THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 23, 1940.
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CHANNEL
THE GALE, after threatening to tear away our barrage balloons, blew itself out in the night, and a strange array of his Majesty's grey ships nosed across the harbour boom to their rendezvous with the merchantmen whom they were to take in con- voy through the Straits, writes a special correspon- dent. ~
This was one of the Channel convoys; just a collection of lumbering old tramps who, under the quizzical eye of the Royal Navy, are day after day loading and unloading along the British coast, cocking a snook at Hitler and all his works be it ever so flerce at "Hell's Corner." In these last weeks they have come to stand as fully for the free- dom of the seas as the proudest squadron of ships of the line.
One liked to imagine that smoke that we were going the Potato Jones was there among other way:
these sturdy terse skippers, their
collars as often as not represent- Anxious Moment ed by an unadorned shirt-stud,
yet whose knowledge of English Still, he made off, we feared waters gives them high places into tell his friends-might it not the fellowship of the sea. But be to boast to them?-though_he it has been my
experience to was not out of earshot before
00000000
UNDER WRECKAGE
FOR FOUR DAYS
Foint cries from the wreckage
in South- a house
London led to the rescue of a 14-year-old girl who had been given up os dead when her home was destroyed in the- night bombing..
of
The girl, Mildred Castillo, the daughter Dr. and Mrs. Richard Castillo, had been buried alive in the basement for four days. Rescue workers were clearing away the house when they heard her cries.
CLOSE-DOWN IN KENT, SUSSEX
be aboard the commanding escort one of the layers of the director, vessel, and during a memorable the eyes as it were of the 24 hours witness something of ship, was back at his novel. the unwinking vigilance, the Another anxious moment was painstaking concern fordetall, turned into glee when a flight of that the Navy takes over its!
overtaking aircraft was identified flock to say nothing of the pro- as a patio! of Spitfires
- and tection of its guns. We were to they were not far away when have cause to be thankful for
the next attack came. "Diver,"
Ten o'clock has been fixed by" them before the sun went down. flashed a sister ship whose guns the South-East Regional Commis
I had been shown a plan. of
were in action before. Much ioner, Sir Auckland Geddes, as the convoy in harbour, and
lower this time, we saw a vicious, the time at which all theatres and here over a stretch of choppy
black Junkers swoop out of the cinemas in Kent and Sussex must water it came to life with far
clouds seemingly between two close for the night. A similar more simplicity than might have
barrage balloons.
order has been made in respect of been looked for from that intricate:
Now our multiple pom-pom other types of licensed and un- document, with its precise allot- ment of stations. No greater joined in the racket; the enemy licesed premises, such as public-.
restaurants, care could have been taken had dropped his bombs, hopelessly houses, off-licences,
it been a naval review. For the wide again, and, apparently pink-canteens, and refreshment rooms. first essential was that the con-ed, went into a steep dive with Clubs, billiards saloons, and dance voy should keep close up,
two of the lurking Spitfires on licensed premises such as public- his tail.
premises devoted to other forms Little may be written about We lost him in the clouds, but of amusements, including sports the several types of escort ves-judging from the eloquent waddle and music. Chief constables will sels employed, among them a of a returning fighter he probably be allowed to use their own dis- number of balloon ships — did, not get back to tell the cretion in granting extensions of and one boat flew kite which story. There was one more sud-time for special occasions, Imparted an even greater sense den burst in the flaming sunset, may.in certain circumstances fix of security from the dive- over like the others in a few an earlier closing hour, though not bomber than the landlubbers seconds; and the comment of earlier than 9 o'clock. of their kind.
A
the gunnery control officer this
Naval vessels certainly out- time was regret at having missed numbered the tramps; and "lest the 6 o'clock news."
it be wondered whether land
routes might, not
afford equal it
facilities and fewer hazards
A Moonlit, Scene
TIME LOST-IN AIR RAIDS
should be remembered that it To the ship's company all this: The setting up of a central pool would take seven or eight trains was uneventful; they had gone from which
through sterner moments
is
the
to transport the load, of one cargo boat. And, moreover, this still the English Channel.
