The Observer from London, Greater London, England · 9

THE OBSERVER, SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 1961 ABLE TALK by PENDENNIS A SHIP STEAMS OUT (3 : s OF THE FOG E N H O R PROFESSOR DOCTOR ANTONIO DE OLIVEIRA SALAZAR. ivjimsier oi Portugal tor the iast ihtru -four vears. must be furious. Portugal is in tpc news and hat is the last Ik- cct warned. Durmg the war the Germans indented n obfuscating organisation called m hi unci : eW night and fog -designed to mislead anybody who might tr to find Out what they were up to. No one suggests the Portuguese have perpetrated the monstrosities of that German outfit But the present regiroe in I isbon had perfected the art of insouciant concealment long before any twentieth-century Government had thought of it. Except for royal visits, occasional and regrettable arguments with India about Goa. and the odd British trade fair, nothing ever happens in the territory of Britain's oldest ally. Thurber can no longer draw except, from memory, the head of a bloodhound but he still does plenty of writing by dictation. He does not spare himself when it comes to polishing. " There I am, standing in the middle o the Boor, saying weU.'what's; it going to be, ' luminous ! or , '"tadiant. Then my wife pomes in and says:' ' That's enough, Jamie, this one's going to the" publishers.' " T 7 s corner is.soou News-hounding ( 2) ;th? opewtions. Coup de Be teau Ol course, occasional reports seep out that large numbers of re-spectaMe lawyers have been sent to gjol for unspecified offences, or ihat lerribte treatment is being rncted out to Africans in Angola, but all is blandly denied by Sala-z-ar's suave officials. No wonder Salazar himself knows best, and he never talks to anihodv He is a good man' he neer drinks, smokes, or chases women. He is a bachelor. He sees no evil, and if it is done in his name tt is no evil. He never, if he can avoid it, appears in public he has a President to do that for him. Our Dr. Antonio Salasar man who goes to Portugal has never seen him. Now his country is being talked about on I.T.V. news. How vulgar can the world become? Despite the veiJ of secrecy which covers goings-on in Portugal, one anti-Salazar citizen apart from General Delgado (profiled on page 12) became pretty well known outside the country before the present coup de bateau. He was and is Captain Henrique GalvSo, the man who has taken over the Santa Maria so effectively. His fame must be galling to Theatre Junkie-Shop T N exchange for all the British plays about kitchen sinks and low life which have been on Broadway (one of our principal exports), an American play abeut a peculiar sub-layer of New York society, " The C onnecnon." is opening at the Duke of York's next month. It's about drug addicts, or " junkies " and took Jack Gelber a week to write, two months to polish. It may turn out to be controversial at a serious level: even the progressives disagree about its quality. Kenneth Tynan is enthusiastic; John Osborne thinks it degrading. The impresario concerned, Peter Daubeny, can at least be credited with nerve in putting it on at a theatre in which sideboard and butler have hitherto been familiar stage props. Gelber, a thin and elegant twenty-nine, knows his junkies. He was brought up in West Side Chicago where they were always at his elbow. He has tried to ensure audience-involvement by making it a play-within-a-play, Pirandello-style. "Man in audience gets up and says he's the producer," says Gelber. " Author steps forward and says what's going to happen. Producer yells, jumps up and down telling actors to do their stuff." All this in a narrow Beat vocabulary of about fifty words, with jazz interludes. the Portuguese authorities, since they went to the trouble of keeping htm in prison for several years, so that he escaped only by walking out of a guarded hospital disguised as a doctor. Angola Report Like General Delgado, Galvao was originally a supporter of Salazar, indeed a member of the National Assembly. But the Government made the mistake of sending him in 1947 to Angola to report on conditions there, and he made the mistake of reporting them. He became a hero of the unofficial but angry opposition. This distinction he shared at the time with the late Mr. Aneurin Bevan, who was refused a visa to enter Portugal on the grounds that he might interfere with Portuguese internal affairs. Which, of course, was precisely what the opposition hoped he would do. And what Captain Galvao is now doing, since a Portuguese ship is Portuguese territory. Still Centre TWENTY-FOUR hours after their arrival in London, Mrs. Thurber still hadn't had a chance to unpack the suitcases. There seemed to be an idea for a Thurber story here somewhere: the passing of the winter months as endless callers and wellwishers tramp in and out of the hotel suite, the ,accusing stare of the empty wardrobes and the locked portmanteaux, . This may have been what Mr. Thurber was contemplating sitting with such sage-like stillness in the front room ; and why his new book, " Lanterns and Lances," is going to be