5).

DA

solid retainer at the les table (8).

14 Belter look into

It next tirno you go looking for bargains (two words 4, 0).

16 A striking result (8).

18 Change at 5 down to eminence

(9).

20 A substitute for table legi (7). 21 No prodigal (7).

23 Publish (0).

| 25 Colloquially one who takes the

pledge (5).

26 An osininë effort, this (4)..

“YESTERDAY'S SOLUTION MARESNEBT THROE |0||A|||E|L ONE I

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