1949-02-05 — Page 9

· THE HÔNGKONG · TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1949.

CONCLUDING SIR PATRICK HASTINGS REMINISCENCES:

:

When Ramsay MacDonald

→E were

W

let his friend down

remarkable Government, MacDonald was, of course, Prime Minister. Many pletures have been given of him, some of ful- some admiration and some of virulent abuse. Both do him an injustice.

He did great service to his -country at a very difficult time, and his very human faults have been much exaggerated.

I think perhaps the harshest criticism that could be made upon him is that he was not always loyal to his friends.

Lord Haldane WAH perhaps the curious personality Iri the most Government. He was one of those curlaus ngures who take high office do so only in but allege that they the publle interest.

He became Lord

Lord Chancellor In order to control the Labour Guvern ment and all its members. He wna

ent lawyer Krent

bui,

personally. I always found him a nuisance.

After Haklane, Art

Arthur Henderson was the most experienced member

of the Goverment.

by Sir

Pabidy Hastings

In 1922 Sir Patrick"Hastings became Labout · member of Parliament for Wallsend. In 1923 he was re-elected when, as he. writes, "moved by what I can only feel to be a very sporting spirit, the electors decided to return the Labour Party as the strongest individual party in the country,”

Indeed, if at the outset these facts had been known to the police or to me, I need hardly say that the prosecution would never have been

commenced. I feit that unfortunate

mistake

had made been

the and that proper and immediate

course was to request the magistrate's permission

the to withdraw prosecution;

#

wns

1 still remain of precisely the same opinion.

The To the whole party he was "Uncle

the cry

raised that Arthur"; to all of uя he was not

Government was over-riding the always as kind as a father, but was law; suggestions were nude that certninis noise

treiambanthe-Cobbreves interfering—will

justler.

addition, he was very wily,

I never succeeded in knowing him very well; perhaps that is why I

never liked him very much.

A natural

statesman

speak

Of Juny Thomas I can only with affection. I think he was the nearest approach to a natural statesman that we possessed. If I

were ever asked select the quality in him which appealed most strongly to me, I should choose his unflinching

loyalty to his friends.

No doubt he had his faults; but then, who hasn't?

MacDonald appointed

tormy-General.

me

Lord

Birkenhead wrote long articles; Sir John Smort made Impassioned speeches. Finally, Kingsley Wood, always An astute politician, moved the adjournment of the House. moment had arrived,

time I was unable to forgive, was that nobody ever asked me to tell them the whole facts before embarking upon their attack.

The main Opposition apenkers were distinguished lawyers: every one of them had been my personal friend

for over 20 years.

discissed the Campbell prosecution with any member of the Govern- ment

Tht night I saw MacDonald in his room, and told him what the "editor had reported to me. I asked him if there was any truth in it. Jimmy Thomas was in the room. and was obviously dumbfounded at the suggestion.

MacDonald was ill at ease, and obviously unprepared for quch a question.

For a moment or two he talked on other matters. It was Jiminy Thomus who suggested that he might answer the question,

MacDonald then said that thero had been some misunderstanding: he said that he had evolved in his mind an ingenious idea which inlght solve all his dimculties.

He suggested that I should take all the responsibility upon myself, which I reminded him I had always done, and that I should then resign; that he would insist upon my im; mediately seeking re-election, that all the members of the Cabinet should show their unbounded con- idence in me by coming down to my constituency and speaking for me at the by-election.

and

›POCKET CARTOON by OSBERT LANCASTER

"All my ideals are shot- tered. How much wouisl you charge to turn this into a good likeness of Anna Pauker?"

C.V.R. Thompson

Good, but

too true

Nothing in the world would have made me question the activities of any one of them without first of all asking them personally. If they would wish to disabuse my mind of any possible doubis.

The fact that the malter was political would not have made the suitable reply. Jimmy Thomas did Party has begun in New York. faintest difference to me, But it did it for me.

to them.

Not one of thenr ever asked me it single question; not one of them ever approached me.

It was that almple fact which left me with a sense of bitterness which remained for many years.

The psychological Case of clastic

From that moment. the whole position was quite clear: we were to be turned out

If the Conservatives

and

Liberals could agree upon a vote of censure, the defeat of the Government was a

clusion,

At 'Never asked me

It might be fair to describe the of the first Labour Govern- efforts of ment

Il con- as a great adventure. of an

nutried body of men, In an unknown land, and countless enemales.

