The Tiniest Island
Since the
invasion and sub- sequent occupation of the Low Countries, there has been fre quent mention in the news of "maintaining the status quo in the Dutch East Indies. The best known of these are, of course, Sumatra,
much Java, and the smaller but extrémely beautiful Bali. Few persons, even those who have circled the globe, have heard of Palue Samboe. Yet, this first and smallest of the Dutch East Indies has a strategic Im portance not to be minimised; for it is to Palue Samboe that the oil from the wells of Sumatra and Java is taken in Dutch ships for conning and Anal shipment- abroad. Not so very long ago, we were privileged to spend a day on this tiny island, two hours by launch off Singapore, at the in- vitation of the resident manager of the oil company. He had been on leave in his native Amsterdamn,
By Violet Alleyn Storey
where his young wife and two small children were prolonging their stay so, that the children might enjoy their first real Dutch Christmas.
We took off from Singapore in the mid-morning of a sultry Sun- day. The launch proved to be crowded with Malayans, in their stiff-starched Sunday best, return- ing from church services on the mainland. Obviously courteous, they went out of their way to make us comfortable and the trip three times their normal size from seemed very short. The launch exposure, Guides, who visited her landed in a rather desolate spot at a small dock on which our host in hospital were not told she was a fellow-Guide until twinkling-stood waiting. He greeted us with and explained eyed Josephine saluted them when great good will
that he lived on the other side of they left.
Reports from French Guides the island. We followed him,
now in England
give single-file, up a steep pathway, some idea of the work which was the steps of which had been made dune in France when the Germans by pressing discarded oil drums
into the soil, broke through in June.
There was no vegetation in sight but a number of barnlike structures were visible ahead of us. These were the com-
ht
who are
of
and add ap-
Day And Night Shifts
The motives of Mr. Cur- tin, and of the all-Austra-
Empire Girl Guides have raised] evacuation without some damage, lian Labour conference £48,475 for two air ambulances "But I do not you need than they trouble about the cost of repairs from which he derives his just £28,475 more
hoped to collect. As a result, due to her service at Dunkirk, as authority, in opposing there has been a conference with these will, in any event, be small, War Office, and and 1 think they will be defrayed previously a united Minis- the Admiralty,
the Y.M.C.A., who were all asked from Government sources,"
added. try, were before, the elec- how this money should be spent:
explained tions clearly
asked for
All the Guides' gifts will be The Admiralty has
trefoil motor ambulances. They are to distinguished by a large and appreciated, even by be given twenty
fully-equipped) and an inscription which says: critics who could not ac- ambulances, which will cost "Presented by the Girl Guides of the Empire, Empire Week, 1940." cept the Labour view- £11,000
Bulletins on the progress The War Office told the Chief the appeal tell amazing stories point.
Commissioner of the need for stories about Brownies who made But circumstances have "quiet rooms in all the perman- toffee and sold it to family
ent camps, where services may be friends so that they Clouds on the held on Sundays, and where men their quots to the Empire changed. international horizon may read, write, and rest during peal about a crippled post ran- the week. The sum of £10,000 ger who set aside the shilling she which then aroused mis- has been set aside for them.
had left out of her tiny invalid The Y.M.C.A. giving have now advanced
suggested two tension when her weekly five large complete units, one for Eng- shilling living expenses were and their menace is un- land and one for Scotland, which paid: of Mary, in an African or mistakable. The choosing will help to replace the equip- phonage, who asked the matron of the period for the elec-ent which was lost in France. to send the only two shillings she arranged lists. This was done in tions was a sign that those! at the helm of State be- lieved they could see for three weeks ahead. To- day no man dare assert that it is possible to see ahead for more than days. The electors themselves sensed the tightening of
These are to cost £5,000.
The Guide Of Dunkirk
had in the world to the fund.
In Nantes, Guides and Scouts pany's rafinerics, canneries, and worked in day and night shifts inspection sheds. About fifty Hol- under the Red Cross. The Guides landers lived on the island. The ran a creche and play centre for manual labour was done by Chin- the refugee children and helped ese, Japanese, Cingalese, and a the Red Cross with a first-aid tent few East Indians. Each of these and canteen. They helped to re- groups had its own settlement and up a lived in accordance with its na- unite families by putting large notice-board divided into tive customs. There was a school different districts. Refugees put with classes for children of each into Nantes, and found families had a club and all sorts of sports their names down as they came racial group. Dutch employees and friends through alphabetically were indulged in.
the middle of appalling, heart- breaking confusion.
