1947-08-30 — Page 6

The Mystery

of Major Farran

To-day, Major Farran waits in

Jerusalem to hear if the Pales tine Supreme Court will call him as a witness in the case of a missing Jew.

'Armoured patrols protect tim from possible thug attacks. No outsiders must see him. Against his own wishes he has become a Very Important Person.

ILE is 20, unmurrled, fair-haired, sturdy, with set mouth full lower alp, pointed chin................

HE has been the cause of a special Atatement by the Palestine Govern- ment: "Suggestions have been made that Farran was a member of a, special unit employing unorthodox methods against the terrorists. No authority has ever been given for the use of other than ordinary police methods......"

HE looks much older than his particularly moustach-

years, ed......

HE has won the. DSO, the MC Guerre three times, the Croix de and the US. American Legion of Merit......"

'HE was at a Buckingham Palace

investiture in 1942......

іп

HE writes affectionate letters home

spidery handwriting

ما

family in the three-floor, aeml- detached house. Myron, Histonshili, Codsail, Staffs.......

free

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1947.

"Useful sort, aren't you? Ten minutes to catch the train, and you lose the baby in this lot!"

Family

A NEWS-GAME FOR EVERYONE

Double or Quits

WHO ARE THE

EXPERTSIN YOUR

ENTERTAINMENT

TOWARDS the end of each month. 4. What position in the United the Hongkong Telegraph pre- Nations Organisation does Sir John HE implores his mother (Mrs) senis on this page & news-game- Boyd Orr hold? Minnie Farran, 44-year-old

wel-patterned on the famous Double-or- 3. Who Is the British Minister fare worker), his father. (Me Quits radio festure,

of State for. Commonwealth Reln- Stephen Farran, 30-year-old

Here's how, you play: xx-

For each tions? regular RAF warrant officer), and toplo there are five questions based three

"Don't on this month's news as reported in younger brothers: "Don't

Choose Lie worry! say nothing.

Hongkong' newspapers. HE escaped from Germans in tople you think you know best.

and Crete

Italy during the war. Politles for Father? Lucky Dip for first by posing as a Greek peasant Mother? Sport for young Tom?

crate of chickens on top of Give them their choice. abus; second by crawling from German hospital, dyeing his hair rod, and bluffing his way through to British lines......

with

0

118 was wounded four times in the war and fractured his back after a parachute drop......

·HE: worked in London office and he left Northolt Jaboratory after (Middlesex) Bishopshalt School at 15, then joined the Territorials and went into the Royal Armoured Corps in 1040..

J. Which

HOME?

Stories of Scotland Yard

Women are the cleverest crooks

by Ex-SUPT. T. B. THOMPSON

aro If

OMEN criminals

cleverer than men. women took to big-time crime they would be far harder to catch than the majority of mon the police have to deal with today.

They are more subtle, adapt their minds to a change of situation quickly—and they are more sensitive than men.

I have mentioned this scnsi-

The tivity before.

average criminal leads an unhappy life. He is always on his guard, always listening for the knock on the door which may herald the arrival of the police.

I have known a man leave his home. abandon a heap of "swag" and vanish completely, because a plainclothes officer paused for a few minutes out- side his house.

Golden rule

late, of the 'Big Five'.

The detective went out by the

Once the changed into a man's back door and tried to pick up a clothes, put a basket on her arm cold trail. He reasoned correctly and became a baker's roundsman. that the woman who had such a Our suspect could make no move cold nerve would not try to bolt from without Jean being right on her the neighbourhood,

Porfect bluff,

SURE enough he saw her through the window of a nearby mll- liner's trying on a new lint,

But she was quicker. She ro- cognised the shape of his hat above the screen and vanished out of ono door as he entered by another,

Some nights later we got on her I was present when we trail again. found the woman at a dance. We asked her to leave the floor and interviewed her in the cloakroom.

She was still bluffing pericetty. and I was by no means happy when she consented to come with us; say- Ing in a menacing tone;

J

"You will be sorry about this mistake."

tall.

The trap which finnily caught the poison-pcn writer

specially

prepared.

Wis

Vital link

who "happened" to be in the BUT it was Jean, the casuni visitor post office at the time the suspect bought some stamps and saw her post certain letters, who provided the vital link in the chain of evid ence.

The envelopes with the stamps on them were tested under an ultra- violet ray lamp and the ink became fuorescent, slabiishing the woman's gullt.

For cheer instinct the foest sleuth I ever knew was a woman riore

detective.

We waited for her to collect her

Lilian had been an art misiresă, she and she was a painter of talent. was where fur wrap. That

the wrap But she decided that she wanted to made her mistake. For she collected was one she had ob- be a detective, tained by false preteners, had sold to another woman who was at the dance and she took this opportunity to steal it back!

