1951 MONDAY DECEMBER 9
Car thieves wonder at ‘marvellous’ police radio, a Christmas tree warning, and much more make the news 68 years ago this week
Your police radios are marvellous!
AT 1.20am today two Cardiff police officers on mobile patrol saw a stationary car and, as they approached it, a message over the police radio told them the car had been stolen from Albany Road.
“Marvellous” was the comment of a man seated in the car. A man outside could only say: “What a system, what a system.”
The story was told at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court when John Birmingham and Reginald Fred Saunders appeared on a joint charge of taking and driving away the car. Both were sent to prison for two months.
Christmas tree warning
AN appeal to householders in Cardiff and surrounding districts not to buy Christmas trees from the “man around the corner” was made by a leading Cardiff nurseryman.
He told the South Wales Echo: “Recently I have had about 50 trees stolen from my nursery just outside Cardiff. Somebody came here overnight, cut down some trees with saws and dug up others. I found a spade which thieves had used.”
One nursery in Cardiff, in an attempt to ward off would-be thieves, has erected a barbed-wire fence around its Christmas trees. In Cardiff’s parks there are no Christmas trees but Mr Nelmes, director of parks said: “We have many fir trees in the parks and sometimes hooligans climb up them and cut off the tops, to use as a substitute for Christmas trees.”
Shoppers make it a gold rush
SHOP assistants in the fancy goods departments of some of Cardiff ’s stores today had to use all the tricks of the trade to camouflage nearly empty shelves and display cabinets.
The reason: Saturday’s rush of Christmas shoppers had come to town full of purses and left with loaded parcels.
The invasion of shoppers – one of the biggest Cardiff has known in years was a sales manager’s delight.
People stood three or four deep at the counters and queued to reach them.
One large store had to bring in clerical staff as counter help to cope with the rush... and the money just rolled in.
The manager of this particular store estimated takings were up 75 per cent on a normal Saturday.
Vale Ghost train is overdue
WITH the hollow clank of unseen couplings, a ghost train will glide into the platform as the wind howls bleakly around Cowbridge Station.
The guard, a cheerful spirit, will check spectral tickets as the ethereal travellers (all keen rugby supporters) board the train for Cardiff Arms Park and the Springboks.
But British Railways hope there are no material passengers... for the branch line to Cowbridge was closed on November 24, and ever since they have been advertising trips to and from Cowbridge in very visible print.
In Saturday’s newspaper British Railways advertise a return trip from Cowbridge for the Wales v South Africa match for 2s 3d.
George comes face to face with himself
NOTHING is more dead to a newspaperman that yesterday’s news. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that nothing is more dead for a politician than last month’s election.
But Mr George Thomas, pictured
above, the indefatigable Member of Parliament for Cardiff West, revived a ghost of the October election when he spoke at a dinner in Cardiff this week.
Relating some of his experiences whilst canvassing he referred to a visit he paid to Ely – “one of the enlightened areas” as he described it.
In a window he saw a picture of himself.
“Nothing is calculated to warm a politician’s heart more than to see a photograph of himself in a window, so I knocked on the door.” said Mr Thomas.
“A lady came to the door. I introduced myself as her candidate, George Thomas.
“She said, ‘Oh, are you? wait a moment.’ I waited whilst she went inside – and to my horror saw my picture being taken down.
“The lady came back to the door holding the picture in her hand. She looked at me, looked back at the picture, and looked back at me again and said: ‘Flatter you’!”
“And of course” Mr Thomas confided to his audience, “That is the intention!”
Bells will ring out across the country
THE bells of the Church of St John the Baptist, Cardiff, have rung out on Christmas mornings for centuries now.
Ever since the first church was built on the site in the 14th century they have sounded to tell people that it is Christ’s birthday.
Just as the structure of the building had changed, so have the bells, but the message they convey is the same: “Peace and goodwill to all men.”
On Christmas morning this year the bells of Cardiff’s parish church will be heard, not only within the city but throughout the British Isles.
They form part of the programme of Christmas bells from all over the country which the BBC is broadcasting from 9.20am-9.30am.
This will not be the first time the bells have been broadcast and they’re getting old hands at it. This year they will represent Wales and remind many exiled Welshmen of their native land.