KC
In London-now that the fund
Suddenly, mounting the crest of is closed-Guides are trying to
More stories come in about the the slope, we came to a row of keep up a spirit of international | English Guides' work. They are white stucco, Dutch-style houses, And another £5,000 has al-comradeship in a world which has haymaking, picking fruit, garden- each with a lush green backyard eliminated ing, pruning, and weeding. Some garden in which stood a cook- ready been spent on a motor life-seen most of Europe boat, which made its maiden voy- from international friendships for have turned themselves into emer-house, detached. from the home, age as a unit in the epic of Dun- some time, by taking over the top gency salvage corps, One com- At the corner house we followed kirk. The boat is to be christen- floor of the World Bureau. It is pany collected 5,000 used razor our host up the high stoep to a cd The Guide of Dunkirk.
to become the home of every re- blades and sent them off to an screened door that was opened Writing to thank the Guides, fugee Guide in England.
air-raid warden who had an-instantly by a Uthe, barefooted Satterthwaite, of thei
a Malayan boy. We entered Colonel
A small library of books in their, nounced that he could collect
parlour, so like a parlour
Royal National Lifeboat Institu- own languages is being collected. million in a fortnight. Others are a tion, said that the new lifeboat Comfortable armchairs and writ- looking after child evacuces; oth- in any modern American home as
own.
the
the
ing tables are being used to fur- ers are standing. by at first-aid to be startling when one glimpsed
where nish a clubroom
Guides posts.
the Indian Ocean through from Poland; Belgium, Holland, A letter from a post ranger in front window, between the scar- France, and Austria will be able north-east England sums up the let-blossomed branches of to held patrol meetings. They whole spirit of these girls who Flame of the Forest trees.
At tiffin we found the dining war. This crippled girl wrote: room typically Dutch, but the will be able to feel it is their very are growing up in a country at
"The night that we had the raid meal itself, prepared by a Javan- my young sister and I had mother ese cook, consisted of Javanese of an elaborate sort for casualty No. 1. She bled pro- riceplate, fusely, and we were thoroughly curry; Malayan bread, made from our combined: first-aid rice flour and pounded shrimp; glad of
Indian
Australian Guides have shared in the work English Guides are doing for refugees by sending cases of clothes.
"They were beautifully tailored and sewn, Cre of the staff at knowledge. Emma did the running and a tapioca pudding, sweetened headquarters said. "So beautiful- about and I produced the equip with sap from an East ly made, in fact, that it was ment. We blessed the day when tree. Tropical fruite topped off the pleasure to be able to pass them we both took up Guiding repast.
It is a grand spirit — ́a'spirit After luncheon, we went on a on. Everyone felt that they were
tour of inspection of the house and Inter in the afternoon, when the day had grown a bit cooler, saw how the "other half" on the island lived.
a
personal gifts, and I believe every-which everyone who knows the one who made them had done it work is quite sure that Germany in that spirit."
will not be able to break.
•
tension equally with nad not come out of the Dunkirk Ministers and other can- didates while the elec-
Nazi victory will be great tion campaign was in pro- gress; and the election ly dimmed. Not only the verdict registered the im- conquered populations in Poland, pression. What Mr. Men- Czechoslovakia, zies urged as proper and Denmark, Norway, The
Netherlands, statesmanlike weeks ago
Belgium, has now become a course and France but also the imperative, nay unavoid-conquered people of Ger- able, in the eyes of every many may be watching intelligent observer of in the signs of the times with anxious eyes. As long as ternational events.
Germany retains military Escaped In Open Boat
(Continued from Next Goli) mastery, they are cowed
lume. Gulde companies all over Eng- "Oh, that!" I remarked, reading and helpless. There are
land have adopted refugees. The the title, "Méin:-Kampf.” And if..... two ways of meeting such Maldstone Guides adopted a whole gave, if not an actual, d mental for Singapore. So, once again, we In his broadcast to a mastery: from without family from Amsterdam because shrug, "Lot of nonsense, don't you found ourselves in the little par-
of Josephine, who was a Guide in think?"
lour with its American overstuff- Frenchmen, Mr. Churchill and from within. Britain an Amsterdam company before "What I have read so far yes, ed furniture and its view of the hinted at an earlier end holds the fort from with- the Gernian invasion. She c5- suppose," he repiled with evident Indian Ocean. We were sllent, all caped to England with her parents uncertainty. "And yet I was in of us, as people are who have en- to the war than is gen- out. The sooner we are and Scout brother in an open the last war, and, however fan-joyed each other's company and a plan of conquest are about to part. Suddenly;' our erally believed likely. able to sally from that boat. They took a week to get tastic such
here. Nobody knew how to row, might be A bitter winter is ahead: fort, as Mr. Churchill pro-and they shipped a great deal of But," I reassured him as his silence, sought to shatter it.
host, as if embarrassed by the He does not hide that. If mised; the Harder it will water, which Josephine baled out voice trailed off without concludend this?” he questioned with a gas mask container. They ing his intended, remark, “It is a idly, picking up a book that lay on Britain holds out, as she be for the Nazi' overlords had no food and very little water, long way from here to Herr Hitler the table near which he ont. He has rosy hopes of doing, to meet the challenge Josephine Trad to be taken 16 here."
When they reached England or, rather, from Herr Hitler to handed me a cumbersome vo- the prospects of ultimate from within:
"I"(contmuno“ at"fast" or? Pratiding“ Colts hospital. Her feet Hid swollen to And. We all three Taugnica.
TURNING TIME?
Our host invited ús back to “sit n bit" before we took the launch