ROCKETS On The Malverns! Communist Conservator Says It Could Happen was the unusual headline in the Gazette 50 years ago.
"In a slashing attack on the 'terrific American influence on our cultural life, Worcester Communist Party Secretary Mr Walter Jenkins, a Malvern Hills Conservator, said this week: 'I would strenuously object - remote though it may seem at the moment - to use the Hills as a base for American rockets or for German military manoeuvres, the like of which is happening in beauty spots in Scotland and elsewhere.
"Mr Jenkins, of Pickersleigh Road, was elected a Conservator last week for the Langland ward, defeating his opponent, schoolmaster Sir Conan Aske, by 92 votes to 38, in a poll in which only about five per cent of electors voted.
"A turf-accountant, Mr Jenkins said: 'It could happen. I am strongly opposed to the terrific American influence in this country and on our national life. We see it in rocket bases - and in the Ford takeover.
" 'There have been radar stations on the hills From that it's just a short step to rockets. Anything is possible.
" 'If you had told the people of Holy Loch, Scotland, a few months ago, that they were going to have a Polaris base on their doorstep, they would have been dumbfounded. The same applies at other beauty spots in the country."
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