1949-04-09 — Page 4

THE FUN-FAIR THAT BORED

By RONALD BOXALL

LONDON. Jingles which met their eyes in every direction enme as a wel-

seems that big money

come roller. It said "Exit,"

does not always Impress The warm sunshine in Oxford the British public. They Street was a refreshing change gave a cool reception to from the smell of wet paint in London's latest musical the exhibition hall.

show, "Latin Quarter"----{} "On Our Way" selu out 'to £60,000 "International" ex-teil the population the insido travaganza staged by facts on exports and Imports, the benefits of Increased pro- Robert Nesbitt at the duction and the consequences Casino Theatre-but when of under-production, in a way the show was cut by one that makes learning enny, hour and the overheads

I only partly succeeds, de- pruned by some £2,000, mite Technicolour fim cartoons, cast and prolneer settled distorting mirrors, peep-shows, down to what promised to and the "Biggest Bat Out of

Captivity! be a long run.

Coinciding with this flop- Entering the exhibition that-nimost-was, Another big through the double swing doors Marble Areli, the money organisation staged an opposite expensive entertainment. Per visitor is confronter with the

n haps "entertainment" isn't quite frat of a never-ending serles the right word--though £33,000 slogans, warnings, injunctions spent to make the Jor and exhortations. It says "No ruffering public enjoya free Smoking." and

uniformed Government sponsored course attendant is standing by to en- in national cronoinics.

force the order.

was

White papers on the economic situation are all very well for the long-haired boys in Bloomin búry. But the man-in-the-street liken his economies, disguised-

ar

at least pepped up. So- enter the Central Office of In- formation, backed up with

£3,500,000-a-year budget,

Et

SECRET PREPARATION

After. weeks of ageret pre- paration, their show was ready to begin. President of the

Board of Trade Barold Wilson fresh from his recent clothes rationing triumph, visibly wilt. ed as he wondered through the COL's exhibition ball in Ox- ford Street after giving it his official blessing-and the “ON Our Way" exhibition was open for business.

DANCER OF APATHY Visitors are kept moving (one way trafe only) by Thore uniformed attendants. They move silently, rarely speaking, hardly daring to express their thoughts. Blaring muste comes fron a dark corridor, where continuous film strips point out what danger of apathy, happens to a machine that isn't loved by its operator, and how management can

Increase 0126- put by looking after the wet-

are of the workers.

Wite

Three model shops display notices in their windows show- how Britain's food supplies maintained before the war, during the wor, and how it is hoped they will be main tained when Marshall Alti entis in 1952. It is all highty In- structive, but rather dejuress- ing.

On the first day, 3,503 bored citizens followed him through galleries of flashing lights into model cool mines and steel And so on to the "roal mine." works, and the dullest fun-fair where

on

A

Genuine CoRlInter

earth, past a display of rum Kent demonstrates the chemical

the multitude of slogans and

and the miner

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, APRIL

CATA

1949.

COMING

TO

HONG KONG

"Well, what are you going; to, do-fit their lot up.with caps or our lot with trilbies?"

--London Express Service).

So you'd like to be

Fun-Finding-Out export this wook loctures on low

a bit of a lawyer,

eh?

by BERNARD WICKSTEED

old chieftains who sat under a

tree.

These imen were the real pre- decessors of the judges of today. Most of them were churchmen, because they were about the only people who could read and write, and they spoke Norman French because that was the Inngunge of the King.

Court, justice, Judge, counsel, attorney, party. plaintiff, de- fendant action, indictment, verdict, conviction, judgment, sentence, and execution are all words of French origin.

They didn't deliberately set out to make the law these men.

throughout the country.

go

done.