sub-titled, " A variety of encounters with men, women, and other children." The world revolves round him, looking particularly dizzy these days from his sjill centre. The Thurbers are here to see the opening of the master's play. Carnival no date or theatre - xxrr J fixed yet Mr. Thurber has jyletl at WOtk aireaay appeared in eigncy-eigui performances of it back home, never fluffing a line by accident, a feat which has made him known as the biggest threat to the acting profession of all time. He quotes a critic's theatre notice: "... Mr. Thurber's rather diffident manner conveys a certain theatrical magnetism." " He must have meant something was wrong with the stage hghting." Now sixty-six and totally blind, J dines Thurber merit scheme is rapidly getting .the uppers-hand. Now ' St , George's J Hospital; on the-south side of ' the corner? is-.about to-get involved; in? i - r1 ; ,L THE royalty-obsessed papers &3DZ- ? -c i - 8 T sent SflSehV reporters!, M?&&A&i pnoiograpKrssnuuunB roua- uic diverted into the,-Park Jv-?tem. sn-ug Slopes or a, monrz las poraryi flyover bridge) so thaithey, week, hoping-for some piquant -gOT J a6Lagis&. stun: on uwgniK or me mto-; ( otty .feet below 'Si, George's the Duke taking part m the Army ;wW When th'ev have fihisrled:; ski championships, the Duchess ey ' will- rebuild the ' hospital ana muncess -Alexandra tnere to ceUars aiidlaboratories above the' waicn mm. They were given a crowded time by the Pressmen, ' The-Duke had a couple of crashes in the downhill event. When' hembved- away;-to collect himself, -reporters.' :and photographers made fast time across the snow after him for close-ups and titillating copy. Aside from this arduous work, some of the reporters got in a fair amount of below-stairs snooping, trying to find out how much was being paid for the royal suite at the Palace Hote, what the Duchess ate and so on. The upshot of the research, apparently, was that the Mail and the Express printed gossip-column stories saying that the Duchess (who is patron of the Army Ski Association), the Duke and the Princess were having a five-day free holiday paid for by the Association, the implication being that the hard-earned coppers of the other ranks were being spent on a royal jaunt The Mail at least apologised across two columns when the Association asserted that the Kents were paving for themselves. The Express didn't apologise, but simply said' mis had been " announced." Hyde Park Corner, where you can still see stock-car racing any day of the week, the L.C.C.'s road improve- road. Theiob -is,-being jlone-Jby a; crew of Italian . experts who .can. be 'seen -striding about,the site-. in long-peaked.; baseball 'capsi'cry-ing "Arriyedercil' " " tahd; " other.' obscuretechnical'argotf. 1;' V .5 Everyone has been tiryfag 'to work akt wavs of ' dowi';tbe -job quietly, both for the' sake 6f 'thS patients; and to - avoid shattering:- IDE, insirumcuis-'m -mc--uHucm laboratory! TherItaliansV,cohtri-,i bution to silence isjth'eiriingeruous1 way -of making a tunael-rpothing molish about it which'S-tOiScppp out a trenchant! 'then, build. toof over t The Bntij&urkbTe :,to escape - the , national; psychpjogy still, burrow,,in WPfiVdJ buljdpggy way..-.. - - '.'''J'f t''" But students'-'fof smen-at-work have even 'Setter;' things ' to '!lobk- forward;to. 'To;softeh the din,-the,) L.C.CV is gomg 'to.expeximentwith a muffler -for pneumaticVyrills(a kind - of large , .-tea-cosy)" : ,and, sound-proof sheds,, . shaped r-like sentry-boxes, to. put . rountl .;the drillers. - '. ' vHfiffcV-' hi-''-, ''7".' V'i ''-li.j.: 'j-' '' : ' -. - . . ' ; , A im mi. rtitTiJ-:-' tJ FORD ANGLIA Irii..-' sv-'-i -ir(-a i i). ,'0flr-2i-J IFvfi ' ?' ! r 'S3w Ann e-H al IAf aleHie Doml eo fl-4f Mvtii Z&d lStefcfi Class 5 -.is .(over 2000 cc) ; !suei6 6fflciaf eoffirmcrtion-. HSpwif-" gUtl m gig 1 p 1 &ta& - ... in an elegant setting, refreshment is being taken and pleasure given. Here, the best of all orange drinks Jajfajuce is naturally at home in a world where good taste and good things abound. Expensive Yes. And for an excellent reason . . . JAFFAJUCE 'Native Slave of tltfe 0m ently done over the last ten years." The report notes that there were three kinds of conditions under which native labour was employed. The first was as volunteer labourers, but normally the authorities preclude the volunteer worker from Continued from page 7. ' t .--5.-" i;: of the.sbiL; Hejboro allv the risks involved; ins the croT,-jiidvthe; companies rrd'werV,' ?asU5ed,-v 'in. optimurhjcOndiu'oris"mos"dv..with-. out any risat all,; of sure profits." ToughtechnScal 'assfstance jw.asl J:--'ji ';'J lJt'k.rlij:j r- -rti-- the free choice of his employer. He native, farmers to'bw-pnly Ifhe pi-ft; j other agents'- of "propiganaa - who'1 leacn mem noining ano-impcne on them the need - to 'cultivate' only the required cprrOTOdity'WMreverc they.want-jit, .in good1 or baa ,soil,: sometimes .mvolyipg!. loss to theu; fown ifood "crops.; ' We .could cite,; not as exceptions, but as" a generalj; rule, distasteful casesof yioiensej.of;!' iat;& oi sciusc, wuiv.u icaui ut'iui?,- destructioh'! of . thS population.".. The Admimsriation has 'beeh blinded by " the hunger-1 for 'quan-: tity " ; it seemed 'to be unaware ofi its very grave failureas'an-tinstru-? ment of native .policy; ' v Finally, the report describes how the action of employers bears on. the labour problem " against' or in' fulfilment of official proscriptions,-by the dodging of jrispectioh, by; bribing or taking a'dyaintage of- the' mild attitudes of authorities responsible, for the protection- "of "the natives." This' attitude of the employers- expressed--itself in: (1) resistance) in all-possible ways to a policy;,?