1948-07-17 — Page 4

"Wot'll it be to-day: Charlie boy, thousand quid ́a kola 2"

Running The Blockade:

FROM

FROM

KENSINGTON

TO BERLIN

BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,

SATURDAY, JULY 17, 1948.

THE STORY BEHIND

THE SPIT AND POLISH

OF THE

ONDON was disappointed

this year that bad weather ruled out the Trooping the Colour by the Brigade of Guards on the King's Birthdny. It was to have been the first in. full dress since 1939.

Since the middle of April the Guards Brigade had been going through arduous training the occasion.

for

The biggest problem facing the officers of the five Guards regiments had been to equip their men with the panoply of How scarlet, black, and gold. was it done?

The first step was the Inspec- tion of the hundreds of scarlet and blue uniforms which had- lain in bombproof shelters be- for Barracks low Caterham uine years.

Adjutants knew already that the uniforms were in good order. Twice yearly they were taken out of Ltore, brushed, and dust- ed with anti-moth powder. The only part that had teriorated was the gold braid on the tunics of N.C.O.s and bands- men.

de-

Gold Sergeants BERLIN. trucks filled with all kinds of food THE next inspection was of the Kensington High-wheeled, and rolled off again.

accessories-white slings Flurry? That's not quite right, to Street Air Terminal

for It was more bustle than furry, and belts, curb chains, plumes. Berlin is a six-hour journey, British phlegm had the situation in swords and scabbards, gloves. amal'it's worth taking while the hand. This I had confirmed when chevrons, and capes,

All had an RAF man called to the colonel, ford "siege" of Berlin is on.

When I boarded the plane whom he know: "Well, you base to be cleaned and refitted.

After the first dress inspec wallahs will have to give up your

sergeants-the- yachting on the Wannsee now we're tion. the gold going to use it for Sunderlands to master tailors to each regiment bring in more food."

-knew the size of the monu- In the aireets of Berlin under mental task awaiting them. its food siege people went about

dress Before the war, a full their business with apparent un-

£5. cost him about in which their

shattered city and Guardsmati.

Reitting was obviously necessary.

gold discovery of the become the principal stage setting.

The first They sat on the cafe terraces,

sergeants was that the waistline of beer.

They the 1948 Guardsman was less than

that of 1930.

one of those ultra-comfortable all-British Vikinga-I expected to find myself stowed away with a few crates of bully beef, and dour and biscuits.

Instead of that, what did concern for the international drama Uniform, the personal property of n

sipping dark near queued for food.

.

find? The usual assortment of perfectly respectable,, composed passengers-n Colonel going back from leave, two girls from the British Military Govern- There were still longer queues at Not a wrinkle must show in the. ment returning to the sunny the banks. "That's because we've thick scarlet beaver cloth, Continient after shivering in got the new British currency relooks like, and is manufactured by Britain's summer- King's gulations," the driver of our bus the same process us Messenger, three Army wives explained. "We don't understand cloth.

and an American Kirl from Ompus, the American military had chosen government, who London rather than Paris· ́for, her, first leave.

One of the Army wives Was fuking her first joumey, out to Berlin.

"I must be terribly exciting at this time," she said, "with the food blockade and the Armadas."

I felt like that, too. Then the eward came along and whispered deferentially to cach passenger, "Something to drink?"

And then lunch~~-~~- Well, that would help to build up

moralo for the ordeal ahead.

Then the steward came back. "Luhch."

This was the last thing I expected -atter all, we were going to run a Gort of blockade, were we not? The lunch was excellent, fin, cold salad, jelly, bread and buller with a peach to end up with, and coffee. A pity. thought, that

I

cold

a lot of Londoners couldn't be given

a chance of running the blockade.

them but we know they must be nil right because they are, British."

It was something new to find that attitude in Germans.

which

6 ft. Glas. Lance-Corporal R. Gasho is the tallest Cold-

**

streamer in his battalion. (Lance-corporals, as well corporale, in the Guards wear fio stripes.)

would think of ignoring the impor- billiard-table tance of such matters.

The pipe-claying of equipment, refresh Adjutants had to

their the super-fine polishing of boot toe memories, for braiding and piping cops, and the burnishing of the new went on unhalling, vary by fractions of an inch in each in. bayanet

Guardee until the night bofore the Trooping. No of the regiments.

Now I know how

'bubbly' gets its sparkle

REIMS.

mar-

"VE discovered

vellous place to spend the next air raid if there But what impressed me was the ever is one, and that is in the phlegmatic way the crew went about honeycomb of cellars under the things.

old French city of Reims.

There are several miles

of

After the sloward come the cap- tain to ask after each passenger's cellars, and they are not only welfara,, and to point out scenes— Holland, the Rhine-we could see bomb proof, but the walls are where, when we were in khaki, we lined with millions and millions. tad made the crossing.

of bottles of champagne. You could live there in

a state Ten minutes more— The ruins of Hamburg, where we of blissful neutrality without car canig, down for a breather, then on ing a hoot which side was winning. again, towards the German capital in the throes of its air battle for

In the collars food and coal.