Then

THEN someone says: absolute power. They could freedom in those that look

"I'm as good as he torture you or have you ed to the English tradition is."

with or "This is a thrown to the llons and no of the common man coal-cutting machine. that Intest manufactures of The lights go out, the machine free country, isn't it?" he is one would question their common rights. looked ke something out "Things to Come." The last of Krumbles

ex-doing no more than state right. Their laws reflected

They were To understand Common They took it as they found it, plains that it is cutting coal at the centuries-old principles this attitude. the rate of a

foot a

a minute.

designed to make things Law-or any law for that and unlied it as far as possible "Any

asks. of the Common Law. questions?" he

to comfortable for those in matter-you have The visitors move on silently.

He is doing the same authority..

back into history a little, they went back to London and "Any girl or' woman wants to

When the Romans cleared told their colleagues what they'd be a Bevin Boy, I'll sign 'em when he says: "Give us a on the miner quips at their fair hearing, won't you?"; England, on the other out of Britain their place departing backs.

"An Englishman's home is hand, developed the quaint was taken by the Angles, his castle"; "I ask you, is it conception that one man the Saxons, and the Danes. reasonable?"; or "Don't lay was AS good as another. Can you imagine such a your hands on me."

thing? How can you com- The Common Law is such pare the rights of a peasant a part of our everyday life in his hut with those of a that you hear it unconscious baron in his castle? ly expounded in pubs and A Lancashire Inss demon-

cotton xtrates

weaving on street corners every day The wonen perk up of the week. machine. at the sight of the Cally- coloured fabrics.

CV.R. Thompson The class

war

New York. CUT-THROAT

trude

war has at last broken out in the US. between the aeroplane and the train.

In the model steel works You are Invited to "pull the and open the furnnec haille doors."

A bored-looking youth fugged at the handle. Nothing happened. He moved on,

SPOILING THE FUN

There

Kre

two

great

The visitors drift into the systems of law in the Wes-

The outcome may be seen this is commencing. They drift out. f trekani, most of the Empire

summer, the first in eight years

in which travellers will have to queue for seats.

not

The railways are fighting the

Kers. On all but local

it is gone.

more bored than ever,

"we

Immortal English yeoman NOW that is just what our forefathers did, and the result was the immortal English yeoman who look his longbow to Cressy and Agincourt, and knocked tho stufling out of the armoured knights of France.

Talking over their problems

These boys were in- dividualists, and if they could get away with mur. You can picture them talking. shop and the problems der they did. Naturally they'd come across. One might this outlook led to a lot of tell of dificult case, and the bloodshed and family feud- others would say: "What an ing. To stop it and pre- earth did you do?" serve the lives of their

They'd note his answer, and warriors the local chiefs (if then if any of them came across they were powerful enough) the same problem themselves enforced a system of com- same would deal with in and

way. Thus uniformity pensation.

centralisation were introduced. And that is why today judges of the Common Law still respect the decision of their predecessors.

Trial on village greens

In the "Fun-fair," distorting and the Dominions (except mirrors, cialm fa few em-Quebec in Canada), and the barrassed vietinis and one two titters. Again, it's all with United States (except Lout war by pampering their pussen- purpose. Slogans above the Siana) follow the tradition

trains mirrors

the real fun. of the Common Law. spoil third class as we ence knew Long, thin figures, grinning at

ETHICS didn't enter into Most of the rest, with the themselves in a mirror, are

it. It wasn't naughty Another thoroughly un Now ut are promised arm-warned that this might happen notable exception of Scan-

in 1952

don't

start dinavia, have founded their Roman idea we got in our to bump off your neighbour. rooms, 1992

thinking now." safe, Even "The Biggest Rat Out rule on laws of Ancient heads was that no king was It was merely expensive, compensation to his family of Captivity" turns out to be Rome. Scotland has a little above the law. He couldn't because you had to pay

black-of euch.

do just what he liked. But the airlines noe fighting paper model of n

and to the King for the loss The difference between it with austerity, Gone are the marketter, wearing the tradi

So you can sce. it is of his service. hostesses who bring you chew-tional flamboyant necktie which the two systems accounts

of the

more than a most something pillow, and a plenle his type are believed to favour, ing gum, u

The exhibition is on for six

coincidence that facts about mere lunch between stops.,

The third-class air passenger weeks. Long before that, ques- puzzling

dictatorship has flourished does not even set a blanket tions will no doubt be asked foreigners.

