1949-02-19 — Page 4

Still, they save a lot of washing!

by BERNARD WICKSTEED

FORKS, those things which before you there was nothing to do

were made after fingers, but go hungry. are having a birthday today. It is just 340 years since the first, one was introduced at a table in England, Previously people ato by hand.

The man who did it and 80 mechanised eating in Britain was a traveller named Tom Corygate, who

came across

forks in Italy and brought one of them back in his pocket.

He'd been a court jester once. and thought it would be a good joke if he startled the English public by eating in this Latin way.

customers

In Englaid it wasn't so bad. Int- keepers put on flrat, second, and third-class dates, like railway cur- riages. It cost more to cat from the

rst-class bowl, but the were generally cleaner. The dis inction between the saloon und public bar may be a survival of this archale custom,

SOUVENIRS

LTHOUGH everyone laughed at A.Corygato eating with a ridiculous thing like a fork, he was only doing In publle what Queen Elizabeth had done in private already, In an in- ventory of her things there is note that she silver and guilt, broken.

the

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1949.

Queen Elizabeth founder of the

享

had "xi forks of

three of

whs niko ancient custom taking a fork as a souvenir, She via! took one from her host, on a

them

"Hey, Dad-remember those last two gallons of petrol you hid in the garage.

the

of

to Kew in 1595. 13 years befere fruit Coryate's Joke. I

was a

nico

It got a good laugh, but didn't entch on for a while. Ben Jonson, called the dramatist, wrote a play "The Devil is an Ass, in which wicked company promoter had

to

crazy scheme for minkt: money by manufacturing Dorks for people eat with. Can you kangine such thing?

AN INSULT·

made of thate, and a very memento even if it didn't have the name of an hotel on the handle,

fruit forks Oddly enough,

.ire inch

The older than table forks. the old churclunes Anglo-Saxons use them for eating pears. Apart from these, the oldest couldn't keep out of the contro-

exis anit versy either.

them English fork known to be in one of

tence is one at the Victoria preached a sermon saying it was an

touch Albert Museum. It is in a case insult to the Almighty not to

fis Brut floor, surrounderi your meat with your fingers,

spoons.

NATURALLY

(The fingers-before-forks quota- tion which everyone uses now when he wants to pick up a chicken bone wasn't made u 1738 by Jonal Swift. If you want to get it right his exnet words were: "They say Angers were made before forks and hands before knives"),

However,

It gradually began to there whn that dawn people samething to hunnid for forks after all. For one thing, they saved you from having to wash your hands after meals as well as before them- an omenity for which small boys in particular should be eternally grate ful.

Etiquette, was very strict in hand-to-mouth era of

enting.

had to be,

beenise everyon

the

11

ale

from the sanse dish.

to pick up You were supposed

Have your meat delicately with Angers Instead of cramming it in your mouth with bolb lands, nnd there was n firm rule in the best circles that you didn't stroke your dog between course-even at a Lord Mayor's banquet,

NOT SO FUSSY

14

on by

The date is 1832, and on it are the arins of John Manners. Duke of

fland, and his wife.

וות

It was bought for the museum by publie subseription, and the whe sofil if used the money to start scheme for "settling retired inem- bers of the professional class in the Dominions"

About 25 years ago spoon made by the same sliversmith in the same your and with the same arms on it was found under the nursery floor at Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, just taken over by the Coal Board.

MADE BY KRUPP

talin inte

The state of

the Soviet Air

Force today

by.... Lieut.-Colonel GRIGORI A. TOKAEV

a highly placed Soviet officer who fled to the West to fight for Freedom.