The steward came back onte

Do you know much about 10

chumpagne? It may not "Another more, whispering minutes and we shall be over Ber- be a thing you drink very often, iin"

but it is useful to be able to talk can Impress your could about it. You "Through the windows we sce the air armadas circling, their friends enormously. allver fuselages shimmering in the As I've just spent a carefree day bright sunlight.

with a champagne merchant.wander ing round his two miles of cent sainpling the staff as we am in a position to give you some knowledge.

We fastened our safety bells and

at the British airport

of

Landed Gatow.

What a furry. The giant Yorks queued up for what the RAF calls the Berlin taxi-rank, to be unloaded

went, I

Like to many other good things you needn't be by a mank. So of their cargoes by willing German to drink, champagne was invented

the Yorks filled out from afraid of it on religious grounds.

Labour.

Then the

unloading

bose-a

maze

"Can't think why-but? everything's in triplicate

now!",

of

He found that the secret was to buttle it in the spring. Any other season of the year la no good. It must be the spring.

Usually wine ferments for a few wecks and then settles down. Bot- Ung it in the spring makes it fer- ment a second time and gives it that well-known sparkle. It also makes it more alcoholic.

every

By BERNARD -

WICKSTEED

GUARDS

which had cost A small fortune. From then on ho could not exist on less than £1,000 a year.

With the preliminary inspection of uniform uniforms was a close scrutiny of the bearskins, those towering odlices which originated in the conical capa to needed over 50 mujor articles once worn only by the Grenadier of clothing, frun the obligatory while companies of the regiments.

kid gloves for guard-of-honour parades to the Carter-blue slik cum- nerbund which all but Grenadier officers wore with their white mess dress,

#

Only an expert can recognize good beorakin, by its curl at the back (brought to a point of Ano elegance in the case of officers) ita special gloss, and its height, which between 10 and 22 inches.

Varies

A subaltern's essential uniform before 1930 cost him at least £200;

by JOHN PREBBLE

These cops, mounted on a basket, must fit perfectly. headband is too tight the faints.

senriet tunics £00, trousers 1, frock coat £20, greatcoat £17, cape £7, service dresses £33, n British warm £33.

cano two If the wearer

effort

Wearing a bearskin is an in itself, and won a particular triol In the old days, when the east wind that whips across the forecourt at Buckingham Palace threatened to overbalance unwary Guardsmen.

alone is

POCKET CARTOON

"Haircut, shave shampoo, and a long, dreary lecture on the dollar crisis, picase

JESTS AND JEERS

His bearskin cust him £24, his stars 17s. Gd. each, a ceremonial sash £15, and a crimson sash 6 guineas fewer eternal triangles and more Modern marriage could do with The Guards have always had

tastes in particular

dress. Their cotton ones. scarlet was of a special make. Their khaki is an exclusive dark shade. They have their own peculiar shirt- deserve to be mentioned in booze- A great many Hongkong people Ano ings and tropical drill.

Care of Die bearskins comes under the immediate responsibility of a trained man in the tailor's shop. He

to comb the allowed to con hair. Others may only brush it.

The cap

plumes, pride of all the

The Scots and Welsh, and the Life regimenta

except the Scots. who Guards, havo exclusive tweeds for withdrawn civilian sports wear. Only oflcers wear none, have been

wi10.

All some women know about cook-

and ball.

from ordnance, taken from their and their wives have access to the Ing is how to bring a man to the cylindrical containers, combed, designs, which are inspected trimmed, and cleaned where neces- passed by mess commitiera,

sory.

the

the

ut Overheard

perfumery When the emptains of the Guard Drills Stepped Up

at Buckingham Palaco dined on duty counter:

I don't want "But

to bo #THE. Grenadiers have six inches of before the war, it was as a sartorial THE

white gout's hair on the left side, God,

dungerous. I want to be married." o! Coldstreamers six inches scarlet feather on the right, the Irish six inches of blue feather on the right, and the Welsh nine inches of green and white feather on the left.

Chelsea Only at Wellington and

officers allowed to Darracks' were wear elvillan evening clothes to din- Elsewhere the expensive ner white mess kit was the rule.

When the regiments went ceremonia? parades. orders lald down that a sufficient number Mounted officers were expected to attend these parades, for their tight of servants, in full dress with side- itting overall trousers have leather arms, should be in attendance

by carry the officers' Atholl grey capes. knee-grips, and they must ride hand alone,

By the middle of May practice drills were stepped up, four gruel- ling hours a day.

Officers had been finding dress problem more difficult than the men. None of them found a tailor willing to make a full dress uniform. They had to borrow where they had not inherited.

1

One Officer was to have worn

to hls bearskin which belonged great-great-grandfather. Others were to enrry swords that are family

officers. heirlooms or borrowed from retired

Sashes, the scarlet and gold re- view belts which cost as much as 130 before the 1914 war, were at a premium.

No corpa In the British Army, or indeed in the world, has such a rigid sartorial code ຕະ the Brigade of Guards, and none so jealously pre- serves its traditions.

