School Post 1 June 1949 [antikvár]

yoLír Letter from the Editor vDeor o-JL QúrUt Have you discovered how tiresome dates are? How they have a dreaúful way of slipping out of your mind such a short time after you were sure you had learnt them so thoroughly ihat you could not pos-sibly forget? They always treated me like thai when I was a child, yet there is one date which every English boy and girl knoivs —1066! The events of thai year have a great interest for everyone, not only because Wüliam, Duke of Normandy, did something which no-one else has since been able to do, but, because he united England and förmed the course of our life there to-day. To me, the story of the Norman Conquest has always been very real, because my home is in Sussex and my parents lived at Battle, which is the village ihat now stands on the MII where Harold fought so bravely. If you look on page 5 of this number you will find a picture of Battle Abbey. My Fathefs house stands just beside it, although you cannot see it in the picture. An Austrian friend of mine who now lives in England is amazed because we speak about King Charles II as though he lived but yester-day. We talk about Wüliam like thai too. Many of the castles William built still stand although sorne are only ruins. We played among them as children, and often cycled across the marshes to Pevensey, where Wüliam landed. Then the shrine of Edward the Confessor stands in Westminster Abbey; Battle Abbey is to-day a girVs school, and Domes-day book, in which William wrote down how much land everyone owned, and how many coivs, pigs and horses they had, is still the basis for the administration of our land. How can those days seem far away? But I must return to the business of the present. I know it is not very clever of me, but I do find it difficult to rea>d many of the addresses on the letters you send me. I always enjoy my post bag and I always answer every letter but will you please write your addresses very clearly for me to malce sure of getting my reply? Hungárián addresses are particularly difficult to understand and I shall be grateful if Hungárián readers will please take extra care. I hope that all the children who have been asking me for pictures of Prince Charles will be pleased witli those on page 3 and that all ívho asked for a story about Indians like the new serial. I recently received a letter from Alex Wiener who has just arrived from China and I asked him for his impressions of Vienna. His reply is very interesting and I am printing it in the next column so that you may read it alsó I have had a letter from Australia too, which will ap-pear in the next issue as there is not sufficient space for it in this number. Have you heard what the Boy Scouts have been doing in England recently? They had a "Bob-a-Job" week! Headquarters needed money, so the Scouts rolled up their sleeves and worked. For anyone who thought it worth a shilling, they did anything from cleaning shoes, to mowing the lawn and minding the baby! With best ívishes, "Tű- BÁ&&T7 6ur readm Alex Wiener (13 yeors) — Vienna "Vienna strikes me a lot for the streets are so clean compared to those of Shanghai. There, there are no Operas and no Museums; but the rickshaws, the markets and the junks in the river would catch the eye of the foreigner. "I attended the College of St. Joan of Arc and liked it very niuch. I can't speak Germán, and I expect you think that funny, but I was born in Shanghai, and lived there for 13 years. "I would like to teli you of the eolourful Chinese feasts: ín Autumn the dragon festival is held. A huge dragon made of paper is carried around the streets and a band makes a great nőise round it. Then children big and small, somé of wliom are bare-footed, run after the dragon like the children iii the "Pied Piper of Hamelin", calling others to jóin in. ''The Chinese New Year (The Luna festival) is held in Februarv, and on New Year's eve the Chinese are all invited to visit th eir friends and thev dine in great splendour. Then the children throw crackers and fire-rockets. "I would like to teli you too, about my journey and myself. It took tiiree months to travel from Shanghai to Vienna, as we went to Singapore, and from there round South Africa, Dúrban and Dakar, and then to Italy (Naples). "I am a great music lover, and play the piano. I oc.cupy myself bv read ing classical books and í brought my little library of classies with me from Shanghai."