P. & O. S. N. CO.
THE NEXT
PASSENGER STEAMER
TO
STRAITS, INDIA
AND
UNITED KINGDOM
WILL BE ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF
DECEMBER
ALSO
TWO CARGO SAILINGS
IN
NOVEMBER
B.I.S.N. CO. LTD.
EVERY FORTNIGHT TO STRAITS & Calcutta
E. & A.S.S. CO. LTD.
MONTHLY SERVICE TO
AUSTRALIA.
ALSO FREQUENT SAILINGS
FOR SHANGHAI AND JAPAN.
All vessels may call at any ports on or off the route and the route and all sailings are subject to change or deviation with or without notice.
Passengers are requested to register their requirements present circumstances sailings are perforce restricted.
but under
MACKINNON, MACKENZIE&CO
THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 7, 1939
POPPY DAY
To Poppy Day belongs the distinc- tion of being the world's largest free- will offering for any charitable ob- ject made in one day.
Certainly no other nation gives ex- gener- gratitude, s0 pression to its
as the ously and so spontaneously, British Empire when each year on November 11th., it recalls the snori- fices of the Great War.
It is the day of remembrance dedi- cated to those who fought and endur-
ed so much between 1914 and 1918. It has become also an occasion when
those in distant parts of the Empire to Britain and turn their thoughts feel that they share that great tradi- tion which she created, and has so splendidly maintained throughout the centuries.
If Britain, however, has been the centre of our thoughts on Poppy Day in past years, how much more must she claim our thoughts on Remem- brance Day this year, when more she, with the same gallant Ally, is locked in deadly struggle with the
same enemy.
once
Few would have prophesied that twice in their own life time the na- tion would have had to go through the same agony of suffering and face the moisery of another war. Yet it is 50. But we enter this war with all the material and moral resources of the Empire behind us.
The steady growth of the Poppy Day Fund from £108,000 in 1921 to £575,000 in 1938 is something more than a mere increase of money, it is a witness to the growing strength of the spirit of the Empire during those
18 years.
The British, as we have said, enter this campaign with the full force of the Empire behind them. From every corner there has come the spontane- ous response to the unspoken claims upon that loyalty. The annual appeal on behalf of Lord Haig's Fund has shown the Empire is a living spiri- tual force such as springs from the privilege of belonging to it and shar- ing in its great ideals of freedom and
Individual liberty.
Domestic differences may exist but the ranks when danger threatens,
strength close and its
is revealed.
war
example,
the Ear Haig's Fund for they would have realised its signifi- cance as a sign of increasing soli- darity within the Empire, and they would not now be in the morass in which they are floundering. Ribben- trop would not have been insisting on the decadence of the British and of their unwillingness to fight. He would have learned that one of the peculiar virtues of that people is a sense of fair play. We do not need to claim this for ourselves us a statement of fact. Madariaga, the great Spanish says it is the writer and thinker, keynote of British character.
It is because we have seen this ideal so wantonly violated and because we disre- have seen the pledged word garded by Hitler in regard to Poland and Czecho-Slovakia that we are now
at war.
Earl Haig's Fund was started to as- sist those who had fought for those same causes in the last war, and now greater claims will be made upon this fund for the men, who at this moment are risking their lives to establish the same spirit of fair play and justice in Europe.
Owing to the dislocation of ship- ping schedules in the first month of Eng- the war, the poppies for Hong Kong will not arrive in time from land, but that has not proved to be a misfortune or an obstacle; in fact it has turned out to be an opportunity members of the which a number of American community They have generously offered to bear the cost of having sufficient number of flowers made in Hong Kong - an offer which has been most gratefully accepted by the Committee, who feel that such a practical gesture of good-
have seized.
will at this particular time is doubly welcome.
public
Though there will be no ceremony this year at the Cenotaph, it is hoped that wreaths will be placed
Those who propose
to do this are
there by members of the community. asked to purchase such wreaths from the Secretary of the British Legion:
3rd floor, Hong Kong & Shanghai
Bank Building.
It is not necessary now to go into details about the scope of the activi- ties of the Earl Haig's Fund. The ex- penditure in the future will be along the same lines as in the past, but the burden will be infinitely greater, when the claims upon it arising from the present war are added. hardly necessary therefore the need for generous giving, since
It is to stress
Germany has been in a most crude and childish way trying to sew dis- sension within the Empire and only succeeded in calling forth manifesta- tions of its greater unity and loaylty.
Germany has entered this wholly ignorant of what the Empire
responsi- stands for and therefore incapable of
everyone is aware of his measuring its strength. Though bility especially in Hong Kong which Hitler in Mein Kampf has himself depends upon the Empire's security. homes, his approval of
We are living in sheltered Government, he has never understood away from the immediate danger of who deep is the sense of brotherhood war, and so our offering will be made
are gov- accordingly. It will be generous. within those states, which erned on British principles. wise, he would never have been so mad, as to challenge its power.
expressed
British
Other-
Following her collapse in Kilung Had the Nazi leaders spared a little
Street, Shamshulpo, at 7.20 p.m. piling up time and thought from armaments and dragooning the Ger- yesterday, Lam Ching-shan died four man people, to understanding the hours later in the Kowloon Hospital. mentality of the British by studying A postmortem examination has been the steady and remarkable growth of ordered.
TRAVEL A.-O. LINE
ΤΟ
AUSTRALIA
CALLING AT MANILA, THURSDAY ISLAND, CAIRNS, TOWNSVILLE, BRISBANE, SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE, ETC.
NEXT SAILING
AT THE END OF DECEMBER
For Freight or Passage, apply to :--
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TO BUILDING
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HONGKONG
Agents
PHONE 27721
Hong Kong, China & Japan.
Tel. 30332