1948-05-29 — Page 4

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1948.

ROME GETS ITS CAVIARE BOUGHT WITH U.S. DOLLARS

By SAM WHITE

ROME.

NLY the tattered remains of election posters

Oby the tete remind Italians of that week his history when they enjoyed the undivided attention of the entire world.

The operative word is "enjoyed," for there Is little doubt that the vision of themselves as nrbiters of the world's destinies appealed enor- mously to all the theatrical instincts of the Italian character.

Briefly they enjoyed every moment of it, and now, while the world's applause still rings gratifyingly in their cars, they half regret that both the Constitution and the very size of the Christian Democrat majority make another election unlikely for at least another five years.

The subject of the Italian cléctions lends itself to a not altogether ill-founded cynicism. Did the Communists ever really stand a chance of getting more than 40 percent of the voto?

Did not the Government overplay the Com- munist danger in order to secure considerable economic and diplomatie concession from the United States and, the West?

Romans are the inst people

in

#

the world to fall to appreciate fino plece of Machiavellian diplomacy and a current quip is that if the elections had been postponed for. another fortnight Italy would have

iven buck all its colonies. been given

Whatever justification there is for these doubts and questionings the fact remains that Italy is now the bright-eyed favourite of the U. S. State Department. A such, she shall not want-for dollars,

comparatively

She will remain prosperous though bankrupt..

A walk down Rome's fashlonable

Via Vittorio Venito is an eye-opener, elegantly Here are the mast altired men and women In the New Look swathes world. (The

Ilere . pre fcc- every woman.)

creams made from real cream sup-

pyramid of are shops and restaurants bulging with every known luxury and deliency.

porting a toppling

whipped cream; here

"If you're lucky little pigs the nico gentleman who owns the hotel will buy you at a colossal price and save you the indignity of boing mared on à form for horrid working-class dinners."

HOW AMERICANS ELECT

THEIR

Continuing a timely and

informative 'article by

William R. Sears

United Press Staff Correspondent

NY native-born American, 35 years' old or older, who has lived in the United

fromStates 14 years, is eligible to be

President,

Even, caviare is Imported Russia vin the U.S.A. and paid for In liard dollar.

Rome impressions are somewhat ill-balanced, however.

Italy, for from being prosperous, is in fact desperately poor.

is

But there is more to it than just wanting to.

In practice, one of the biggest qualifications is the aspirant's. ability to "get votes."

Without large-scale agricultural 'roforms and vast hydro-clectric

and irrigation schemes, Italy doomed to live on American charity.

Candidates, of course, do. not taklo WI Premier De Gasperi these problems? There are doubts, spring from nowhere. By and large, for this man has too many masters, candidates have made politics and and among them are those who public service n career and work

đo their way up, most effectively bar the rond reform.

Intermediate steps

state Bul,

have the to those who

U. S. Senator, U. S. Rome

Kovernor. offers a life com- inoney.

Representative or soine high ap pletely unchanged by wor.

pointive post in the Presidential Cabinet.

while Over the coffee cups and taking cocktails at the Ambas- sudors, there is no lack of spley Eddin Clano was in town gossip. recently, and everyone who fawned on her during her years of power cut her dead.

She is now in Capri and intends to re-marry.

The orchestra In Capri's lead- ing night club is a little

behind the times-every time Edda enters

It plays softly the Fascisthyan,

Giovenetzzn.

the

Eddin is said to be a secret sup- porter at the new postwar Italian

Itself Fascisti which

calls Italion Social Movement.

Evident everywhere is the bound- less vitality and Inventive genius of the Italian people.

miracu-

War damage has been lously repaired; shops bulge with goods it is neither possible to sell at home nor to export: new inven tions are being patented.

One is a motor-cycle which looks three sents like a scooter and people comfortably.

And the warm Itallan sun shines impartially on rich man, poor man. beggar and spiv.

JESTS AND JEERS

arc

The medium for this progression is the political party.

The Democratic and Republienn parties are the media whereby, through organised campaigning, candidate is put across.

13

Political parties require money, and for various reasons, ranging from devotion to principles to vested interest, individuals contribute various

tu sums of money

the election chests of euch party.

Field Workers TUE parties also require held work. ers, both paid and volunteer, who bring to the electorate meetings anel

the door-step the various party principles.

Thomas

at

TWO OTHER POSSIBLES

PRESIDENTS

Joseph W. Martin, Speaker of the House, and..........