In the old days a new enaigo went through bis first purgatury when he joined his regiment. He was troduced to an esoteric society, was told that he must never spend a day of his leave in London. If wearing. mufti when the King was in capital, he had to wear top and morning clothes.

50 Major Articles

the

hat

IJE...was told the right kind of Hsults, shirts and hats, and he

took his commanding officer's advice on choosing these.

He was easily recognisable as a civilian His clothes were "under such restrictions 03 may desirable to regimental leutenant- colonels."

It seems an odd thing to do, but summer, with a hot, dry spell in between. The hotter the summer naturally there's reason for it. When the wine ferments in the bottle, the chemical process forms a sediment the more alcoholic the wine.

Grapes grown on the middle of a hillside are

and which has to be got out of the difference by generally sweeter

olcoholic

bottle. Otherwise the wine would potentially

or below. The wind taste horrible. those above affects those at the top and the frost those at the bottom,

more

than

scem

a

They were usually dark suits, re-! gimental tie, and always a bowler.

Household Cavalrymen struck

bowler wearing the pulled hard down over the brow.

For his first fitting of his full dress young officer went alone to his If the twister has done his work the

second, military adjutant well this sediment has by now de- tailor. For the

of the punctillo held that its posited itself on the base champagne merchant didn't cork. So all you have to do is to should accompany him.

The adjutant took full charge. The tell me all this straight off. We whip the cork out smartly and the ensign was pulled, pinched, prodded, and snubbed until, three months had a bit of trouble at first because deposit comes away too.

later, he was fit

appear in he spoke little English and I even

My

less French, but we found that our language difficulties grew less and the entente more cordiale each time. we sampled his wine.

Gotting soaked

IN TN some cellars they freeze

the neck of the bottle These cellars are rather like the

so that the sediment is turned to a galleries of a mine with champagne button of ice that pops out when in them instead of cent. They have the cork is removed. in our place narrow-gauge railway lines on which they didn't do that; as a consequence the bottles are, constantly around by truck.

shifted there, was a good deal of cham- pagne squirting about all day, and less the workers were more or This is to shake them up in the soaked in it. carly stages and to make them have ferment better. After they been shifted from one place to an- other about four times they are put in racks, at an angle, with the neck

down.

Twister's job

This cinge the bottle Α

work. twisters get to

heard of bottle- Have you ever twisting? It is one of the oddest callings on earth,

You might think this would make them drunk, but it doesn't appear The men to.. Pouring the young wine into casks is a different matter. have to work very short shifts at would the funies that, otherwise make them tiddly.

You never see champagne labell- ed as coming from any particular vineyard. This is because it is al- ways a blending of wines from many different areas. It is also, why some of it is better than others. I more skilfully blended. Mon ami and I passed the end

Oddly enough, although cham- the for, pagne. is

wing, of one gallery and from

a light-coloured dimly lit end of it came a curious, most of the grapes used are of the from which rod. methodical bumping sound. "It is black varioly the twister," he said. "Let us go to wines

made. But they arc passed so quickly that the colour- see him,"

ing matter from the skin doesn't get mixed with the juice.

the cork.

aro

15

with tho visitor saying

The twister's job is to turn each round a fraction of an inch boille

By the end of our day, my cham- The champagne district produces every other day and give it a little

year jerk to shake the sediment towards pagne man and I were boon com- bottles 25,000,000

panions and he pressed on me a little enough for quite a party,

A good twister, using both hands, book English telling of a visitor's Last year was the best champagno year since 1893. At least that is can turn 30,000 champagne bottles Imaginary tour of the cellars. I what they told me in the cellars of in an eight-hour day. This works ended Reims. But you won't be able out at more than one a second, and buy any of this vintage till 1051 or the current rate of pay is Is. Od. an 1952. I'm starting to save up now. hour or 1d for every 187 bottles I might be able to afford one of twisted. Some of the twisters have Ihosa niliions of bottles by then..been doing it for 40 A-bottle will ́All six glasses. -

We left our man to his lonely of years cupation and moved on to the

uncorking department.

45

years,

last I know all that the word champagne means and I shall fect

pity for those not acquainted with the salutary virtues of your marvel- lous wine.

"For the future I shall drink ́it with all the more pleasure because, Why are some years better than bottle is matured the cork is taken knowing it better, I shall treat it "others?: It's the weather. You out and thrown away and a new with due respect." noed rain in the springand Jato ono put in its place,

Other great champagno ware 1934, 1923 and 1920.

When

a

And so iball L

to

to

A film producer objected to a line that the script writer had put in n character's mouth. "That's terrible,' he said, "That's old-fashioned."

"But that's the kind of fellow he is," explained the writer. The kind wito talks in platitudes."

"Okay, okay," said the producer, "but at least let's get some fresh platitudes!"

Choice Hops and Grains

TECATE BEER

Rare hops from Czechoslovakia sun-ripened grains from the browery's own

fertile farm lands give Tecate a rich, full-bodied flavour. That's why every sip of Tecate tastes so good.

Windsor House.

»

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