Little Known Facts – by Desmond Kelly Star of eLanka
As we go through life, we sometimes seem to “miss” certain important events that either took place, or were taking place right below our noses. The reasons for this were wide & varied. Quite possibly, we were too young to worry about “World Events”, especially in Lanka, there were far more fascinating things to do, like spending our weekends at the glorious beaches, having a thosai-feed at the “Saraswathi-Lodge”, or going to the “Majestic Theatre” to see “pictures” starring people such as Robert Taylor & Ava Gardner, sitting in the ” Gallery-seats”, craning our necks upward as the “bugs” kept biting the bottoms of our thighs, because most of us guys wore “shorts” at the time.
Another reason for missing World news, apart from what was “shown” on the theatre-screen before the film came on(after the interval), was the fact that most of us did not care to “read” period.! Here, I was a little different because I loved books & from a very young age read, or, at least, tried to read everything I could lay my hands on, in my spare time. To me, reading is an “education” in itself. “Fiction” is fine, but this depends solely on the book and/or it’s writer. “Fact” is a four-letter word which, unless it is “fake-news” as the present President of the United States of America likes to call it, is the plain & simple truth.
Being an.old Royal Ceylon Navy man, here is a true story that many of my good readers would not know about, or, have long forgotten. In the 1946 election, for Representatives of the 12th Congressional District of California, Jerry Voorhis, both a rich “Liberal” & a good man,(sounds impossible but it was true), decided to run for a 6th term, for the “Democrats”. The “Republicans” had no one to oppose him. To find a Candidate, a Committee of one hundred largely wealthy Republicans was organized. They prepared an “advertisement” & placed it in all of their newspapers at the time. (eLanka was a long way off, then), It read, in part, “Wanted” a Congressman Candidate with no previous political experience!, (what the!!,) to defeat a man who has represrnted the District in the House for 10 years. Any young man, resident of the District, preferably a veteran, fair education, can apply for the job. How in blazes could this “young man” be a “veteran”, I’ll never know. Anyway, there were eight applicants. All were “voted down”. A former President of Whittler College in the area then suggested an eager young lawyer & Navy- man, (strangely, in the Royal Ceylon Navy, much later, these guys were referred to as “Sea-Lawyers”), named Richard M.Nixon as a possibility. Herman Perry, a Whittler banker located 33 year old Nixon in Baltimore and asked him if he was a Republican. Nixon replied that he had voted for Thomas Dewey in the 1944 Presedential race. The Committee brought Richard back to Whittler. By a vote of 55 to 22 Richard Nixon was selected as the Republican Candidate.
At the start, Voorhis was considered invincible. He was termed a “New-Deal” Liberal who detested Communism. Everybody, including Nixon liked & admired him, but Nixon decided that he would try his best to defeat him,anyway.” For vicious irresponsibility”, wrote Thomas White, “there were very few campaigns like Nixon’s first attack on Voorhis. Richard smeared Voorhis as a “red-tool” and smashed him, 64,784 votes to 49,431. Nixon was on his way to the White-House, the Presidency, and ultimate disgrace. A former Officer of the British Royal Navy who “opened many gates” as President of the United States, to finally “end-up” closing with “water-gate”
Any “typo-errors” regretted.
Desmond Kelly.
Star of eLanka.
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