Earl Warren, Governor

Both of California.

Republicans

art

WHITEHALL'S

10,000 SNOOPERS

By ERIC BENNETT

£12

HAVE been anooping into chiefs who cara a shado over

the Anoopera-the, 10,000. a week.

There are 80 Investigating officers odd Government officials earning with salaries ranging from £6 08, a between them £80,000 and week to £8 55. a week,

men

£100,000 a week in salaries, who Since they have to deal not only have the right to inspect private with technical offences, but with house or business premises coupon forgeries, stolen property, and large-scale frauds, they are without a search warrant

all

with considerable nearly There are two classes of these police experience. snoopers who come most pro- Second class of Board of Trade minently Into the public eye: aleuths are the necountants. There 02 of them, all qualified the Ministry of Food's enforce.or

professional men, and their salaries ment officers and the Board of rango from £475 to £950 a year.

Trade's investigation officers,

THEN THEY, POUNCE They lie in wait until somebody tips the department of that a firm in fahy transactions. Then they

Chief of the Ministry of · Food's posse is Captain H. J. Murphy. He is a tough pro engaged or likely to be engaged position. Ile entered the Royal Navy as a boy of 16 in 1909.

His deputy, Mr A. Monro, has a salary on the scalo of £800 £1,100, plus allowances.

Aro

pounce on the books.

Scattered throughout the country are the investigating officials of the price control committees. There are two 100 of them, divided into grades.

Under them and the assistant director (salary on the same The second-class mooper geta scale but no allowances!

from £0 08. to £8 bs. a week. A four chief investigating oflicers, Grade 1. man gets anything from who share £3,335 a year between them.

£6 6s, to £11 11s.

duty.

the course of

Their job is to catch cut the No. 1 man is ex-Chief In people who overcharge, and they are spector Barker, of Scotland allowed out-of-pocket expenses for

purchases, made in Yard, who took a prominent

The Board of Trade is particu- part in the arrest of Browne. murderer of Police Constable larly proud of the fact that; with such small staff of. Investigators Gutteridge.

--I quate n official-they have A few days ago he helped to secured convictions carrying a total organise a less sensational coup of 200 years' imprisonment and the snoop swoop on the cargo £1,000,000 worth of fines since they

began operations in 1941. liner Palana in London Docks.

There are 761 food enforco-

PETROL SPOTTERS men ment inspectors,

and

The Board of Trade solicitor also for the women, scattered throughout

conducts prosecutions the country.

Ministry of Fuel and Power, which MANY EX-POLICEMEN employs a modest staff of 00 en-

forcement

at officers

salaries

al- favourite It is their job to spot misuse of

is retrol and breaches of coal them

location or lighting regulations.

be plagued by former may Ministry

of Agriculture research officers or inspectors from the.

llable

The men you can usually plek, The national conventions, held in there were 28 specific changes in out by their broad shoulders and batween £425 and 2,000.

tread. for the heavy policy

by cought summer, are usually nolsy domestic Le

ground for affairs, with the delegations from progressive, labour and agrarian recruling

which found political among ex-policemen. states all over the union appearing mavements

By And the best chance of becoming with signs and placards showing expression in minority parties.

held by parties had # female snooper their choices. Sometimes delegations 1920, both majority

while the policemen's daughters. appear in the costumes of farmers adopted 24 of these,

befitting or cowboys, There are brass bands and hoopla them passed out of existence. and fund-making and merrimont. case of Henry Wallace includes some

elements of this pattern.

Average pay is £0 10s, a weak, animal health division. their state. minority parties founded to advocate

some

The

and they get out-of-pocket expenses.

Any employer

The Board of Trade has three incursions from factory Inspectors, kinds of stooper. The first is con- labour supply inspectors, and wages rationing Inspectors, who form the team, more cerned with

what is than 2,000 strong, of the Ministry of coupons, offences.

known

the black Labour.

the elements

generally

Once the convention settles down

Another pattern involves to serious business, it devotes itself to naming the Presidential slate: a dissatisfaction of candidate for President and one for within the party. The case of the threatening to Southern Democrats "bolt" over the civil rights issue comes in here.

Vice-President."

Geographical considerations: 45- ually result in one man coming from one section of the country and the other from a distant sector.

The iden here is not to alienato voters by presenting choices too sectional in origin.