I know that they tried their best, but from the outset it was obvious that they could not last long.

It was perhaps the irony of fate that 1, probably the only member of the Government not particularly anxious to be in it, should have been so largely instrumental in its down-

fail.

re-

In any event, that episode alled me with a

deep very sentment against many people at the time, and has had a lasting effect upon my whole political outlook..

Prosecution of a

Communist

Summer

At the end of the incident occurred upon which the police considered, and, in my view, and upon the facts then known to them rightly considered, it proper to fake erin'nal proceedings in respect

of an article which had appeared by a Communistic publiention called the Workers

Weekly, the editor of which had been under observation for some time.

The content of tho Attorney. General was required before those proceedings could be commenced,

and the article Was submitted to

me.

I read it. and, as it seemed

to afford ground for preceedings.

I gave the necessary consent.

עהן

for facts'

foregone con-

The subsequent history of that which came to be known as the Campbell case, and which, ulti- nately resulted in the fall of the Labour Government, is, of course, a matter of record, but there were tome elements in it which affected so deeply that they may be worth recording

Of my opponents I should wish speak with every possible

mo

to

reserve...

I am quite prepared to think that some of thein believed that there were grounds upon which the motion against the Government could properly be launched: and some lack of candour upon the part the Prime Minister may have strengthened that bellet.

of

But what I have never been able to understand, and what for a long

memory

The case of my own Prime Minister was rather different.

In his case niso I would desire to spent with great reserve. He was naturally anxious and worried, but he was most unfortunate in some of the early observations in the House; Indeed, In his anxiety to extricate himself his memory was just a shade clastic.

to

I

I confess that for a moment I was too much taken aback to think of a

"Mac," he said, "that's a damned dirty trick!" And he added a few of those adjectives which

anyone who know Jimmy well would have expected.

He was full of

apologies

Poor MacDonald! I could not help being sorry for him. He was full of apologies, and said It was merely a suggestion which had crossed his mind and begged us both to forget that he had ever mentioned it,

A

its

NEW YORK. TRIAL to decide whether or not America, will outlaw Communist home-grown

The 12 defendnats came to face the hii-sounding Charge that they plotted to overthrow President Tru-

man.

An orny of 100 armed police, some on horseback, some on motor- cycles and some on foot, surrounded the courthouse.

But when this trial of America's Communist leaders will actually be- gin is questionable.

The renson-the difficulty of find-

He said he was much perturbeding 12 men to judge them. because I had not discussed with him the speech that I was going to make in the flouse, and asked me to let him have a copy of it.

I told him I had never in my life

On ne ocension he solemnly written out a speech, so I could not informeli the House that he let him have a copy.

I not was

even awarc that ad Aecided

withdraw the everyone proseption, which was quite, un- him the in- re, as I had given formation myself.

affair be-

As time went on the

him that as pointed out to

seemed to be under sus- that each picion it was far better one who spoke should” ̈ ̈be in a position to state the facts exactly as he knew them untrammelled by came even more complicated. Shortly any consultation; but I warned him before the day when the debate of one fact: reminded him of was to take place, the editor of a certain statements which he had daily paper came to see me.

already made in the House, and told He said that the Prime Minister him that I should not be able to had made an amazing statement to onc of his reports in Lossle. It might be desirable mouth to the effect that he was pro- should withdraw such statements as posing to ask the Attorney-General he had made which were not in ac- for his resignation.

cordance with the facts before the He

to know if it was debate commenced. true. I told him it was a llc.

I had not seen MacDonald for some days, as I had made up my mind that when I addressed the House of Commons should be in asposition to state

wanted

that I had not

support them.

that he

On that not very friendly note I left him, and that was the lost ime I ever had a personal versation with MacDonald

THE END

THE AIRBORNE BUCCANEERS

by

SINGAPORE.

SYDNEY

SMITH

and for arms

соп-

Easy, indeed, would be the task of picking 12 jurors who are anti- Communist. But the defence has the right to ban anyone who is pra- judiced.

And as they ploughed through the

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York they could find no one who would admit to an open mild ̈ón Communism.

So it may take days and even weeks before the trial of the cen→ tury reaches its first witness.

