Mountbatten Series Starts On Monday

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32214, 5 February 1970, Page 3

Mountbatten Series Starts On Monday

One of the most interesting and important purchases made by the N.Z.B.C. for some time is “The Life and Times of Lor d Mountbatten,” which will begin from iCHTVS on Monday. This :is the first of 12 oneIhour programmes on a remarkable ma n, of astonishing versatility.

This great-grandson of Queen Victoria and nephew of the last of the Russian Tsars has led the sort of life to delight a television producer. He has been a serving naval officer, First Sea Lord, the commander of vast armies and the last Viceroy of India. Whatever task he has undertaken, he has shown a marked ability to win the confidence of those with whom he has had to deal.

Certain it is that Lord .Mountbatten must now feel satisfied that if the dismissal I of his father from public ■ office in 1914 could be regarded as a stigma, he has compensated for it more than adequately. His father was First Sea Lord at the outbreak of the First World War, but his ancestry was fuel enough for the fires of anti-Germanism, and he was forced to resign. Three years later the family name’ was changed from Battenberg to Mountbatten. Lord Louis Mountbatten (had a most successful naval (career, and a personality and (appearance to appeal warmly | to the public. He was in comimand of a destroyer Flotilla at the start of World War II land hjs ship the Kelly was (almost as famous as its cap(tain. It was sunk in the (Battle of Crete, Lord Mount- ! batten being one of the surIvivors who had to spend (several hours in the water before being rescued. i Later he was at the head of the Commandos and then appointed Supreme CommanI der of South-East Asia Command. In 1947 Mountbatten, jnqjv Earl Mountbatten of Burma, became Viceroy of j India, with the task of winding up British rule. In 1953 he was appointed Chief of N.A.T.O. Command and then became First Sea Lord and

Chief of the Naval Staff. His final major appointment was that of Chief of the Defence Staff. Of his ability and personal charm, there can be little doubt. Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to his South-East Asia Command appointment,

and the socialist leader Attlee sent him to India as Viceroy; there he apparently won the confidence of both Ghandi and Jinnah. “The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten” should win and hold a wide audience. —PANDORA.