HEN Stalin und Molotov visited Germany in 1945 they were staggered at the destruction HE Victorin nix Albert fork has that had been wrought in German

only two prongs and is quite cities by the Western air forces. straight, but by the end of the cen- They saw the ruins of Berlin, tury, as you can! sée-h-another-case-Potsdam and other cities, at the museum, there is a four-pronk

the These ruins alarmed model Bint is almost the curved

General Politburo and the

Soviet same as we ent with today,

Staff, for they showed how far the The first mass-produced forks might of the Soviet Air Force had were made

in Germany out of

fallen behind la

comparison Iron in 1817. It doesn't sound very

the Anglo-Americans. rinister, but the man who maru- factured them weat on from forks to Hi mme Was Alfred cannon.

an

V. This

THE reason forks became popular Krupp.

in Italy before England was And how do you think forks got

so their

From name? that the people there weren't

ancient washing. Old Tom Roman torture of all things. It was fussy about Corygate explained this is a book he called the furca, and the apparatus

"The Italian," he said, consisted of two lengths of

Wood wrote.

io fastened together like "cannot endure by any means. have his dish touched by fingers, was placed over the shoulders of seeing that all men's fingers are not criminal and his hands were fasten- alike clean."

ed to the ends. Condemned slaves had to carry the thing about with them, and people were tied to it when they were ingred.

One of the worst places for pernickety traveller to visit was pre-

When fork Germany.

you stay ed at an. inn for a night you had.. to. queue up for your turn at the com- non dish. If you didn't fancy the look of the people who dipped in

NEWS OF A

From such beginnings has the fork risen to respectability. Happy birth- day, ald friend, and may your prongs never be ifle.

LAND

TRANSFORMED BY OIL

Dollars flow, they live

in tents but run cars, and there is no pilfering

BACK in London after a four months' trade tour of the

man who claims to have found the Middle East, is a easiest country in the world in which to earn dollars, or Swiss francs, or any scarce currency you like to name.

He is Sloane,

42-year-old Mr

Wilfred

Arabic-

Turkish and 4 speaking member of the staff of the Governmen(-lacked British Export Trade Research Organisation.

And the land flowing with dollars and francs is the Sheikdom of Kuwalt, 2,000 square miles of parch- ed, oil-bearing country in the north- western corner of the Persian Gulf.

"Scratch the desert in Kuwait," Mr Sloane said yesterday, "and though you may burn your Anger you will most likely strike oil. The country positively smells of it.

Today water is a more expensive commodity than oll,"

IRAQ

ERSIA!

KUWAIL

SAUDI ARABIA

Its gushers have brought so much

Royalties on oil production, now running at the rate of nearly 10 million tons a year, are making tho 63-year-old Shelk of Kuwait, Sir foreign currency Into Kuwait that

Armad al Jabir-al-Subah, into one of the richest men in the world.

und.

buth

of course,

4

Fighters in plenty, but out

of date: Weak in heavy bombers

There are great numbers of brik- tiani scientists, technologists, cu- gineers, ele., In my country.

Some, in spite of all the ficulties, are making their way to the heights of selente and technology.

dif-

with

.

to 10

In spite of all its handicaps, the

Air Force Is a Soviet

31ore or less modern force.

The heavy bom- ber force is being. completely reform- ed under the name of Long Range Air Force (Avintsiya Dal'nogo Dejstvlya or A.D.D.), Golo- vanov, a favourite of Stalin, commands

It.

It is the objerk of special Politburo solicitude. Now why

should this be so?

Immediately upon their return

taken were Moscow steps remedy the situation, with special stress on long range tie force, rocket As far as the theory of aeronautics

the

is concerned, it is on the same development

level as the Anglo-Americans. atom bomb.

The first reaction was the seiling As far as aero engines are concerned,

It is at least a decule behind. up of a Politburo Commission under

which As far as aircraft construction (de- Bulganin, now a marshal, he unlimited

took powers and

signing, technology, and produc- S.A.F. tion) is concerned it is certainly drastic steps to rebulid the

behind, lagging

especially

in must an new lines, and which started one

technology and production of of the worst purges in the history

metal nircraft, of the S.A.F. and the Soviet aircraft industry.,

WH

THE PURGES Rulers' distrust

WHAT 13 the present stata of the

Soviet Air Force

and the development? prospects of future

ani The worst scourges are now, will always be, centralised bureau- cracy pushed, to the extreme, and a permanent distrust of the Air Force personnel by the Soviet rulers.

This distrust breeds purges.

Στυπι

systematic

is

as

As far as electrical, rodio, and other

equipment is concerned, it probably on-the-same-level the West.

In nireruit

armament (guns), the Soviet Air Force is just as well equipped as the Allied air forces.