That gave us the initial evidence BUT I have known women to lie against her, and I am not sure that,

and blulit So well that the had it not been for that last-minute. wretched policeman has spent piece of greed, her bluff would not sleepless nights worrying over the have staved us off. consequences of "wrongful arrest." 5. What Important order did the There is one golden rule in deal- United Nations Security Counciling with women crooks; it is "Set a issue this week?

woman to catch a woman."

SPORT

Do you remember the result of the fifth and Dnal Test match between England and South Africa? 2. If you do, you will probably also be able to give the correct result of the rubber between these cricket teams.

3.

An English

has cricketer ored 19 centuries so far this sea-

Who is he?

son.

Is filming 1. Laurence Olivier "Hamlet." Who is Alming "Macbeth"? 2. Name the film star known as correct answer for the first "The Look." question in each five gets one polní.

well-known opern From then on, it's double-or-qults. singer and movie star has become a 80

correct se

answer to the second

Franciscan priest? question can

be wo

worth 2 points, to

4. What is the name of J. B.

4. Sing Tao opened their English Which the third question 4 points, to the Priestley's new play, which had its soccer tour on August 23.

8 fourth question points,

Arst night recently at the New famous amateur team did they play? And the fifth question, if the pre- Theatre, London?

5. After which, of course, it whi vious four have

been vious

answered

5. The wife of John Agar, an be simple for you to give the result is worth 10 points. The Americon Dorrectly,

war veteran, works in of that match-who were the win- real family expert will get a total films and she is expecting her first ners and by what score? of 31 points.

baby in January. Who is she?

Now who's to be Question Master, Fixed that? OK. Get started.

The correct answers wilt he found

HE had a Church of England up- bringing, but became 0 Roman Catholic when helping to organise on Page 19. French and Italian partisans.

JIE sings cheerfully, in an out-of- Lune volce, makes friends easily, but is often shyly embarrassed at social functions good horseman, llices

a

.

swimming, hockeying his war

I started writing

miniscences last year...akyma

re

I.

now

PEOPLE

General H. G. D. Crecar has retired from the Canadian

Army This month he headed a Canadian Goodwill Mission to China, and paid a flying visit to Hongkong. What was his last job before he HE was an Instructor at Sand-surrender of Germany? hurst carly this year, suddenly went 2. Who Is the Governor-General to Palestine ns Assistant Superin- of Pakista? tendent for the Palestine Police, In

plain clothes.

M

POLITICB

1. A leader of a political organi- sation revealed last week a plan for parachuting Jewish immigrants into Palestine. Do you know the name of that organisation?

PLACES

1. Twenty-one top German in- are to be, tried by an dustrialists Allied court next week. Where Is the trial to be held?

2. Sorious disturbances between 2. The United Nations Security indus and Moslems have occurred Council has been debating a dispute in a province where

the India- between Britain and--?

3. What vital political action has Pakistan border has not been defined.

Which province? the Australian Government recently decided upon?

Some of the C.ID. women at Scotland Yard-and some of the store detectives who catch shop lifters have displayed almost incred. Ible intuition and subtlety, without which their men colleagues would never have been able to make the final arrests.

One of the smartest workers of fraud was a woman who kept us guessing right up to the time of her arrest and even then she might have beaten us by sheer nerve if she had not been too greedy.

A well-known London store told us that a woman had been consistent- ly obtaining goods on credit, by tell ing the cashiers to put the cost down to Lady X's account.

Secret message THEY were almost certain of the swindler's identity, so we sent down a man to keep observation and make the arrest.

--The cashiers were given special Instructions to call our man when the customer put down any more goods to Lady X's account,

+

ONE

Uncanny gift

NE of the finest women observers we ever had at the Yard was n She C.1.D. sergeant named Jenn. worked for me en many cases, in- cluding the Flanneltoot.capture, and In any her gift for being natural kind of disguise was uncanny.

I have known her to borrow a and change the baby and a pram napkins of the child under the nose of the man she was shadowing.

He had no idea that the earnest a mouthful of young nurse with safety-pins would bne day appear in the witness-box to help convict him.

Jean's best effort was in a poison- pen case at Wimbledon. We suspect- ed a woman living in a block of flats, and we wanted to keep observation on her.

Now, it is no good leaving a few detectives scattered around the street; soon spotted the lamp-post loiterer by the suspicious criminal,

We have to find a good position under cover, preferably in house or fat with a view over the suspect's home.