Voters' Choice

In either case, when both factions put up

candidates, the still united major party has benefited from the split and won. In 1912, when ex- Roosevelt lad President Theodore his Progressives against the servative wing of his party and the Demoerals, the against

Installed Woodrow

FINALLY, after all the negotiating Democrats

con

and vole-swapping has taken Wilson; but by 1016, the differences place and after anywhere from one had, ironed out and the Republicans to six ballotings; a Presidential enn- were again united, although defeated

at the polls. mustering didate succeeds in majority of delegates, the conven- tion usually makes it unanimous.

What success Henry Wallace's bid for the Presidency will meet cannot be foretold. Some accurately

Then the parties settle down to the electioneering, and at the poils nular sampling organisations have in November, the voters make their quizzed the public, and his popular

bas varied in many regions. choice.

One group, on the basis of its One reason political observers are samplings, estimated his party might Luking more than usual interest in the 1948 American Presidential poll 5,000,000 votes.

elections Is because of the third party candidacy of Henry Wallace. This is not the first time a third

party h has risen to challenge

Other Parties

*consumer and as

market.

They aro headed Superintendent

by

exTM

who

are the prey of a Housewives different class of snooper, George Yandell, comes round to make a survey for formerly one of Scotland Yard's one Ministry or another. Big Five. His anlary is £1,130 aThe lavestigators-most of them dre women-are usually employed year.

on a part-time basis/A normal rate Under him is a deputy chief at

a' year, £024

and two assistant of pay is a guinea a day.

ATOM GIVE-AWAY-

STARTLES

may

silenced

by CHAPMAN PINCHER

largely Celticism was INFORMATION which

save the Russians years of when it was pointed out that Russia was far more likely to concentrate work in the development of on research to find a way of making needed to make atomic power for Industrial and plutonium than to set up the huge military purposes has been installation

uranium 235. published in

gavo an American ran

While the Smyth. Report away nothing about the chemistry magazine.

It gives facts, figures, and of plutonium, the new disclosure in ex-formulas about plutonium-the ex- the magazine Nucleonics gives away the THIS could do little for him

atom most of it.

The evidence of the Canadian spy cept. If centred favourably, re-plosive used in the latest

bombs. supremacy of existing major parties.

re- trials in 1940 showed that details of As a matter of fact, the Democratic turn a few Wallace-backed

The closely packed 10-page party after the War of 1812 and the dates to Congress.

port-prepared by Dr B. G. Harvey, plutonium manufacture

agents Republican party after the Civil War

the Canadian Atomic Energy initely what the Russian

that of

1880-03

emerged to supplant

One explanation given was Quier parties of their times as the

Station-describes in detall the basis wanted most.

that of the method of making the plu-

chiefs beliuvė fenders.

Russia already has this information, Since 1005, however, minority

tonlum which devastated Nagasaki. the security

VERY SURPRISED

either as a result of the leakages or parties have not succeeded

the work of her own winning the Presidency. Only once, as a matter of fact, did a third party outrace one of the major parties- but even then It failed to win.

Two Patterns

opinion

demands

which

the major

provide.

in

candi-

Perhaps the support by the Com-of munist Party in the United States n numerically weak but vociferous and active minority party--has hurt Wallace most, the merits or draw- backs of his platform notwithstand- Ing.

&

American history shows the radical parties always to have failed to poll million votes. The closest to come to that figure was Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist nomince in 1920, who polled D19,710 votes.

party.

influence

D

ment arises and in some cases leads the leftists favouring Wallace.

I

were

de-

A leading atomic scientist. In through Britain said: This Kocs much scientists. further than anything yet published. But they cannot be sure of this, not publish- am surprised, very surprised an the Russians are

their atomic ing any results of Indeed."

Another said: "The details given research. were graded as a vital part of the secret know-how of bomb produc- tion"

ment between

whom

this plutonium

да

TWO VIEWS Bterns

Y and large, there are two pat-

MONG scientists with In that American politics

addition to Wallace's third

A talked were some who applauded of But in London, the Ministry force a have followed as far as third parties

of recognisable are concerned.

is the American Labour Supply issued this statement: "The the publication of

consistent | detalls have been released by agree. report. This party, One of these comes about when Party.

who chiefly men Briiisli, American,

They were publie champlot of Franklin D. Roosevelt considerable Begment of

believe that Britain should publicly and Canadian security chiefs." policy changes and New Deal policies, has itself

atomic armaments, This is the second official large- renounce partics

do not been rendered by a right-left split,

done. They believe. scale disclosure of atomic Informa- France has A strong minority move-

of abandonment Immediately after the war, that the tion.

open released the U.S. Government

the atomic weapons might

moral effect of immense mass Smyth Report, giving a facts about the Mark 1 atomic ex- Kremlin.

far But the defence scientists--those plosiva, uranium 235, which is more difficult to make than plue who were most startled by tho interna- that until news believe tonium.

