Let’s put the record straight on whaling
In 1956, Prince Philip, on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, visited Leith Harbour Whaling Station on South Georgia Island. In his book Birds From Britannia, he wrote: ‘In most cases the whale is killed almost at once.’ As engineer on a whale catching vessel from 1947 to 1949, I can add to this that for the safety of the ship the whale was carefully stalked, often for 20 minutes or so before a kill. And the kill was as professional as in any abattoir. In 1945, Great Britain was bankrupt and sterling wasn’t accepted abroad to buy meat. Meat rationing persisted for eight years after the war and our kids the unauthorised absences we’ve experienced in Derby? Will there be any sanctions imposed?
I have no problem with parents who take their child out of school in term time, though I’ve never done it myself. I just think it’s unfair that my children have missed so much schooling but no one will take responsibility for it.
DELLA COGLAN, Derby.
School standards
IF THE 7 per cent of children who are privately educated joined the state sector (as a result of Jeremy Corbyn’s policy or anything else), that would immediately increase the pressure on the Government to improve the state education sector.
There would no longer be an alternative that fostered inequality that takes parents with policy influence out of the state school sector. That sounds like a step forward. Dr ALISON POWELL,
Cambridge.
Don’t blame diesel
I’M TIRED of all the waffle about the detrimental health effects of diesel engines.
The latest engines are very didn’t see a banana for as many years. During that time, I brought a stalk of bananas home to give to local children. Calling at Dutch Aruba in September 1949, I took ten English pound notes to a bank to exchange for guilders to buy some nylons for my wife. Britain couldn’t afford to import nylons. I was told in an American drawl what I could do with them — and this was in a Dutch territory, for whom we fought in the war! A local shop agreed to change them for £3 worth of guilders — just enough to buy my darling Dorothy a pair of nylon stockings. Anticipating bankruptcy, the British clean: Euro emission rules on new vehicles are very strict. The main cause of smoky exhausts on diesel vehicles is bad maintenance, black smoke usually meaning the fuel and air filters need changing. Blue smoke could be turbocharger problems.
I’ve been surrounded by diesel engines for the past 30 years, as have many in the transport industry, and none of us suffers from breathing or chest problems. The government and green fanatics are just trying to tax motorists off the road.
When I was in Stavanger, norway, a few years ago, on a cruise, I noted that emissions from modern diesel engines on cruise ships are very strict.
The ships are mostly diesel/ electric with the engines powering generators which operate only for the amount of power needed.
Moored nearby, however, was a Greenpeace ship, an ancient, rusty converted trawler, belching out fumes while its crew pontificate about climate change. Do these ‘saviours of the planet’ run their old vessels on fairy dust? TONY CLAYTON,
Worksop, Notts.
A prince’s orders?
MY FATHER, Frederic Claude Zimmerli, under the stage name Claude Frederic, appeared as the maitre d’hotel on the BBC’s Cafe Continental variety show, which ran in the late Forties, mostly shown live from Alexandra Palace.
He kept copies of all his government decided in 1944 to invest in a fleet of whaling vessels to feed a devastated Europe. Twenty years ago, I donated two of my paintings as a memorial to the brave men, mostly Scots and norwegians, who worked long hours in often foul conditions for months. I’m 93 in a few weeks and at Easter remember the men who lie in little graveyards on a remote, snow-covered island 8,000 miles from home and those who died in freezing seas. Remember their families. Let people who worship wildlife think of this and imagine.
ARTHUR DINSDALE, Middlesbrough. income and associated costs, and the first entry I can find for Cafe Continental is for May 1947, when he was paid 12 guineas for the show (a guinea was £1.05). His accounts cease in november 1948, by which time he was being paid 14 guineas per show.
He has no entry listed for Cafe Continental for October 1948, but he earned £80 that month for a film.
My father told me that the producer, Henry Caldwell, was ‘instructed’ by Prince Philip to replace him as maitre d’hotel with Helene Cordet (Mail). He suspected Philip was having a relationship of some sort with Cordet and he lost his job to her as allegedly instructed by Prince Philip. GUY K. A. ZIMMERLI,
Hampton, Surrey.