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THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 28, 1989.
Completing
Germans Busy
The Siegfried Line
Barbed Wire And Logs Assembled
Much Work Still
To Be Done
A visit to the country through which Ger- many's fortified Siegfried Line passes, in the sector opposite Alsace, conveys the impression that, des- pite the large-scale movements, there is still a good deal of work to be done before it can rival the Maginot Line on the French side.
In view of the general political situation it is im- portant to establish whether the operations now in progress, which have been extended along the whole of the Franco-German frontier, are a practice oc- cupation of the Siegfried Line, for purely training purposes, or whether they are the preliminary steps which will be necessary to enable the Germans to hold the French in the west should they attack Poland in the east.
General impression is that this is a test on a serious scale, but that a good deal of rather hasty and scrappy work remains to be consolidated.
Around Karlsruhe the work has This work is being done.com- paratively slowly where rail com- been finished, but further south it munications are concerned, and is still proceeding. On this line comfortable .for constructing travel is neither so preparatione camps and barbed-wire protection nor so fast as in the corresponding in Alsace, but traffic is seem to be proceeding in a rather section
fairly punctual, if only because leisurely fashion.
the schedules allow easy margins.
IRON SLEEPERS TAKEN UP In view of the shortage of iron in Germany, the main railway line running inland parallel to the Rhine is being relayed with wooden sleepers instead of iron ones, but with metals of the same weight as those which have been discarded.
OFF THE RECORD
"The Three Bares
ì
+
By the side of the railway line activity is most noticeable between Appenweier and Kehl, near Stras- bourg, where a fair amount of barbed wire, now rusted, protects the line from approach through fields.or
from the banks of
EDREED
י
By ED REED.
[imgister]
13- 15 and Trivion Kyndearn
“Confound you, Tucker! Put down that stethoscope and stop
Here's Luck
EWO BEER
NATIONAL
SERVICE CAMPAIGN
London, To-day,
The response to the call for volunteers for the various bran- ches of National Service tinues steadily,
con-
About 49,000 persons applied to be enrolled last week.
This brings the total since the in beginning of the campaign January last up to about 1,949,000. -British Wireless.
streams. Fresh rolls of wire have been dumped.
Six miles from Kehl, works are
visible in the fields to the north of the line, and one mile nearer Kehl line is provided with entrances to a canal running parallel to the
on its
eastern cemented works
banks..
OPERATION OF ANGLO-U.S. BARTER PLAN
London, To-day.
t
The question of the Anglo- American barter agreement was raised in the House of Commons yesterday by Mr. O. Temple Morris (Conservative).
Mr. Morris asked what precise steps would be taken to carry out the barter deal.
Mr. Oliver Stanley, President of
the Board of Trade, referred to his reply on July 4.
Mr. Stanley added that the Gov- ernment had not yet been notified that legislation had been passed PILLBOXES ON ROADS
empowering the United States Gov- The road from Rastatt to Kehlernment to acquire cotton.
It is pro-
was closed to traffic.
vided at intervals of 55 yards with pillboxes having slits facing in various directions. The closing of the road is understood to be due to
work on these.
Meanwhile considerable progrèss had been made in consultation with the trade interests concerned in working out arrangements for im plementing the agreement.
ter.
17
Reu-
Considerable activity is going on at Durmersheim, seven miles
Railway stations were, however, south of Karlsruhe. Here barracks material, chiefly wood, has been free of military material or pas- assembled, and there are quantities senger rolling stock of the type Large red notices with the warn- of barbed wire and large stocks of used for troops.
These may also be seen in othering "Security zones, no photo- prominent în creosoted logs about six feet long.
used during the war Oetigheim Station, where there are places, and are the type of material graphing," were which was for making wood roads where special detraining platforms and heavy traffic might otherwise sink bridge exits constructed in wood.
is little military into the wet ground, or for floors There to hold ammunition dumps. Other ment along the railways or roads, logs of about the same length, but the troops having already been ac- of green wood, pointed at one end, commodated in and around the
Siegfried Line further east. were also being unloaded.
Torrential Rains Stop Japanese Operations
Peiping, To-day.
move-
Torrential rains are threatening North China with disastrous floods and have already stopped Jap- anese military operations.
From four railways out of Peiping, only that to Mukden is running. The others are under water in many places.
A rise of 10 feet in the Yungting River near Peiping has caused damage to the famous Marco Polo Bridge, where the present war started, while Tungchow city, east of Peiping, is under six feet of water.
i
Hundreds of houses in Peiping panese-employed police and wealthy and vicinity have collapsed, caus-residents, for ransom before Ja-
panese troops arrived on the*** ing several deaths.
Thege "conditions - have made scene-Reuter Chinese guerillas more daring than
fever:
They fought an action against a Japanese post 20 miles northwest of Peiping on Monday, and killed
JAR WARSHIP
DAMAGED
they
Inese, including
Clorres-