Parents' offer...

any

of

TN this Wimbledon care we had the greatest difficulty in obtaining the suspect's After a few days the suspect help from came in. She made some purchases, neighbours. and used her normal method of But one day a young girl's dog obtaining credit,

Jumped into my car. I got out and told her that her pet had given himself up to the police.

3. A Hongkong-London aircraft 4. A conference is sitting in crashed while making a night land- ing last week in Bahrein, Where is Canberra at the time attended by Bahrein? 3. Name the French High Com Empire leaders. What are they

4. In which elly, known 99 missioner to Indo-China.

discussing?

"Athens of the North," Is there at

festival of The cashler made some excuse to present being held a music and draman?

hold up the transaction, and sent 5. In which European country are a secret message to our man. national elections to be held morrow?

Divorce is not so Modern

DANS and ways of solving

the current divorce

problem are giving social By LEILA CLARK

workers an oversize headache

.but by no means a new one. For nearly 4,000 years the wisest of men have been trying to find a solution to the same question.

In 1901, a stone tablet was unearthed, engraved with what was apparently part of the code of Hammurabl, one time King of Babylon. It showed how the lawmakers of the year 2250 BC tackled the question of marriage

and divorce..

The inscription rend: "If a man Bot his face to put away a concu bine who has borne him children, or a wife who has presented him with a child, he shall return to that her dowry, and shall give her the income of, feld, garden and goods, and she shall bring up her

woman

.

Divorce was completely and irre vocably denied the wife, leaving her no redress for any wrongs commit- ted her,

the sex.

J

LUCKY DIE

10-

Our suspect knew instinctively that something was wrong, but she dld not turn a hair. She walbed. smiling, at the desk for a few min- utes, and then walked slowly to the lift

The detective, hurrying through

As a result of my barter I was in- troduced to her parents who offered to help.

Jean promptly became their haust- muld. She did the washing up as efficiently as she kept swatch on the flat opposite.

came out to shadow the suspect she "I would like you to come with "ppeared in a variety of clothes.

Sometimes sho wore glasses: I understand that you have sometiraes she wore a wig. been obtaining goods in the name of

mie, 3. What do UNRRA and CNRRA sland for?

of women as he knew them, and

1. Wilch Chinese city has been could see only faint possibilities, in thrown into a panle by reports that

When she went into the house as a "monster," described as half man The ancient Hebrews were the

the crowded chop, just managed to the "maid" she was always dressed and half ape, has been seen? first to get the modern slant on 2. What proportion of the long-jump in after her as the doors closed, in a quiet, dark frock. But when she things. The husband's absolute right kong War Memorial Fund has been He said quielly": could obtain a divorce for of divorce was abolished. A wie contributed by the Hongkong Gov-

Soveralia. reasons, chief of which were "her

ernment? husband's refusal to cohabit with her, his engaging in disreputable 4. Ils Hongkong exported Fr A husband, thought, could have business, refusal to support, cruelty Imported more goods this year?

5. What is the world air specd marriage annuiled for various rea- and licentiousness." sons, such as Incompatibility, bad

The Romans really gave us a de- record? conduct, extravagance, discare. If finite foundation on which the pre- he just was fed-up with marriage sent marriage and divorce laws are anyway, he could diamies the wife based. Marriage was regarded

an institution by the civil code and divorce was regulated by law. More important, wemen were given equat rights with men.

at his pleasure.

For the Mohammedan husband, divorce was cheap and hasty, He merely repeated three times, "Thou art divorced," and that was that..

the least abuse of it.

of

as

COMMANDER

DIVORCES

FILM STAR

Hollywood actress Martha

Lady X, and you are not Lady X."

The woman did not blink 'an eye- lid. She replied tartly-

I

"Of course I am not Lady X. have never suzgested that I was. I merely asked for my purchases to be put on Lady X's account. She is a very old friend of mine and it l an arrangement we have made be- tween us."

Slammed door BEFORE the detective could recover D from this reply, she went on:

In the earlier days of the Roman Empire, there were three entirely | different forms of marriage, The or less, conferred a THE American Indians, numerous first more

African tribes and natives of the sacramental character on the union, open unly to patricians, and there- systems Pactile Inlands had

dissolve that fore difficult to

Secondly, divorce, their

"I am now going up to Lady X's maxim being

the fictitious sale of a wife by bill of O'Driscoll, 25, was divorced atat abaya, the store. If you don't children and the man of her choice where divorce was castest, there was sale which could quite easily bo Las Vegas, recently by former believe me you had bolter come may marry her."

annulled by a fictitious resale, and Navy" "Commander Richard along.", Causes for divorce-barrenness, To get rid of your mate in some thirdly, the establishment of mar- | Adams, 37. foolishness, neglect and disonse

early Australian aboriginal tribes riage by cohabitation for a year or were also. ilstad. Strangely enough, adultery did not come into was somewhat an un-nerving 'pro- even more.

cess...for the wife anyway, the category of causes for Baby- lonian divorce, although if commit ted by a woman, it was considered a criminal offence punishable by drowning.