-fair ''waawV'fZ) the ;bad,..treatment of the workers corrwra&DUnjsh-,. ment ana pnysicai violence were still, the practice in Mozambique'; and the obligations pertaining ' clothinefood and sanitarv ameni ties were dodged in the majority of cases. The idea, that .the native, is simply a , beast 'of burden still prevails ; the in'diflferencV'for'the physical'and 'moral fiealth' of their labourers ' is evident" ' :j v ilirr nt.ncr v . Li- r,mi( . r hir. thing . eel Orange, Orange & Pineapple, Grapefruit, 219 pr bottle. could not choose the one who offered the best salary but was forced to accept the one named by the authorities, so that he would get the minimum salary stipulated by law. The second was by the compulsion of the authorities based on the despotism of a native chieftain. This was what, natives called con-tractofhe herding-of (peopIe for supply to the employers through the Department of Native Affairs. The employers, in the milder cases, made use of recruiters helped and supported by the authorities. " It is useless to go into details about the hateful aspects these operations imply." Without Salaries The report observes that the natives hated the contracto. Certain contractos were carried out to S. Tom (an island with large cocoa plantations) in conditions under which one exports animals and this terrorised them. They, were even terrorised by- the simpler contract for the plantations in Angola, since they knew that they died on the scale of 20 to 30 per cent The Government also recruited for its own services, as it recruited for the settlers ; but as it ran into shortages, it frequently resorted to engaging women and the incapacitated. And since local departments were frequently left without the necessary funds to pay wages on time, the Government often forced natives to work without salaries, .without food, on -roads and Gov- Jemment farms. Heavy labour ser- regions and these were paid for only months after they-had been carried out The mass of people working on their own account farmers, traders, industrialists and native cattle breeders were of first importance in the colony's economy. But Galvao observes that their disorganised state diminished production ; and production could only be kept at the same level at the cost of much violence. Nor had intelligent steps been taken to improve cultivation methods. The report says that the technical services save for the veterinary branch had hardly any communication with the native producer. The system of fostering the production of some crops of great economic value to the natives through a system of concessionaires was. in theory, tempting. In practice, though, only the immediate interests of the great concession a ry companies had been considered and the native had been reduced to a slave ' ' ExteiminaHngr Spirit If also slkwedM.tself-1n:,-3)'th"e" waste' of labour 'everythingwas done manually; tomfthe;pushin'g of trucks to :me;l:draihing;'fof' marshes ; (4) the quality;and moral? character - o the -recruiters i;of native tahour: tf5V.the. disolace- ment or labourers from.oneTarea-' to 'another1 'thoutregardT for climatic " changes ;' "(6) me " 'extor tions practised by merchants over the natives ; 0) the ifldifference to housing conditions ; (8) the last surviving influences of "the exterminating spirit" still rooted! in the last century. No one had denied that the problem was a very difficult one. But "the fact is, .that w.eyhaye known this for ten .years and that in these ten years there has been not a single effective measure, to solve the problem. The report, concludes: "I'take the full responsibility to prove that all I say is true. You can only criticise me for not saying the w. hole truth or rather that I do not describe all the aspects of the prob lem. But that would be a matter for macy books and take many nours. ; th&ijcijni 07 , .' ! v- ss-ff 1 .;'.'ijr&'! P.'S i-t'i ', , -trt! SS . , . . ,TfciyiB'th'e:paQe6.;v : .. .,. ; trmtlockB th'fMfeiiiiig' . .peroanentB''.'s:T,,, ., i agsirist.shqc&iand ylbratiori; . jmdtWltturaVda(dsg. ...,.lte;Bteeriirth. -, . ;xll(!li-otouSrh.fc :.lif,H., . . : ieUiQrit nylons i-. s:h, ' i'-!Wi3felol;l8,qrdj!-a-.-..--i . tmaffe'eted byimdistute -i -q-i'salvBntBj.age,- or terfiperatiiteB - :iand -f25(P .!;-r' r . shbtweon 70'i 4;;;-r;.;-v 7,' Lr si nfc,Vfc ' , 'it elmpllfleadealgrl; ' . ' "i) XiI ! r-t :: ri .tputeaBsemMy-tdnae;, , "I , . jJirf "CfJ.;i. 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