Gun Turrets Blaze
payments can be with made to workers. who lose time that was convoy
shelled through air raids is to be discuss→→ from the French coast. "I sated by boot and shoe manufactur-. here below. and counted every ers and the National Union of Boot five minutes on, the clock as the and Shoe Operatives, at a special shells arrived,'
," the young doc meeting to be held in London. operatives, it is Off we went in a strong foltor told me, The captain called Employers and lowing, wind that bore the bal- it shadow-fighting against things proposed, should contribute to the loons along back to front and that could not be easily seenpool on the same basis as the in- blew the funnel smoke the wrong aircraft, submarines, E-boats, dustry's holiday provision scheme, way, an oddity for which the shells and he longed to meet under which male operatives re- Naw ceived: £5 125, and women £3 4s. Navy apparently has no collo-something his own size.
down annually, quial term. Action stations were and again he would step
, with some. immediately assumed and re-from his platform mained so throughout the voy apt comment or a story of his A RECORD AT BOW age; the busiest man on the days as a submarine commander bridge for a long time was the as we stole slowly through the cliffs at Beachy yeoman of signals, rapping out night. The
a distant messages on the flashlamps, pass-Head; stood out like ing down others to the wireless range of white mountains cabin, as the convoy steamed the moonlight; there was from single into double line with fine tracery of the searchlights, was formally adjourned. This the widening of the free passage. the lurid spurt of gun flashes, the constitutes a record since the pre- Its speed was the speed of the drone of aircraft overhead speed sent Court was built in 1879. slowest merchantman; and that ing, maybe, to wanton crime was no great rate of knots. in London,
in
STREET
For the second time in four · days there were no night charges at Bow Street Police Court. There. the f
was only one remand case, which
The whole-night-was- vibrant-~ ⚫ly alive, and as we came on
WHY WORRY?
For the warships It must have been rathar, zlike putting thoroughbreda between -- the through the Straits of Dover On a wayside pulpit outside a shafts of hansom cabo, but we were near Hitler's barges, church in a heavily bombed Lon-
which will cross-this challenge don area! "Don't worry. there was no fretting, just Za tense watchfulness for a welgning strip of water at their mountain to-day may be a mole-
Thill to-morrow.'
on the Churchill's
Your
of the enemy. Here
perit, bridge were Mr.
Lights: flickered on the French real. Jim Crowa the look-outa, | coast-usually there are fres
shock and pleased with the distinction whose binaculare perpetually and one realised with a 'ranged`sky, and sea.
more: bitter than in Paris or that the officers quarters were.. Then, some two hours out, Bordeaux. the fate that has fal- amidships instead of qft. The we went into action. The alarm len on that, mysterious land. "It officers themselves, nicely balanc bell rang below, and before. I would be worth a guinca a minute fed between members of the -was-half-way up the ladder to in a pleasure launch," the cap-regular Service and the RN.V.R. the bridge the gun turrets: fore tain said:
and aft were blazing away......with
a staggering blast at
alone Just Another Job
Dorriler that circled in the clouds
with vigorous beards-in the case of the younger men to dis-
of tinguish them-made light the whole adventure. – It was
high above our heads. 'It. was -There was to be no more ex- just another job of work accom- no sooner begun than over. | citement, The E-boats kept off plished, in which the old tramps "Bombs falling!" came the order, in the night and down found the and all the other ships had and we crouched low on the convoy well on the way for home, played their part; and when bridge, feeling, for my port, with several warships gliding got chilly on the bridge there embarrassingly naked; but, with across our bows on the horizon, was always the doctor down be- the exception of one fairly near which pleased the commodore, of low to talk about Java and con- ahot, the German made such a the convoy so well that he mado ger eels and motor-bilces. One bad job of it: that, before an undue haste. I was taken over fell to wondering what Kipling admittedly fierce reception, he this happy ship, so like all the or Conrad would have written might have imagined from our others, proud of its roomy bridge about them all
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