The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 14

11 The Daily rleqraph Friday June 10 1900 FILMS No Relief for Gen Gordon Bv PATRICK Cl BBS On Tour with Milk One Most seat belts look the same Why should ours be any different? NT three year I understand was spent in research into the background of Basil Khartoum (Cisino This unusually long period is explained bv the time that elapsed between the project being taken up and the two leading actors Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier becoming available together Higniy commendable all th Queen ctoria at Balmoral must be regarded as missing a trick Next stop Cairo where that Sir Evelyn Baring (A'exander Knox) is not thought worth a confrontation this honour to Zobeit a Mohyedd the Sudanese save trader whom Gordon wished to take with him rally the local tribes So on to Khartoum looking very vulnerable in what often appears to be a collection of studio sets arranged against a painted backdrop and reached by a Nile steamer with white ladies very surprisingly on board Shrunken City The palaoe appears remarkably small as does Khartoum itself and hardlv surprising that Gordon shou make some excursions one at rhe beginning of the seige and another towards the end both to see the Mahdi with a third at half time as it were to forage for food which provides opportunity for a battle Most seat belts look alike Some have different buckles Others have coloured webbing Some roll away out of sight Some are even considerably cheaper than most But on the surface they all look alike So how do you choose which make is best After all the lives of yourself and your family could depend on it So it an important dec on The fact that it was Irvin that made the parachutes and harnesses that saved more than 40000 of our airmen in the last war may influence your decision The fact that the same lr re' ability that vas proved in the skies is the same Irvin reli-ab iity that goes into eery Irvirt seat belt today may convince you But if you are influenced solely on looks then we think ours looks good too But choose the only sensible way Choose the belt with the erperience behind it Choose Irvin belts to be sure And make certain you get them an Irvin seat belt specially designed for your car See them at your local garage Or send for the Irvin brochure INSIST ON IRVIN BY NAME sections given special atten-ton Fiml dates have to be medical services to be arranged insurances against injury to competitors and lace personnel to fix and even pocket money to provide When at last the Tour begins Mr mentioned history and BRI MLU i) IRVIN SEAT BELTS IRVING AIR CHUTE of GB LTD LETCHWORTH HERTS new facts It certainly has though whet her any candidate for the eleven plus would be wise to submit them to the examner must remain doubtful If the Mahdi and Gordon corresponded witnout actually meeting it was merely a fa i of history easily corrected appears to be 'be argument of the American scriptwriter Robert Ardrey in a- ise lat i po nt of emp: ying two powerful actors they never come face to me Once adopted in principle this svstem of improving history appears to have been generally applied in fact most of the leading characters concerned in the Khartoum affair of 1884-85 are now made to meet each other Clownish Gladstone Co! report on the situation in the Sudan (made in 1882) is not read by the authorities in London: instead the Colonel (R chard Johnson) reports personally to the Cabinet some two years later so providing a rousing and PPLIERS OF SEAT BELTS TO ROLLS-ROYCE Wisdom HAY LOCK and boats that is pleasure craft of all kinds were built About one-third of them were exported but this still leaves a large number in the United Kingdom No doubt some of them pass into experienced hands but with an ever-soaring production many boats will certainly be bought by inexperienced people Gravel Pit Perils The boats will be used around our coasts on inland waters lukiex rivers reservoirs and even flooded gravel pits But let it not be thought that a gravel pit is safe because there is land all round it Small boat sailors have been drowned in them The water in some lakes is very cold and a swimmer however strong ing and impossible position in the Tour 1 can confirm that it is the most exciting Armed wth two microphones one for public-address on the front bumper the other linking him by short wave to other Tour cars he guides the whole caravan of cyclists Press service and recovery vehicles through the English countryside at an average 25mph varying between walking pace on steep climbs and hOmph or better on some descents The task of the race radio code name is like a three-dimensional chess game played while driving a rally car The special difficulty of road races in Britain is that they must take place over open roads through normal traffic Continental events enjoy closed routes The measure of the co-operation he gams from police and other road users can be judged from the fact that over a stage of nearly 100 miles of roads typical of rural England the lead ng riders were delayed onlv twice once behind lorries when the race was neutral-lised for a mile or so and The way to economy and efficiency in your GOODS TRANSPORT Check your road transport costs with the up-to-date tables published in Motor Transport today Quick and easy to use they cover everything from a small petrol van to a large diesel 8-wheeler giving standing costs running cost- fuel consumption costs total charges per mile All figures