NOTEBOOK

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27374, 12 June 1954, Page 3

NOTEBOOK

The medieval guilds were in the habit of demanding from initiates subscription to an oath setting out briefly the general principles to which they should dedicate themselves, together with certain more specific and parochial pledges. *‘The Spectator,” London, set as one of its weekly competitions the task of providing an extract from a present-day oath designed for one of the folowing: diplomat, poet, taxi-driver, baby-sitter, film director, civil servant, editor of a weekly. The first prize was given to the following entry. TAXI-DRIVER I, GIRATIO HORNBLCfWER, being sound of horn and accredited colourblind at traffic lights, swear that, without unprecedented recourse to my extensive vocabulary, nothing will come betw’een me and my lawful destination, nor circumvent the conducting of my fares as I think fit, knowing as I do three different ways from Piccadilly to Waterloo so as to suit the means of variegated clients tip and all, notwithstanding argybargy, policemen and owners of private vehicles as should have been left in their perambulators permanent; and will firmly maintain complete disregard for those as shouts “Hoy,” raise umbrellas in a hostile fashion unmannerly like, or overlook a natural personal antipathy to stopping before the aforesaid destination, save for half-a-pint; put upon oath that I shall keep my cab’s flag flying, whether or not suo-glove as we say, and will never give change that does not produce a 25 per cent, tip- ' ***** In “India and the Awakening East,” just published by Hutchinson, Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt says that the British have outlived their unpopularity in India, and warns her countrymen that they are > in danger of acquiring it. There is no use fooling ourselves. We must face the fact that in the years after the war our popularity took a terrible tumble in India, as it did throughout the Near and Middle East. In the Arab countries, as I have explained, this was largely because they could not understand our attitude on the partitioning oi Palestine and the greater help they feel we have given Israel. We had always been friendly to them; these, to their mind, were not the acts a friend. Pakistan, as a Moslem nation, is sympathetic to their point of view. In India, after the departure of the British, the resentment previously felt towards them was in a large measure transferred to us Never convinced that the British really intended to keep their promise to leave, the Indians were deeply impressed when they actually did, and the disappearance of their hostility was almost an overnight phenomenon . . . their grievances have been swallowed up in a surge of genuine friend ness. They tend to remember the good things the British did and to ignore the bad; and it is a fact that' today the British are remarkably popular there. . . . We can all understand. I think, that no one likes the rich uncle who flaunts his wealth in the face of your poverty; who will help you. perhaps —but on his own terms; who will send you to college, if you like—but only to the college of his choice. This, of course, is not a fair description of our attitude: but, nevertheless, fair or not. it is the way many people see us. In addition, we have against us their feeling that because our skins are white, we necessarily look down upon all peoples whose skins are yellow or black or brown. This thought is never out of their minds, though out of politeness they did not speak of it to me. They always asked me pointedly, however, about our treatment of minorities. ***** This story about a “conservative man” is from “The of New York” by Ed Reid. The book is published by Gollancz. “Toddo’s boys all have great respect for him. but he continually mystifies them. For instance, they couldn’t understand why one of their pals suddenly disappeared one day in the summer of 1952 and never showed i up again. He vanished without a trace from his drinking haunts in Toddo’s territory and no one had dared to mention it to Toddo. “This is to explain that this hoodlum fell into the bad habit of diluting heroin he carried to Manhattan for the Brooklyn drug ring, and Toddo found out about it. The drug went from Brooklyn to a dealer known to the syndicate as Louis the Hood, in Manhattan. •

“Tlie careless hoodlum will never more put his foot on the brass rail of his favourite Brooklyn bar—since both his feet are in cement.

“Toddo practises sobriety, except when he is worried. Mostly he never worries and drinks nothing but Saratoga water. His habits, like almost everything about him, are conservative.