THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, AUGUST 2, 1940
"Bartimeus," The Famous British Naval Writer, Tells Here Of The Men Who Have Rushed To Join The Gallant Fleet That Is Defeating Hitler's "Secret Weapon"
The Men Who Man
Mine-Sweepers
Our
once
the artists lent
men
know
him
crowded audience when the made every allowance for the lain-he hails from the Missions to The Nazi mine laying campaign drifters which are now sweeping1a
his men as has challenged
again the in every fairway menaced by this Navy arrived to take it over. The men's upbringing. insisted on no Seamen and knows
personally- audience and
amore discipline or restraint than many stubbornly invincible spirit of the illegal form of warfare,
hand to clear the hall and the a mine sweeping trawler's crew climbed up on an open air stage of shapnel helmets Fishermen of Britain. In thou- The base in question was a cor-stage. By midnight the first drafts required. The Petty Officers and amid stacks
be-of tried seafaring amusement centre
were gunners' mates who instruct them and life-saving waistcoats await- sands they have come flocking to Poration
stacking their bags on the stage; in elementary drill and rifle shoot- ing issue, and in an intense still- There was 1 an Engush town where there has fore the war.
men from every fishing port ining were in civil life four months ness he read a few lines from the. Lzen established a base for kit-house and lawns, a concert hall Britain; boys of 15 and weather-ago. They all wear the medal New Testament. ting them up and for a brief dis-and conservatory, lily ponds and beaten shell-backs of 60 were ly-ribbons of the last war, long ser-
before they grottoes. There was a ciplinary training,
varietying about their ages, to try to get vice medals too, with a sprinkling
taker on in this new war that of D.S.M.'s. are drafted to the trawlers and performance in full swing before threatened the freedom of men
and seas.
Keeping their eyes on the bowl at the Hong Kong
Electric/K.B.Q.C. game last Saturday.
tea
Dry Canteen
Awfully Nice
"Jesus said.
Clumsy, Splendid
The hundreds of faces, young
The town gladly threw open its and old, uplifted towards him were doors to this invasion and the men tranquil and self-reliant. The twos and threes Lord's Prayer and the Prayer for
landladies
Seamen followed.... "and pre-
The vast hall was murmurous are billeted in with the gruff accents of Hull and about the town. The Grimsby, of Stornoway and the Orkneys, Swansea and Belfast,
By- "BARTIMEUS"
serve your bodies and souls unto ever lasting Life". The Benedic- tion brought the little service to a close.
The ranks broke up and the day's activity commenced. Fifty men under a gunner's mate were learning to march with a rifle. Their eyes never left him. Their
The conservatory became a 'dry' canteen where a local catering flem rushed lorry loads of pics and cake, cauldrons of tea and coffee, mountains of sandwiches. The lawn became a parade ground, the tea-house offices, grottoes were converted into bomb-proof shelters appear at the base weekly to draw eagerness to learn, their prompting artistes' dressing rooms, whose their billeting money. There are of each other, their caps awry, the mirrors had reflected fair faces, practically no complaints. The whole clumsy splendid effort rouge and lip-stick, were the scene local police in their sagacity ap-moved one as no parade of Guards of ceaseless medical inspections as, portion the billets according to could. day and night, stalwart men the individual. I asked half A
stripped and submitted tattoed dozen men at random how they In the town technical Institute chests to the stethescope,
liked their billets. They ranged a little band of ladies are train- from the Engineman of a Hull ing the cooks to cook the simple
The wise men who organised all trawler to an R.N.V.R. Signalman meals a trawler's crew requires. this-and it stands to-day a ret (who had been a solicitor. The There they were, in white aprons, markable tribute to their tireless answer in each case was "Fine". intent and absorbed before the labours and kindly understanding The latter being more articulate range and preparing tables. The of the material they had to deal added, "Really
most awfully youngest was sixteen and had two with-were all themselves retired. nice."'·
The Captain owned a tea planta-
years seafaring behind him. "They've got to have proper meals,
tion: the Commander farmed an The men find their way to the haven't they," said the soft voiced apple orchard, the Paymaster Cap-base by 9 a.m. There is a mus-lady in charge, "if we are going to lain had an antique furniture shop iter on the lawn. Absence is win this war?" We were sud- They evolved a system which practically unheard of. The chap-denly aware of a smell of burning. "McLeod!"-she cried and-sped-to the oven. "Haven't I told you
I crept away uniscen. England's Answer
A large crowd of spectators turned out on Sunday to watch the baseball game between H.B. and Mindanao,
"
I saw new entries being kitted up-a minute or a half to each man. Volunteer Reserve men rubbing up their semaphore with hand flags-skippers at navigation, gasmasks being adjusted on bald theads and curly ones, training drafts trundling off in lorries to the station, fresh ones stripping for medical mspection; listened to the babel of dialects in the canteen; but at the end my thoughts came back to the uneven ranks, the rifles gripped by unfamiliar but terribly determined hands on the perade ground that was once lawn:
a
In some queer way I felt that his was England's answer, spoken clearer than a statesman could, to the challenge of the mine.
HK
tanee moment during Sunday's baseball game bee tween H.B, and Mindanao.
The Wina-up":
outh Chinn