fully up to date and including this Road Haulage Wages Order A vital guide to efficient operation for licensees all who employ road transport Wa ter Group-Capt "lTTIH the onset of sunny weather the thoughts of many people frustrated by over-crowded roads will turn to some form of sailing motor-boating or yachting Advertisement and illustrations in magazines with the sun shining and sea so blue make it all look so attractive so exciting and so easy But many of the large number of enthusiastic but inexperienced people who may be expected to take to the water 1 within the next few months will be sadly disillusioned They may never have heard of such a thing as a shipping forecast: if they have it does not occur to them to listen to it They may not even have stopped to wonder whether the children can swim and they mav not have thought of providing them with life-jackets Taking eagerly to the water they will not notice clouds beginning to form above the horizon or a freshening breeze They may vaguely have heard about tides: many do not realise that there are such things as swift running tidal streams Charts I nk nou Even worse some people set out to sea never having seen such a thing as a chart At high tide the sea looks smooth and blue with an occasional wave breaking here and there It does not 1 occur to them that the wave may be breaking over a rock Statistics published by the Royal National Lifeboat institution for 1965 are alarming Com-! the figures for the lifeboats proper and the inshore rescue boats which are inflatable rubber craft driven by powerful outboard motors the total number of launchings on service for pleasure craft of all kinds was 619 In these incidents a total of 435 people were in danger many of whom might well have lost their lives but for the skill and promp-i titude of their rescuers The carefu contrived amount to much though final conversation with the Mahdi on the power of their respective gods has a pleasantly ironic qualify and it enables Mr Heston and Sir Laurence to suggest some of the subtlety of these two very devious characters actor quite conveys the personal magnetism attributed to both men The romantic looking Mahd that Iaurence ves us rea belongs to an earlier period before he had gone to seed On the other hand Mr Gordon with Bible in one hand and brandy and soda in the other looks amazingly as Strachev descr bed him with the boyish aspect" the touch of grev on his hair and large blue eyes with their touch of almost childish sk sic Hell is After Dinner Luis nuel's The Exterminating Angel (Academv 2 seen a' the Cannes Festival in 1962 now harlton Heston as Gen Gordon in A hartuum" turns up belatedly though tortu nately being a fantasy it is unaffected the passing of in An elaborate dinner for a score of guests is being prepared bv a large staff in a luxuriously appointed house But gradually the servants begin to eave each making a teebe excuse and one is put in mind of rats leaving a sinking ship When the host hostess and guests who are obviously drawn from the rich upper-class arrive at last they have been to the just enough servants remain to serve the elaborate meal but by the time the coffee is served in the drawing room only the butler remains A strike in the hall? The distressed hosts pass it off as such and the evening proceeds with much smart and vicious small talk until 4 am is reached with the guests still showing no sign of leaving and the hosts apparently faced with an extreme case of a familiar socal problem In fact nobody is willing to leave the drawing room although the double doors into the next room remain open As if under a spell everyone refuses to cross this threshold and soon we have the spectacle of these elegant people imprisoned for several days and nights steadily disintegrating in the face of hunger and thirst like prisoners in a concentration camp An allegory no doubt illustrating perhaps the ease with which man becomes inhibited by his own ideas though the programme note thinks reasonably enough that the dividing line is between the very rich and others in this world No matter if the allegory is not fully worked out at least the situation is wonderfully worked up and the conclusion could hardlv be more amusing or more wicked si: sk Black Classic From the story by Machiavelli xav the sponsors of The Manarak (Jacey Marble Arch and Charing Cross Road but surely this is his play La Mandragola given fas far as I can remember from a London performance some years ago) substantially intact A very finished play it is too in the now fashionable style of black farce and very bawdy I can't see this account of how a childless wife is made pregnant in 16th-century Florence getting any sort of certificate if it a classic Of the players only the comedian Toto catches the farcial style really required others suffer it would seem from Alberto Lattuada's excessively stiff Motor with COST Transport room at King's Cross wh ch gives another opportunity for lead ng actors to confront each other go with you and I don't envy God' remarks Gladstone keeping up his clown sh role In these circumstances Mr the Mahdi into confrontation with till six years ago A trip in Milk One shows the director is wide awake to the tactical dodges inspected sailing schools recognised by the A where he can get a sound grounding in the handling of his craft in seaman- ship and in those things which go towards safety afloat The booklet also gives advice and information on subiects such as the weather artificial