The Romans had slaves, in those countries with a until it is far below freezing in the Commons.

London Express Service). and their emperors claimed legacy of Roman law; and

chair seats, private glareless windows, smooth ride, and tip-top couk- Ing

point outside his pressurised

cabin.

But in return the air traveller will get rates as cheap as the trains and, of course, speed.

Sample fares-From New York to Scattle, 2,418 mikes: First-class air, 157, dollars 85 cents (£300s. 3d.); train, 00 dollars 91 cents (£20 4s. Bd.) to which must be added three days'

incals and tips; third- class alr, 87 dollars (£24 5s.).

All America's railways airlines are privately owned.

and

PARK-AVENUE, New York's

for

some

Airstrip for Shangri La

by

Group-Captain

H. S. L. DUNDAS. D.S.O., D.F.C.

We had to fly back down the river, turn, and lose height in a straight line towards the strip,

The local chief was never a

It was these, men, too, these unsung heroes of a free country, who crystallised. the legal con- ception that one man is as good as another,

Every

man is a good man not to be)

Koodness was whether he be

(until he is proved haved as a reasonable man could they said, and the test of his

be expected to do.

Say your neighbour made an unprovoked altack on you with

a reasonable man. But if you proseculor. He was an arbitra- axe. That was not the act of tor. He sat in public under a defended yourself with another tree on the village green, heard axe, that was reasonable, even what cach side had to say, and though you split his skull in

two by doing so,

then Axed the damages.

The important thing to remem- ber is that these trials were not between a chief or a king and his subjects, as in Roman Inw. They were between two free and equal men,

Apply the test of reason

NE of the charms of Com- mon Law is that it needs no revision, This was the situation when test of reason. In the days of the You simply apply the committing ourselves to a land-the Conqueror came over. Wil Normans, when the population

the liam was on a slicky wicket. Ile of England ng willy-nilly, whatever

was about two surface turned out to be: we was surrounded by a gang of millions, and there were no could not have overshot and

cut-throat adventurers who'd round again with which gone

without

only joined him for the loot, and tribesmen transformed crashing into the hillside.

he didn't trust a single one of the work had them.

HAVE just come back raced fields, divided by stone from Kashmir, where I walls, studded with trees.

richest street, protested arrived in the first plane to I saw the tools that, in the interests of safety, land on the most astonish- 1,000

Residents

nbout the new Empire.

it has been made to look like ing airstrip in the British this rough, narrow valley bed- Fortunately

into a smooth flat runway. 2,000 been well done, and we rolled to

railway yard. complaining

cut down traffic deaths.

Dru

Gilgit is a little town high

the

yards long

the

Scouts band of

druns and bagpipen

motor-cars, it was reasonable to turn your cattle out to graze on the rondway.

Today it would be most un- reasonable and if someone ran

Luckily in this hour of peril the nameless English lawyers of the King's Court rejected the cut-and-dried order of Roman dictators carried on making a legal system out of the concep- tion of the needs of a common man.

100 yards wide. a standstill in front of. hundreds So It was in his interests to into your cow in the dark und twin-armed lamp-poris, in-

There were about 70 old, bat- of cheering and excited people, make friends with the English in broke his windscreen you'd have stalled in the centre of the road instead of on the pavement, to up in the Ilimalayas, where tere shovels, and an equal We were introduced to the local case of trouble among his fol- to pay him damages.

Fakistan borders on Russin, number of hoes; there were rulers and army leaders, and lowers. One of the ways he did

In the eleventh and twelfth It come 50 small axe heads, fitted behind

marched it was to promise at his Corona- centuries,, when our Common A WOMAN has applied for the Afghanistan, and Tibet. with rough handles cut from the

most dangerous 100 in is the resistance centre hoss; there were a number of through the village to the potion (Christmas Day, 1006) that Law was still being licked into America. In Evarts, Kentucky, from which Moslem irregu- sacks hung from long, poles, and iltical agent's house.

he would respect the laws of the timental revival of Roman law. shape, there was'n 'great Con- Avo police chiefs have been i either shot

Twelve bulls had been killed country. It was a great decision Even England was threatened or sacked since lar troops operated, before in these thousands of tons of rubble and clay were carried August.