VITAL

VITAL STATISTICS: Six bottles of beer or six ounces of full- strength whisky are enough, says a Chicago report, to make the average American drunk; American! motorists used up 30,000 million Hallons of petrol last year,

TELEVISION sets to spot shop- lifters will soon be available to American department stores.

FRIGHTENED by the stamp

in

new car orders, one Detroit firm alone is spending £250,000 to show off its 1949 models in style in New York.

"ROW"among President Truman's)

Na- tionalisation hus come Into the

Aconomic advisers over

open.

Dr Edwin Nourse, boss economist, -announced that he disagrees with his assistant, Leon Keyserling, that the Government should enter the steel business if private enterprise does not produce enough.

Where the row became known- at New York's Harmony Club,

PRICE index for 000 items, in- eluding many on the cost

prosecution, brisker, and, with elegance, an Australian certificate. That costs propaganda,s form of smuggling | living list, shows that prices have

No one knows

another £1,000, what a Europein pilot, now in prison in Burma, paid for his Italian-registered Dakota,

ถ

Prices are still quoted in Singa- The subsidiary large-scale smug- E wears no patch over his pere. A Dakota with a Philip gling of oplum, precious stones, and pine certificate of airworthiness gold bullion--some of which have eye, nor pistol in his belt.

costs £3,500 to £5,000, and no come from Australia-is directly re- A few dny's Intern member His gold he does not bury on questions. A Catalin nying-boat is lated to the need of the revolutinary asked

question in the House o desert islands. But he is richer, about £1,000 dearer unless it has groups for foreign currency for their the subject of the and I read the prinied swer tougher than his gold-carringed,

Proof that

buying. which, accordion to the

which has largely included tons practice, had been prepared for rumswilling forefathers.

of forged Dutch, Indonesian, Hong-

To

kong, and Malay noles printed in Intense surprize

He is the new airborne buccaneer seized by the Rangoon Government. Singapore-has the to that of the South-East Asian seas-the It was probably a bargain for any seance, related to whole matter, which

political signl- arms deals, is time I had completely forgotten, carrier of cargoes from the world's one prepared to gamble, on a quick being discovered now by the Dutch appeared to arouse deep infignatian. richest mine of Ailled war surplus fortune, prison, or sudden death. police, in Java. As I had no information in my weapons to one of the world's most

For the more modest ancillary possession which could possibly

ex-British and justify this outburst, I immediately-hungry markets, stretching 2,000 smuggling routes

American M.T.B.3, converted with OLLOWING up information from required that the fullest information miles from Manila to Markinlay.

Diesel engines to give 22 knots cost the Brilish authorities in Sin- as to the prosecution should be

only £2,000 to £3,000.

on the smuggling fapore

of goki, given

Current wholesale arms prices in precious stones, and foreign currency Singapore work out from £35 for by air through Singapore, the Dutch a new American Colt to £120 for, police say they Bre uncovering a a new Bren gun.

widely spread

me.

Distinguished

war record

The result remarkable.

up

was certainly rather it transpired that the editor, who was a well-known

·Communist and who had been

them.

The airborne buccaneers, mainly American ex-army pilots and Aus- tralians, with a sprinkling of British, are just now finding that Singapore their main commercial centre for buying, selling, and hiring where they were the king spivs among a regular colourful collection of other adventures-is becoming too hot for

supposed to be the author or at Four tons of new Bren guns from least responsible for the article, the Philippines were recently ordered happened to be away ill or was not by the Singapore pollee, through a in the office at the time of the careless sales agent. publication, and his place had been taken for a few days by a nen. named Campbell, who had. In fact, copled the article from some other

• paper.

"POLICE LAUNCH.

TN the logbon of a quiet little Dutch Island near Singapore, a British police launch walted by appointment for the arms load,

POLITICAL?

average of only £100 a month to have been An

They believe it

of

nearly reached the low level of last February, And, they are still drop-

ping.

TELLING TALESR

of the world we live in...

INSTON Churchill stood before Judgment

The airborne buccaneers are paid mous propoti organisation "of enor

operating in Soull-W the pearly entes on retainer, but up to 20 percent. of East Asin for at least two years, each cargo value. This can mean a The Dutch Information says that happy retirement after two full- seale successful arms trips.