INCE International relations wor, tional agreement to outlaw atomic sened, the Smyth Report has weapons is reached no more details been' described in the U.S., Senate applicable to atom-bomb. production

should be released. as a gross breach of security.”

can

Also, there are various parties to the creation of a third party, Alliances with other segments of having so influence nationally but public opinion bring about pressure which, nevertheless, propose on the other major party.

didates every year. If the desired new pulleles appear

Their platforms range from

At any time, no individual can go into the business of boosting himself for the Presidential nomination.

On the Republican side, there are seeking the Individuals several nomination. One is the Governor of

E. Dewey, New York, whom Roosevelt defeated 1944.

Most spectacular to rise in Re- publican ranks is former Minnesota Governor Harold E. Stassen. He has spent most of his time since leaving the Navy stumping the country recking support.

there In addition

Senator various candidates who entered. The A. Taft of Ohio, Senator result means that when over 1,000 ing seeks to make political capital Prohibition (of the manufacture Addition to the unemployed list- Robert

Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, delegates to the Republican

Old Aged pension schemes and the other. the chap who wrote those 'Save Governor Earl Warren of California vention begin their balloting, those of it and adopts it at the expense of and sale of alcoholic beverages) to

House of from Wisconsin will be pledged and Speaker of the

One observer has estimated that soclulism of varying shades and

to 1912, degrees. Representatives, Joseph W. Martin, support Stassen.

support fa limited to only that length of time in the 40-year period up Don't kick a mon when he's down. and General Douglas MacArthur.

About the beginning of the that it appears, he has a chance of He may get up.

election year, the various candidates being named the candidate. Should support for another candidate begin The trouble with the United Na-of both parties begin mustering. lions is that its members all have support. One by one they announce to develop on subsequent ballotings,

their willingness to run, and their Wisconsin-delegates may decide

shift the support, disunited notions.

adherents gather about them.

Water' notices.

somewhat

The man who saws too many wild oals is bound to look acedy.

*

Sleeping at the wheet is another way to keep young.

Overheard:

"Not only that, but you get ugler every day."

"Another thing I can do which you can't."

Woman: A man who once pro- posed to me claimed he could walk on the calling.

THE

are

State Primary

Their

con-

to

Stossen staged subsequent victories and other states. in Nebraska.

and Taft and Meanwhile, other candidates' like Dewey and Martin Vandenberg

scatters! received support.

HE best means of testing popu-

larity is the state primary:

state to Procedure varies from state. But in the cases of both

The big test will come at the parties, the actual naming of the candidate is done at the party's national convention. national convention. Both are held

in June this year,, both will be held

Philadelphia.

in

and There, party icadera candidates and other dignitaries

behind the scenes. But during the spring and early mako deals and negotiate for each

It summer, primary voting takes place, other's support

may take several ballotings before

emerges Acandidate

triumphant This year, tho first great test was in Wisconsin,

At the Republican In 1940, Wendell Wilkie captured primary

election there,

the convention coming from virtual staged a surprising victory.

obscurity. This happens when the This had no omelal elgnificance. convention is deadlocked, and the

Blustrative of

how

compromise nominee is known as a

Friend: And did you accept him? Woman: No, I can't stand blue-But it was battles.

Stassen

Wisconsin Republicans felt about the "dark horse."

to be widespread, the purly remain-

SIN

PAULA BY DENNIS WHEATLEY

LEWELL, WE'VE GOT TO

TEST PAULA'S THEORY- CAN YOU GET CHERRY ***TO RUN THROUGH THE

•DUTCH DOLL SEQUENCE

WITHOUT MAKING HER ** SUSPICIOUS?

I'LL TELL HER WE'VE GOT TO RE-SHOOT. BECAUSE OF A FAULT 18 LIGHTING.

The plan to discover if it was the star or the stand-in who sang la overheard.

AND IF SHE MAKES THE SAME MISTAKE AND MOUTHS CAUSE" "INSTEAD OF "FOR"IT'LL

LOOK AS IF WE SAN CHERRY AND HOT RITA

LAST TUESDAY.

EXIT

have

on

an

the