In order to

understand this, we

SCHMIDT

Displeased Stalin, and vanished.

Peiping Through The Looking-Glass

THE

By EDWIN D. CANHAM

HE news coming out of China is very Chinese. We learn the story of the siege of Pelping, and to Western cars it is a very strange story. Perhaps it is a very sensibly story, too. Maybe in the West we need to learn some of China's enormous talent for survival..

The siege of Pelping began on January 12. At that time, the Communists controlled the electric plant which furnished light and pumped water into Peiping. They obligingly kept right on running the plant, a little erratically, all through the siege.

But that's not all. The negotiations for ending the siege began before the siego itself. If that's a little reminiscent of Alice Through the Looking-Glass, all I can say is that the Orient is all like Alice Through the Tooking-Glass.

slege,

The Communist delegates were Inside Pelping during the with the knowledge and consent of Gen.

Fu Teo-yi They were allowed to

the Nationalist commander,

operate their own

from inside the

rodlo station beleaguered

elly,

and communicate with the besiegers

outside, They

were,

with special passes from General Fu, with resident's cards and with Jather credentials. Again, a very refined way in which to conduct a siege.

Prof.

Sun

of Chung Tung Yencliing University was one of the chief intermediarles or pence makers. He look severni trips into Red territory and made a sur- render agreement which achieved the major objective——lt saved the face of Nationalist General Fu. Of course, it also surrendered Felping, but that seemed almost secondary.

IN NO HURRY

As a result of all this refinement, there has been little or no destruc- tion and loss of life through fighting in the beautiful, ancient capital. And although Pelping surrendered on January 22, the Communists were in no hurry to take over. Very few people have fled, no foreigners are reported injured, and life Inside Peiping goes on very much as usual.

It

is too much to hope that the fall of all China Into the hands of the Communists will be quil.c

The l

miling fac-

tors are:-

gentle.

Peiping is not a prototype. But there is something of the Pel-

Shortage ping si.uation in the over-all plc- There is, that is to say, 'nt of qualified ture.

this stage.

What the Communists personnel.

will do when they enter fully into Technological control remains to be seen.

dimeultles

Auro engine pro-

duction

construction

sro

The Communist peace terms and stiff enough. The first point calls Incomplete of for the trial of a still

ist of war metal aircraft.

criminals, beginning with

Generalissimo Chiang Kal- The principal shek. Despite that, nil the

Indica- effort at the tions point to a coalition regime in mome ent 15

Тдеге is China, for

to come. some time go back to the days in directed on mastering production of re

are reports of over-all peace talks mediately after the war.

jet engines with powerful thrust. soon in Peiping, and of preliminary My personal opinion is that the discussions under way betweert Soviet industry will not be able to lenders

vurious representing

anti- complete

task much before Chiang factions. 1050

Meanwhile, Embassies of the Wes- Regarding experimental establish

are waiting eagerly in ments for aero-engine construction king for the

Nanking

Communists 10 the situation is even worse. On the arrive.

want to open They other hand, the experimental flying thet with the new powers that be.

a high level, Establishments are on

The Communist programme and can be compared with Farmands cancellation of treaties with borough and the former German the West, and uprooting institute at techlin, which, by the

But these dismantled italistic influences. way, has been entirely

mands may turn out to bo and renssembled in the U.S.S.R.

The impression left on the Soviet havoc leaders by the tremendous wrought on the German rear by the Anglo-American bomber forces was were such that immediate orders Kiven to reorganise the Soviet bomber force on similar lines.

As far as engineering and technical Now it must be borne in mild backing is concerned, it is possibly, that the U.S.S.I. wishes to become equal to the Anglo-Americans, a, strong, atomic Power. and its commanding personnel is

up to present-day requirements.

Poor radar

this

Its potential enemies are not like ly to be geographically situated the immediate neighbourhood somewhat further aheld,

in,

but

The training of scientifle and en- what quixotle, too. gineering personnel is on a high level.

in

corresponding

The Toady

Where, as a whole, it is sadly

It is useless to have the alom The civil air feet is equipped to a -1937 to date, the Soviet rulers lagging behind the West is in radar bemb if there is no way of carrying great extent with obsolete American

blind dying--for have

succession purged the and

instance, it to its destination, and people who C-17 aircraft and following Commanders-in-Chief of blind loading and take-off.

talk of atomic power without lak- uero engines,

forgetting one of the essentiala. (1040):

Hence the Politburo interest Novikov (1046).

