What a Carry On, Marianne!
QUESTION Was Marianne Stone Britain’s most prolific actress?
I was lucky enough to meet Marianne stone 16 years ago when I was researching the history of the Intimate Theatre in Palmers Green, North London, close to where she lived.
she was born Mary stone in London in 1922. Under her real name, she worked at the Intimate for three years as assistant stage manager and as an actress after leaving Rada in 1942.
when I interviewed her, she had total recall of her time at this venue. It was where she met her husband, the film critic, broadcaster and writer Peter Noble. at that time he was a reporter on a local newspaper and reviewed the plays at the Intimate.
Mary told me that she always seemed to get glowing reviews from Peter, even when just playing a bit part such as a maid. Intrigued, she resorted to peeping through the front curtains one night to see what this reporter looked like.
Later, Richard attenborough, who made his professional debut at the Intimate, introduced Mary to Peter at the arts Theatre Club. In 1947, they married and were together for 50 years, until Peter’s death.
after Mary left the Intimate in 1945, she appeared in a few stage plays before turning to films, changing her name to Marianne stone.
she featured in Guinness world Records as ‘the actress with the most screen credits’, usually small roles. she also appeared in films where she was not credited as a member of the cast.
Marianne told me she had appeared in 224 films, from Brighton Rock and Lolita to Passport To Treason and a Hard Day’s Night.
she appeared in nine Carry On films and several Hammer Film Productions including Countess Dracula and The Quatermass Xperiment. Marianne was a regular in TV series such as secret army and a Man Called Intrepid. she died, aged 87, in 2009.
Geoff Bowden, London, N13.
QUESTION How much does Hong Kong contribute to the Chinese economy?
as OF 2017, Hong Kong contributed 2.9 per cent of China’s gross domestic product (GDP).
at the time of the island’s handover from Britain to China in 1997, its GDP was around 20 per cent of that of China.
This is mostly a relative decline as in that time, China’s mainland has undergone an economic revolution.
Hong Kong’s economy relative to China’s GDP peaked in 1993 at 27per cent. During the Nineties, the territory played the vital role of a middleman in China’s global trade and investments. This role has diminished in recent years as China has opened its borders and become an active part of the economy.
However, Hong Kong, with its longestablished international ties, is still an important cog in China’s economic machine. It plays a key role in equity finance (the process of raising capital through the sale of shares).
since 2012, Chinese companies have raised £30 billion in initial public offerings in the Hong Kong market versus just £15 billion on mainland exchanges.
Hong Kong is still the gateway for Chinese companies with access to global capital markets for bond and loan financing. It accounted for two-thirds of foreign direct investment into China last year, up from 30 per cent in 2005.
On a per capita basis, Hong Kong is wealthier than the mainland. The average salary on the island is £36,000 compared to £8,500 on the mainland.
Brendan Lee, Edinburgh.
QUESTION During World War II, did the Germans have an equivalent to Bletchley Park to crack Allied codes?
THe efforts of all belligerents to intercept, locate and decrypt the radio communications of the enemy using signals intelligence (sIGINT) was a marked characteristic of world war II.
The Germans did not have one single cryptography agency comparable to Britain’s Bletchley Park.
Hitler’s method was to establish competing organisations within the regime to prevent an accumulation of power. German intelligence thus suffered from the fragmentation and interdepartmental rivalry characteristic of organisations of the time.
Germany had six principal cryptologic organisations, four military and two civilian, with a host of minor institutions playing a role. For example, the German Post Office intercepted transatlantic phone calls.
each branch of the German armed forces had its own organisation, while the army had two: OKw/Chi, the cipher department of the armed forces supreme command; and OKH/GdNa, the army’s signal intelligence service. The civilian units were Personal Z
Sonderdienst (Pers Z s), the Foreign Office cryptanalytic section; and
Forschungsamt (Fa), Field Marshal Goering’s research bureau, the Nazi Party’s in-house cryptologic service.
The most successful German codebreakers were the German Navy’s B-Dienst. Founded in 1899, it was a minor service until 1934, when a reorganisation of the naval high command made it a key element of the Office of Communications and Intelligence.
By september 1939, B-Dienst knew the positions of all British warships. During the early stages of the war, it cracked the Broadcast to allied Merchant ships (BaMs) code, enabling it to provide U-boats with basic convoy movements.
In February 1942, B-Dienst broke the admiralty code used for communication with many of the atlantic convoys.
Gerard Rees, Chepstow, Monmouthshire.
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