For the Races!
JUST ARRIVED
*THE CHÍNA MAIL, FEBRUARY 24, 1940.
IRRITATION AND BOREDOM OF AIR
“TRESS” FUR FELT HATS RAIDS IN HELSINKI
SPECIAL
FOR THE RACES
ONLY
$17.50
EACH
In an amazing array of the season's smart-
est models. In the popular Pork Pie shape with narrow band and medium brim. In the newest shades of brown, blue, green and grey. You will be delighted with one of these smart
looking, soft and light weight hats.
YEE SANG FAT
DRINK
& CO., LTD.
EWO PILSNER
EAT AT
"
At
The Black Dog'
Jimmy's Kitchen
INEXPENSIVE SATISFYING
Bringing Up Father
HUH-THERE YOU ARE - WHY ARENT YOU CUT TAKING: IN THE SIGHTS HERE IN PHILADELPHIA? YOUR SON- IN-LAW LEFT EARLY – ITS TOO BAD YOU ARE NOT
AMBITIOUS
TO LEARN LIKE HE 18 -
BUT MAGGIE - THERE IS SO MLICH TO SEE HERE- I HAVE BEEN TRYING
TO THINK
WHERE TO GO
FIRST-
"
We
If you happen to be lunching in a to a jarring stop, and the conductor certain building in Helsinki when shouted to everyone to clear off the the air-raid sirens ring, you can train and take cover in the woods. climb up on the roof and watch the We climbed down the embankment city crawl into its shell. Between in snow several feet deep only to the jumble of ice-covered roofs have him shout a few minutes later you see the people running for cover, that it was all a mistake, the planes the snow trucks pulling up by the were not coming after all, and now roadside, and the police officers tak- we could climb back again. ing their positions on the street corn- arrived in Helsinki at two in the ers. Soon there is સ silence so norning without further incident. ominous that you can hear a door bang many blocks away.
Occasionally you see the grey. flash of bombers against the sky, but usually the planes fly so high
that you can hear only the drone of en- gines. You can count the dull thud of bombs falling as far away as ten or fifteen miles, then suddenly the air is shattered by h melange of machine-guns, pom-pom guns, and coastal batteries all fring at once, and you know the bombers are over the city.
Alr raid alarms have become So numerous that the policemen on the street corners occasionally break the monotony by starting a snowball fight. People in the restaurants shake their heads in irritation, pick- up their soup plates, and hurry out of the hotel to finish their luncheon in the shelters in the park. You hear the telephone operators cutting off the calls with the outside world in bored voices. "Sorry, Copen- hagen, we are having another nir
Helsinki, with its normal popula- tion of 300,000 reduced to less than a tenth,, presents an air of desolation; all the shops are boarded up, only a handful of restaurants are open, and scarcely a dozen cars are on the streets. The life of the city revolves around the hotels, which the Moscow wireless has recently threatened to raze to the ground in order to elimin- ate "the lying journalists of the capitalist Press."
The lobby of the hotel is crowded with a conglomeration of soldiers,
By VIRGINIA COWLES
raid"; and you see the desk clerk journalists, photographers, politicians shaking his head in angry annoyance. and women Territorials, and the
the
The desk clerk told me in a burst of confidence that he had had a dream in which 500 brand new Fin- nish fighters had dived through clouds and driven all the Russian planes away. "Of course, it was only a dream,' he added morosely, "but it was very beautiful."
FALSE ALARM
dining-room is filled with groups re- lating their experiences over endless cups of coffee.
An
A RUSSIAN PRISONER back from the north told me
American photographer just that when the Finns had brought in a Russian prisoner after one of the battles, he had asked the guard to The trip into Finland is a drama- bring the man into a barn so that tic experience in itself. A Finnish he could photograph him. When aeroplane leaves Stockholm in the the Russian walked into the shed and afternoon and lands at Turku, one of the light of the camera flashed, he the most heavily bombed ports in Fin- crumpled to the ground in a heap A land, The wireless operator is in few seconds later he rose slowly rub- constant touch with the aerodrome; bing himself, with a bewildered ex- often the plane is several hours late | pression on his face. He thought he In starting, and occasionally is forced to turn back to Sweden half-way across the Gulf of Bothnia. Our plane carried no lights, and when it neared the airport signalled with a flare; suddenly there was a circle of lights far below glowing like candles around a birthday cake.
had been taken into "the barn to be shot; when he was convinced he was still intact he ran up to the photo- grapher, clasped hls hands, and thanked him over and over again.
The only mode of transportation available in Helsinki is a one-horse sleigh, in which you can take a drive The train trip to Helsinki normally around the city for the price of one takes three hours, but since the rail- shilling. The driver is a huge Finn rond passes through a bombarded with a dropping moustache and area the length of journey is now un- | large medal pinned on his coat which certain. I found myself in a com- he won against the Russians in 1918. partment with a German emigre, I took a drive around the city at two Finnish soldiers, and a Swedish night; the onion domes of the old woman who kept asking the conduc- Greek Orthodox church glittered in tor nervously what time we were the moonlight like diamonds. Then due to arrive. The conductor was a we drove through the bombarded sec- large man with a melancholy voice. tion, where the charred remains of His reply was always the same, but houses lying beneath a sheet of ice dispatched with an air of profound presented a gruesome contrast. Per- wisdom: "One can never tell.”
haps the most eerie sight, however, was the abandoned Russian Legation. The windows had been shattered by
(Continued on Page 11)
I soon found out what he meant, for shortly after midnight there was a screeching of brakes, the train came:
HERE HE COMES
NOW -IAM SO ANXIOUS T
TELL HEAR HIM TELL
WHERE HE HAS BEEN-
I'LL BE GLAD TO
HEAR SOME- ONE ELSE TALK- MYSELF-
WELL-WHERE DID YOU GO- AND WHAT DID YOU SEE?
By George McManus
I WENT TO THE MOVIES AND SAW
A WESTERN THRILLER-1 SAT
THROUGH IT
TWICE-
EEK!!
10
10