Numerically, the Savjet fighter the creation of the A.D.D. In every rase,

only the air force is, in my opinian, superior commander-in-chief himself suf- to the combined Anglo-American corresponding fered, but also practically all his forces, and it has a

number of well trained and fearless deputies and assistants.

pilots.

the Air Force: Alkanis (1937); Another weak point is the terrible ing this fact into consideration are Loktlonov (1938): Rycharov vingt conditions of the personnel.

Smushkevich

(1941):

not

in

con

dc-

-d3

of

BOMIC-

MARXISM IN CHINA

I well remember a conversation had as long as four years with a well-informed friend of the

The Polar or Arelic aviation is act

ngu

peace

world.

Chinese Communists, who told mo

make they would have to will. the capitalistic Marxism could not be put into in China, he said, until ап www industrial system had been built up, Since only capitalism could plete such a system, it was Chinese Communlat make ultimate peace tolism unt!! IL had

up

com-

then doctrine to with capi- an in-

completely independent force which COPIED B-29

has nothing in common elther with the S.A.F, or the A.D.D. 4-engined bomber

It la under direct control of the Chief Arctic Administration attached In 1046 alone, Stalin's purge affected

with to the Council of Ministers, U.S.S.R., THE A.D.D. is equipped the following among the Higher On the other hand, it does not several types of aircraft, but headed by Admiral Popanin. Commanding personnel besides the possess a single fighter aircraft of the most up to date is n four-engine C-in-C..

Marshal

Khudyakov, the ordinary airscrew design which bomber designed by Tupolev. It is Schmidt, the Arctic explorer and tem which could be communised Murshai Astakhov, Marshal Zhavo- could be compared with the newest ronkov, Marshal Falalcev, General types of Anglo-American fighters or Soleznev, General Repin, General even such old types as the American Losyukov, General Shlimanov, and Alrneobra or the British Splifire. many others,

As for jet fighters, they are atit Obey the plan

in the experimental stage, and at the moment the S.A.F. does not

From

whose per. 1939 on, the succeeding possess a single one

compared with purges affected such leaders of the formance could be

such comparatively old models да Kaganovich as M. M. (brother of the Politburo member) the Gluster Meteor or the Shooting

Colonel-General Shakhurin. and Together with them fell practically.

aircraft

all their deputies and assistants.

Such outstanding aircraft de- as Tupolev, Pellyakov, Arkhangelski, and a great others spent most of their prewar life in prison.

signers any of the baznars will pay for

goods in American dollars or Swiss currency the And all Is turning his 100,000 francs, or whatever nomadic people, living in tents, inte seller demands.

a nation of town dwellers.

countries in the world."

Saya Mr Sloane: "Kuwait will "Constructional projects are going prove a most valuable maricet for .They ahend at n tremendous rale," said enterprising British firms. Mr Slonne, "and the biggest builder will find it one of the most honest of all is a relative of the sheik.

"Kuwait is crying out for British structural steel. The cement and women want, sewing machines, the mon are enger buyers of radio sets and bicycles

"Many families are now able to afford molar car.

"Perhaps nover before in blatory have the habits of a people been changed so suddenly.".

The Kuwait ollfeld, which came

There is no plifering. You could a Kuwalt leave a bar of gold in street, and it would not be stolen,

"For the Kuwelli law is that n thief has his right hand cut off. If he repeats the offence his left hand

goes.

Slar.

FAMOUS JET From Britain

many THE main trouble at the moment is lack of modern nero engines. Fortunately the S.A.F. in being All creative initiative on the en- helped out of this dificulty. gineering and technical aldo in paralysed by centralised planning,

For instance, Great Britain cold it the famous Rolls-Royce Nene jet, engine.

a near copy of the American B-20,

115 construction was helped by the fact that some B-20 aircraft made forced landings in the Soviet Far East during the war.

