Morris Cargill

MY GENERATION, the 1920s and the 1930s, are certainly not forgotten, but I am glad that the magazine The Week has reminded me how easily a great performer of the past had indeed been forgotten by younger people who should have known better. Leslie Hutchinson was a leading cabaret performer who topped the bill at the Cafe de Paris in London.

"Hutch", as he was generally known, was born in Grenada, and known as the black Noel Coward. He was not only the finest popular musician and baritone of his day, but was an exceptionally handsome man who was always impeccably dressed by Savile Row. These were the early days of recordings, but even so, some of his records of the 1930s, however inadequate they may be by modern standards, demonstrate his great talent. A sophisticated entertainer, he spoke with an upper class accent, and was also a beautiful dancer. It was impossible to compare Hutch with contemporary performers, for he made them all look, then as now, like clumsy amateurs. Unfortunately in the end he destroyed himself by too much drinking and high living, but in his heyday he had many lovers, including Lady Mountbatten, Princess Marina of Greece, Tallulah Bankhead, and (I'm bound to add) a number of well known homosexuals. He also managed to sire a large number of illegitimate children.

But those of my generation will never forget the brilliance and elegance of Hutch. It is unfortunate that his career as a West Indian in England has caused subsequent generations to forget how fine a performer he once was.

Hormone treated food

I can't help feeling that those who try to make out that hormone-treated food will give you terrible diseases like cancer are indulging in propaganda rather than good sense. For sometime now Europeans have been saying that hormone-treated beef should be banned.

This is quite clearly a matter of politics, for the Europeans are trying to protect themselves from American competition.

I've been doing a bit of reading on the subject, and I can find no sensible evidence that the hormone treatment of various foodstuffs can be harmful.

Indeed the application of science to growing all kinds of food can be potentially of great advantage. For example, a wide range of crops can be given resistance to disease by genetic manipulation. Yields of rice especially in the East have increased remarkably. Even now in our small way it would greatly benefit Jamaica if bananas could be grown with a high resistance to black sigatoka disease.

Unfortunately in Jamaica our yields of everything are extremely low, and we seem unable, for example, to produce milk in quantities which would enable us to be self-sufficient in cheese and butter. But if we could reverse that situation, there would be no need to go through the difficulties and expense of importing butter all the way from New Zealand.

Speaking generally, we are nevertheless fast approaching a situation which will result in world food shortages of various kinds. It will not be long before hormone and other treatments of plants and animals will become very important to world supplies of food.

Call names

The IMF is perfectly right to suggest to the Government that the names of all defaulting borrowers which the financial sectors has aided should be made public. Indeed this column had been advocating that for a long time now.

On the other hand the Government says that it does not agree with this procedure, for the disclosure will hamper recovery. The Government also claims that the law would not permit such disclosure.

I regard this as a good deal of hog-wash. I believe that the real reason for the Government's reluctance to have FINSAC publish names and numbers is that the Government would prefer it if some well-known political names were protected from embarrassment. It was amusing to note that FINSAC showed not the slightest reluctance to publicly threaten Daryl Vaz with bankruptcy, and a writ of summons. FINSAC having at last got up enough steam to mention one name could be now induced to mention the names of other defaulters even though perhaps some would be considered by the Government to be sacred cows.

A nasty character

I think it was unfortunate that Mike Tyson was permitted to enter Britain in spite of his criminal record. He was sent to jail for raping a beauty queen called Desiree Washington. He had also committed other acts of violence. It was grotesque to see the thousands of young people in England who temporally made a folk-hero of Tyson in one London area. There have been a number of splendid boxers especially Muhammed Ali, and our own Lennox Lewis who have been great credits to their profession, but that certainly can never be said of a savage like Tyson.