In one tribe the wife stood against

оп

For three years, Adams had block ed her attempts to end the marriage, He was given, a decree of a cross complaint, to. O'Driscoll's action.

A year after they were married, O'Driscoll sued for divorce in Holly wood, but Adams blocked her the ground that he was in the zer- vice, and could not be mied without his consent,

O'Driscoll charged that he was holding up the decree "out of spite." Errol Flynn Mentioned for

She brought the sult ogain

men

Wondering whether he had made the biggest blunder of his career. the detective accompanied her along the corridor to the door of, one of the. luxury flats, which in those days occupied the upper storeys of the building.

The woman rang the bell,, spoke as few quiet words to the butler and went inside. Before the detec tive could follow, the. door wis slammed in his face.

a tree while har husband tried to TN all chats the wife and children hit her with three spears. If he were compiutely under the con- missed, she was a free woman. An troi of the husband, who alone could It turned out, so many young girls get a divorce. Divorces were also were married to decrepit old men, carried out, without the Intervention whose aim was shaky. that. the of the Courts. NE redeeming feature of this set- chances of divorce or death were A wife could be divorced "for

drinking wine, dining with up was that a wife could leave about even. her husband at her own discretion The ancient Greeks took marriage other than her relations without the and demand her dowry which was and divorce rather lightly, Even consent of her husband, and granted her by the law if her re in the Golden Age of Pericles, it was frequenting the circus

or theatre cord was satisfactory.

the common practice to lend your without the husband's permission." 1940, but dropped it after Adams But anys the codo she wife to a friend. In fact, the chle! During later Roman times, things filed a cross complaint, in which he hath not beet a datiful wife, hath pastime of the popular gods and improved a little and a wife, or hus-charged that her conduct on a United

Organization tour

with gadded about, hath neglected her goddesses of the day was marital band could divorce each other for Services household and hath bolittled her infidelity.

three causes-murder, preparation of Errol Flynn was "highly improper He found that the woman had husband, they shall drown

whispered to the butler that be whe Plato, however, beileved not only polsons, and violation of tombs, for the wife of a naval officer."

in a "Violation of tombs" and "prepa- Publicity: Fonn: : received womune in the water

in the economic freedom of women.

annoying her, and since the mald but also in free motherhood.

ration of polzane" occur. quite court case involving a teen-aged recognised the woman as one who Stil it was apparent from

had called on Lady X, she had lef his frequently as grounds of divorce all girl was cited by Adams in court, writings that he thought very little through the Roman era.

after which the divorce was granted, jher out by the back door.

Harah Umes Indeed!

that

East,

In ancient Zaidia and the women had Ale say in the matter

in

He rang the bell furiously, but it Was several minutes before the but- ler answered, and then there was a further delay while he proved his identity.

Against the advice, of all her she threw up her job at friends, the art school, took a course of training, and got a job as a house detective at one of the big West End stores.

She soon proved her worth at catching shoplifters in the act, but Lillan went further than that.

She could pick the "wrong "una" even before they began to sical!

Kept watch

ILIAN would stand near the doors of the store watching the cus- Lomers come in.

Something, either in the expression of the eyes, the furtiveness of move ment or the very atmosphere al determination of a certain customer would give Lilian her cus,

She would pick het woman, watch her, follow her throughout the store, and would be standing by to tap her on the elbow the moment she started transferring goods from the counter into her handbag or coat.

Lilian's instinct was rarely wrong.. If the customer she had picked out ns a likely thief behaved perfectly Innocent on her first visit, it was odds on that she was picked up as n shoplifter on a later sortie."

Women criminals when they have made up their minds to prey. I have known' a woman defraud helpless

pensioners until they have been starving.

это

woman's way

IF a woman decides to make money by fraud or swinding sho wil pursue her course without any of the

that sentimental generosity marks the character of so many re- gular men crooks.

But, fortunately, women do not normally plan big-scale frauds on their own.

Unless they are operating with confidence men or as part of a well- organised gang of men criminals, they confine themselves to small and immediate profis.

Which, considering their Ingenuity and effrontery when they do set out plunder, is fortunate for the public-and for the police.

to

NEXT WEEK ` 'Dud' cheques

DAVID LANGDON CARTOON

Cor, look at Im! Little Lord Fauntleroy, orf to

Hydo Park: Lido

$