LANDINGS

the organisation is not mainly con- cerned with cash profits but "has a political background of international nature." ▼ELIVERIES,: except in Burma They have so far avoided ́using and, French Indo-Chinn, where the word "communism," but they are the various rebels have fairly good making it clear that their discoveries air strips, are made mostly by so far are of équal importance to flying-boats in quiet river estuaries. Java and the Dutch, and Malaya or in calm, palm-fringed coral out and the British. crops. From there, speedboats take It is already known to both over the cargo.

Intelligence servlees that, up to the beginning of the emergency in

KING SPIV

Campbell was quite a young man.

According to contract, the launch with a most distinguished record

was crammed with petrol drums, to during the war; he had been very refuel the smugglers' flying-bont. The main buyers and smugglers Malaya in June, the Indonesians had severely wounded, indeed had ap The drums were heavy and full-of of arms have been the Indonesians been using Malayn not only as a peared in court somewhat crippled water. Outside they had been well -Republicans as well as. Commu- training ground but as a route for by his wounds, and he had been sprayed with petrol

nists in Jaya and Sumatra 19 arms sold to them by a group of decorated for exceptional gallantry The smugglers checked the petrol Burmese and Indo-Chinese rebel Siamese Army officers. on the hold; he was truly a young drums first, and they smelled good groups and some people think man who had served his country Then they allowed the police, n that the 30,000 Chinese Communists well.

scruffy-looking, piratient- seeming in Siam have also been seeing to gang, to take safe delivery of the their ordnance, Brens.

And, within A few

The minuics, of the flying-boat and its

main arms sources arc British and American crew. Some in the Philippines, focal point

the one in the Philippines lost a £100,000, of

#treat wartime Pacific gamble on that flight.

arms dumps. The Philippines Go- The result is that the flying vernment forces are also being sud- smugglers-especially eight Ameri- plled with new American arms, on can, Australian, and British, now the condition that old stocks are known and wanted are particular- dumped in the sea. ly scarce around these parts,

Сакся of something

It must have been obvious to any fair-minded' person that a prosecu- tlon for politieni views. however extreme, entails the consideration of a great many elements, not the lenst Important being the personality and antecedents of the individual to be . charged.

Ono hears of them only In the

A LL this is why the young airborne A buccaneer, a fresh-faced and rather naive young adventurer over his glass of beer, is one of the more dangerous characters around this part of the world.

King uply as he is, he would deny the political aspect of his ad- ventures with wide-eyed and genuine astonishment.

Yet he is not merely flying high | certainly for the swift prolt of limælt and

From the information which I re- -cotved as the result of my Inquiries,

It appeared clear beyond all words | bars they used to frequent: are being dumped in the sea. Yet his Eurasian, Philippine, Indonesiao, that this young man with his record "Well, old So-and-so's still altting 1,300 miles away in Malaya's jungles and Chinese dealers. He is flying was the very last person whom any tight in Bangkok," and "I bat gularly using American-made auto- Army in Mainya, with discreet mill- Communist bandit ganga aro' re- most of the thing for what the British authorliy should select .ng the sub- Fold What's-la-name ima't coming ject of their first prosecution against back from Manila this time." That matte carbines and Thompson sub tary avoidance of political tage, Communian.

machine, guna: ..

...carefully, calls-"The Enemy,"

la ono. of the safer bois...

Day awaiting the awesome summons. Near him were the arch-opponents of his way of life-Adolf Hiller, and Joseph Stalin.

"Now boys," said Gabriel, "before you are judged, I shall give you a

wish iinat wish. Adolf?"

that Russia may be forever and totally destroyed.”

Gabriel. turned to Stalin: "Well,

Joe?"

Said Stalin: "I wish that Germany. may be forever

and totally des troyed."

"Churchill?"

Churchill took the big black cigar out of his mouth, and sald: "Do you mean to tell me that those two wishes have actually come true?" "Why, certainly," said Cabrict Apause, then-"Makó- mino brandy and roda," said Churchill.

***

**

*

BOAST, by football club manager: "I have just signed a player for £20,000,"

Friend: That's big money for one man.

Manager: Yes, but £10,000 is for his wife.

>

QURVEYING a new boundary, the Russian and the Pole found that

It ran through a pensant's cottage, decided to ask him which aldo ho preferred to be on.

"Put me on the Polish alde," said the peasant, "I can't stand the Russian winters".

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