Mrs Pearl Burrus, a the cease fire of January 1,

set up in Canterbury. 41-year-old housewife, wants to against the Indian Army from the river bed on men's in our honour, and their car-and on the whole he kept hin and a school of Roman law was take over the post, and if she which marched last year there were

shoulders, to Rit in soft spots; cases made a gargantuan lunch. promise..

two small stone It is almost impossible to sho promiers not to gets it

rollers, light enough to be pulled realise what this strip means to carry a gun. Saya she: "I'm into Kashmir.

King John by one man; and there was one the people of the Gilgit valley. not afraid of a gun or a man

For 14 months

and the-barons Royal decrepit iron wheelbarrow. with a gun, and I think I can

Once only have they seen a arrest any

man in Evarts, or Pakistan Air Force has been

I was at Peshawar when a motorcar. It was brought over [dropping supplies for troops and

refugees in Gligit and the sur signal was received saying that piecemeal by a French geologi YOU can't say the same of any place clay, without one."

you the strip was ready.

cal expedition en route for Tibet. King John.

had no THE LOWLY SANDWICH (rounding valleys.

being promoted to a full-

With Air Vice-Marshal

respect for the law-unless ho Some, of theas valleys are so

Horses, donkeys, and mules made it himself, That's what By doing so they bullt up sized meal. A Philadelphia restaurant advertised what is narrow that in places it is im- Richard Atcherley I flew next are the only transport they have made

tho barons

mad what was called by Oliver Wen- Dakota, through known. morning In a

American called the Bombshell Sandwich, possible to turn n plane.

past un-

Roughly speaking the Magna dell Holmes, the with five different kinds Last November it was decided the Indus valley.

of

20,000ft.

Now there are Jeeps in Gilgit, Carta they made him sign was judge, "a for more developed, Mount ment between white or ryal to build at Gligit a landing- conquered

strip big enough to take heavy Nanga Parbat, to carry out the flown over in Dakotas to take no more than a confirmation of more rational and mightier body

the old laws and the promises of law than the Roman." first trial landing. We could not supplies up the valleys.

Gligit, nearest voluntarily given by William reconnoitre radio planes.

the strip

Wherever the Englishman to the and his miccessora. comedian Fred Allen: The building of this strip from a considerable height, for us, has become a place to

went, America, Australlă, Africa, "There will always be ari Eng-|was a fantastic feat.

the mountains rear up from the

What the Normans did was to Asia, he took this law of his It was his greatest valley to steeply that it is im- be reckoned with on the strate send travelling judges round the with him. land while there is stiin An The ground, bafor work be- possible to circle. at

gle map of the world. low America."

heritage. And, it still là. |country to hold inquiries and to -{Londen Express Sarutes), hear local disputes in place of the

---{London - Esprits Sarvica).

bread. Its price-ds.

W

VIȚISECRAOK from

-[London Express Nervice); [gan, - was a chess-board of ter- altitude.

except commelt base

DO

Unique

Bible

Lecture

Sories

Ď

Musical

Program

✪ Mr. Detamore & Mr. Meissner have been heard by millions over the air. They have recently concluded two extended series in Shanghai.

Have been heard in: 100 leading cities.

→ Don't miss the opening address "Our World To-morrow-What Is Coming?"

BIG

OPENING NIGHT

at the new

BIG AUDITORIUM

April 17

SUNDAY • 8.00 P.M.

Everyone

Welcome

Keep

this

Date Open Apr. 17! Apr. 17

NEW BIBLE AUDITORIUM

Chatham & Mody Rds.

KOWLOON

No

Admission

Charge

NATHAN RD.

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ARAK/TORICK

FERRY