respira- i tion first-aid and safely equip- ment and where to find it Refer- i ence is also made to the valuable I work of the Central Council of I Physical Recreation which runs sailing courses at a number of centres an activity which is to I be extended Many inexperienced people have been put off boating or yachting by some initial disaster or unpleasant experience This applies particularly to children I Most of these incidents need never happen and a safe and happy i entry into recreation afloat is only the beginning of many pleasures and lifelong benefits The address of the Royal Yachting Association is 171 Victoria Street Westminster London SWl bouts sa ling boats catamarans canoes motor boats and motor I or sailing yachts? The Ship and Boat Builders National Federation to which 99 per cent of the boat and yacht building industry belongs has I stated that last year 15000 yachts RADFORD BARRETT When Tank Meets Tank THOMPSON in more than £200 million Why have there been no overseas sales of the Cheftan? Underlying this question are differences among the Western allies over what is somewhat pompously caled philosophy In other words there are dfferences over the emphasis to be placed on the three basic but conflicting elements of a tank: armament armour and mobility differences which spring from differing last-war experience and in assessing the battlefield value of guided missiles as at present developed rrnour anti Mobility These differences also help to exp am why there is no common unk for NATO and why when Germany's new Leopard tank is production and that of the French AMX 30 start shortb' the Americans and Germans should be planning the joint production of a tank that can at best be only half a generation ahead of these At the beginn ng of the last war fhe British had expected to benefit from fast lightly-armoured tanks in the desert but were sappomted and found them-se ves outfought by well-gunned and better-armoured German tanks The Americans and French hod comparatively litte experience of tank tank battles their mam experience being By Brig A RM AM ENT sales are very i big business and let no one be under any illusion that military merit is the overriding criterion The joint development of an American German tank to be in service in the 1970s is seen in Washington as a project which can eventually mushroom into the biggest defence contract since the TFX (F11I variable wing aircraft) In this competition for arma- ment exports America admittedlv I playing from a position of great I strength has developed her sales-manshp to a fine art Britain is I belatedly putting her own house in order but suffers from too small a home market and from I the unpleasant habit of denigrat-I ing her own achievements R-itain has two tanks the Chieftain and the Vickers which i 1 I shortly come into service: the 51-ton Ch efratn th 120mm gun) will replace rhe latest mark of Centurion the best tank in the West at present the 37-ton Vickers (w th 105mm gun and the Sw ngfire guided missile) will go to the Ind an Army replacing its earlier Centurions which so well against more modern American Patton tanks Overseas sales of the whole ser es of Centurions have brought toco an exrit nq smooth subtly sweet the un que full strength white vermouth short with lemon peel I long with soda and ice mixed with gin or vodka operations against unarmoured targets in the pursuit of the Germans to the Rhine The Germans had every of experience but that which remained most vividly with them was the ability of rhe Russian tanks cut them off during their long retreat from the East The Germans a so speak of the effectiveness of Iightly-a-moured improvised tanks holding up he A ied advance in Normandy These latter however were in my view carrying out the role of the tank-killer rather than the tank The result of all these experiences is that the British tend to emphasise the importance of armour while their Allies emphasise that of mobility The development of guided missiles with warheads capable of piercing any practicable thickness of armour has also brought the value of armour in question But as things stand neither the reliability of the gjded missile under battle conditions its velocity nor its le'hality is such as to make it the king of the battlefield which some would have us believe I believe that substantial armour is still essential in attack Moreover by the 1980s it may have been possible to develop a hardhitting and well-protected 25-ton tank that can readily be transported by air NATO defence policy is based on rhe supposition that any war Europe '1 be short and shat rhe stand the stress of travelling at more han 25 mph across country vie ony insignificantly heavier than the American M60 while its silhouette is considerably lower than either particularly the latter Admttedly it is 20 per cent costlier than other tanks current production but the new German American tank promises to be just as heavy just as expensive and no more effect ve Present 'echnica! developments should enable a tank of revolutionary desgn and to all members of A to be developed by the I9K0s It seems a pitv that the resources being devoted to the new German American tank whose role the Chieftain can fjlfil are not beng used to rhis end nd remsmbsr CINZANO RFD traditional Italian vermouth Sola agent lor ana export: CINZANO (UKj LTD 20 Buckingham Gaia London SWt CINZANO DRY FRENCH for extra dry cocktails All es whose defence is likely to 7 he Vickers 37-ton with 103 mm gun.