THE CHINA MAIL,, JANUARY 12, 1940
News Snack Bar
B.E.F. FIGHTING
"RED INDIAN”
WAR IN THE MUD
BRITISH TROOPS holding outposts of the Maginot Line are fighting a grim “Red Indian” war under appalling weather conditions. Men returning from forward positions out in the wide, lonely No-Man's-Land are turned into statues of mud. .
Their overcoats, battle dress, and gum boots are caked solid. Their coats, indeed, become so stiff that they can take them off and stand them upright.
"For some days my little lot lived standing up in a shallow hole dug in deep mud,” a still cheerful sergeant- major from Leeds declared.
A postwoman employed for the Xmas rush. (Copyright, Fox).
Auto-Kisses At
1,200 Per Hour
An automatic kissing machine that kisses 1,200 times per hour started work in Hollywood, to-day.
Installed by а cosmetician who supplies lipstick to film companies, it replaces Joseph Roberts and his pretty associate Joan Baker, who were em- ployed as professional kissers.
By kissing, they tasted the ad- herence and other qualities of various kinda of lipstick.
But their klasing was found to vary in pressure, sometimes being a abova, and somaties below, normal.
The machine, fitted with two pairs of artificial Hps, Kisses and kisses, but always with the same pressure,
Mothers Get
B.E.F. Doctors
Many French babies- have been brought into the world: tors serving with the
French mothers
have been called: RAM.C. sections in not hesitating to cat on docto
"There was nowhere we could le down. We just leaned against the mud earthworks in front-when weren't on sentry-and dozed.
we
"I think the young ones have taken it even better than the old reservists who have just come out of civil life and are not hardened yet.
"But most of our lads are pretty tough North Countrymen, and are sticking it wonderfully."
LIKE GHOSTS
These men in the outposts are having almost as dangerous and tense an experience during the long winter nights as the patrols who creep through the darkness.
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Boldiers of the British Expeditionary Force leaving for the Front after completing their Xmas leave. Goodbye son. A moving picture at the station as Daddy leaves for France. (Copyright, Fox).
"Wishful Thinking“
At any moment a group of Ger- Of Nazi Crack-up
mans, advancing allently like ghosts, attack them.
"We have got to abstain for the time
Coffees All Round
On Adolf
P
Under the heading, "And Here is One little incident, related non- being from this wishful thinking that Coffee,' the Paris "Euvre" suggesta chalantly by a good-humoured platoon there is going to be a crack-up in the that the 4,000 tons of coffee captured sergeant from Dublin-he bears quite German nation. That may come, this week in the German cargo boat a resemblance to another Irishman in but we have no right to assume that Trifels should be distributed equally the B.E.F., Lord Gort, the Comman- it will come,"
among France's 40,000,000 inhabitanti, der-in-Chief-showed starkly how life Lord Provost P. J. Dollan made this **Thus each of us would have his hangy sometimes by a thread. With statement in an address to the Glas- little share' in the prize,**
says "the other men he was in a forward post- gow City Business Club.
newspaper. “Besides, what a great tion during the night.
advantage it would be in this war of nerves to have as much coffee as one. wishes."
“Our job was to keep contact with the Germans in case they started any- thing, to observe rather than to fight,” he said.
"Suddenly there was a flash in front of us and an explosion. Someone had nung a hand grenade over the barbed-
wire protection,
LAY STILL
"We lay absolutely still. Then a strong patrol of Germans be- gan walking towards our post. I could see them clearly in the gloom, even count them. They came forward in ́Indian file. "I had my finger tight against the trigger of my revolver. If one of us had coughed then, well-the fun would have started. But they passed on, just 10 yards from us.”
Every night, at one post or another, there is a similar incident.
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Black Cat Plays
War Role:
A live black cat is the first animal war hero.
Mitzi, the cat, belongs to a French fighter pilot, and is the only cat to
mest have done twenty-two hours' flying in' wartime.
Mitzi flies snuggled inside her mas- ter's leather coat, and was with him when he shot down a Nazi plane.
Had Not Undressed
Since War Began
who had not taken off at:
since the war of a Notting-
Mr. Dollan said it was bellaved by many people in Britain that the German people were not to blame for the present war. Не could not agree with that view. "Hitler could not have pursued the policy he has for the last seven years without the whole-hearted support of the majority of the German people.”
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Woman M.P. To
Visit France
Miss Thelma - Cazalet will be the first woman M.P. to visit France dur- ing the war.
She will visit, in her official capaci- ty as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, French people evacuated to safe areas,
Miss Cazalet will go to the principal reception areas in France, She will discuss evacuation pro- blems with the French women. As she is of French extraction and speaks the language fluently, her task will be simplified.
Italian Army Of 800,000 Sufficient
There are still 868,000 Italians sin the Duce's army, which is "sufficient” for the country's defence, it is an- nounced in Rome,
This comment followed an order published on Sunday granting "ex- traordinary winter leave" to 300,000 soldiers.
Defence is now favoured by snow! falls in the Alps and recent defences in Libya, which made it difficult for any advances in Northern Italy or from territories adjoining Italy's North African: possession. ·
"The situation of our frontiery `is assured," a communique stateil, ac......... cording to Associated Press.