The general situation of the Soviet Air Forces is therefore:- Both the S.A.F. and the A.D.D. are principally suffering from the lifek of modern acro engines, and especially jet engines. 'The fighter force

Is numerically strong and to be reckoned with. The

tactical air force is up to requirements. The heavy strategle bomber air force la weak and just beginning to take shape.

aro

The former head, Professor Otto dustrial and mommys scientist with a world reputation, in That explains why Western Inisi- some way displeased Stalin, and dis-nessmen and bankers

pretty appeared without a trace.

confident they can do business with Papanin is still in power, probably the Chinese Communists, on mo because he is afraid even to have a sort of terms, at least. drink of water without shouting, "Long Live Stalin."

ARCTIC AIMS Mapping routes

tern

win

These paradoxes do not make the situation in China any more com- fortable. It cannot be denied that democracy-as represented by Wea-

Influence has

suffered

It remains great defeat in China. WHAT

are the alms of the Arelie to be seen whether President Tru- aviation? Officlaily its aims are man's proposal for practical educa- the study of Arctic regions and, in tonal ald and know-how can particular, the mapping out of air where other methods have falled. routes between the U.S.S.R. and the Against such selbacks in the Far North American Continent via the East must be reckoned the con- ference of Asintle and two Afri- can-countries at New Delhi. The It must be admitted that the moderation with which thesa U.S.S.R. has achieved outstanding moder

from which have emerged success in these flelds.

demanded further pro-

North Pole.

and

Wooden planes The Soviet 'aviation industry possesses so many factories that on this account alone It could not, bo I believe that the Arctic regions gress in that direction la proof that

undoubtedly play an important role there are strong

reasonable said to lag far behind the West.

Especially numerous are factories in military strategy, because they anti-Communist forces in Asls. And concentrating on the production of solve.In some measure the problem the bitterness with which Moscow of the shortest air route between the har attacked the New Delhi meet- wooden fighter aircraft,

At the moment

potential the Industry old and new worlds for

some activities of the AD.D. should be able to produce 45.000-50,000 aircraft per year (in- cluding trainers) assuming that it. the continues to produce only types buli fention to the welfare of the Arctic free peoples.

during the war. (In 1944 the without a reason, Soviet Union produced some 40,000

What happens, fantastic as it may seem, is that a person may invent, order create, design, efe., only by

The bomber force is also undergo from above, and under constant sur- ing a serious crisis, velliance.

In the last war the U.S.S.R. did not have a single modern beavy bomber which could be

compared with either the Lancaster.or American B-20,

No one is allowed to do any work outside what is set by "the plan."

If a person is given the task to "In many bazaare today withered! produce a scientife work within the hands are displayed to warn off period set by the plan, but for some would-be evil-doers."

reason is unable to do so, he or she automatically becomes suspect and is "Investigated."

When Mr Slinno returns

to

Into commercial production little Kuwalt in the spring he hopes to find more than two years ago, is owned evidence that British firms aro ba- "Jointly by Britain's Anglo-Iranian ginning io tap its wealth.

Oll Company andTM" America's Gulf

Oil Corporation."(ter

—BERNARD - HARRIS

Does all this mean that the Soviet Air Force is a négligible quantily7, By no means.

to aircraft of nil types).

That is why it was unable strike any serious blows at the Ger- man rear throughout the war.

On the other hand, if one is to talk of modern aircraft, and

heavy especially jet aircraft and After the war the Politburo took bombers, the Soviet industry will drastic steps to remedy the situation not be able to produce even small with the help of German experience numbers of such typos during the and personnel.

periol 1948-50.

The Pollibaro paya particular' al-

avintion, and this la never

(World copyright]

NEXT WEEK:

Life with the'' Kremlin elite

dono

racialum

ROMA

and

ing

is encouraging. The New Delhi atmosphere happlly free from

It was a meeting of imperialism.

And thus it suggests the strongest barrier that can be erected against Communism in Ama the strength of free and indepen- dent peoples. That this conference should have coincided with Presi- dent Truman's proposals for, a self- help and know-how programme which would raise the standard of living of the East.

whoh very useful coincidence,