THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 8, 1941.
ZOG SITS IN THE RITZ
--Hoping To Be King Again
ZOG OF ALBANIA, self-made ex-king born in THREE
a mountain hut, now sits in a luxury suite in the Ritz Hotel, London, W., listening to the radio and
waiting for a message from Tirana, his former "LAWRENCES"
capital.
This guerilla chieftain, with a bomb-proof safe in his bedroom filled with valuables, hopes for the liberation of his country and for a call to reassume the throne.
CAPTAIN TRICKED U-BOAT
away.
The King and the sea captain met on a bustling wharf in Glasgow, and the captain told the King that his ship had been torpedoed in the Atlantic. This was his story. "A U-boat broke surface a hundred yards
"I went hard to starboard as quick as I could. But the U-bout was quick, too, and a torpedo struck the ship on the port side.
"We put up a smoke screen. and Mr. Johnson, my chief engineer, kept his engines at full speed, although at one time his 'shop' was full of water. Although she was listing to port, she was trimmed, and brought back on an even keel."
Last night's London Gazette announced that Captain Rice, of Holden-way, Upminster, Essex, and Chief Engineer Albert George Johnson, chief engineer, of Beres- ford Avenue, Bebington, Cheshire, are to be additional officers of the Order of the British Empire for| saving "a most valuable ship": without the help of any other
vessel.
Bombed
And here are two more reasons why the King is proud of his sailors:-
The lians invaded Albania on Good Friday 1939 and he fled with his young Queen Geral- dine and their day-old baby.
suite at the Ritz. Zog had with him his sisters, They speak French, and preserve their royal dignity by speaking to strangers only through interpreters or se- cretaries.
WORK FOR
BRITISH
Count Byron de Prorok, As soon as they were able to travel, they made their way to who has just returned to London und Lettled in a large New York after twenty years' work in Africa as an archaeologist, believes that he knows the names of three new "Lawrences of Arabia" working in Africa for the British, writes the correspondent of the "Evening Stan- dard."
This Good Friday they, too, were at the Ritz, waiting, with their radio-and their hopes.
Coffee In Raids
The London Ritz provides every usual amenity, including a com- From scraps of information re- fortable air-raid shelter-dormi- ! vealed by the Cairo communi- tory. But Zog has a special shel- ter. A part of the basement was set aside where he and h's suite could rest in armchairs and sip Turkish coffee while the Luft- walle operated.
room
was
of
A special shelter provided for Queen Geraldine, her baby, ex-Crown Prince Albania, and a nurse. If there is a raid Zog's party always sits up until the "raiders passed" sounds and then they go to bed.
Gay Life
Zog lives a secluded life and is seldom seen about the hotel. French cooking appeals to him, but he touches no alcohol.
ques, and from knowledge he has picked up in Africa, he belleves they are:
Major Ralph Alger Bagnold, leader of desert expeditions, veteran of the last war, and one of the greatest authorities in the world on the movements of sand dunes:
Mr. William Boyd Kennedy Shaw, a former member of the Forest Service and the Sudan Palestinian Department of Anti- kuities, noted
1
botanist and archæologist;
Captain Norman Hillier, ex- plorer, author, veteran of the last war, and organiser of a trading operated across company which the Libyan Desert, using light cars instead of camels.
Count de Prorok declared that "two
other probable heroes of Britain's North African campaign" are Major John Glubb known to the Arabs as "the man with the scar," who organised the Bedouins in the twenties to fight i But Zog still walta in
Saudi Arablan raiders; and Ma- | Ritz, with his radio and his for James Maxwell, former com- hopes.
The British Government по longer recognises him as king, following the recognition of the Italian conquest-Mr. Neville Chamberlain said so in the House of Commons in October 1939.
the
where
A ship commanded by Captain John Joseph Robinson, of Runs-
mander of Kurmuk, a friend and wick Bay, Yorkshire, was raked
adviser of many Ethiopians. by machine-gun fire and hit by a
Zog, who is forty-five, became "For years he has been study- whole stick of bombs. She began
clan chief of his mountain
dunes. ating trails through sand to go down by the head.
fourteen. He went He must be the man who found Captain Robinson had his right the age of
abroad and was educated in the way to get light tanks through hand torn; all the boats were
Vienna and Paris, and led the to attack Sidi Barrani, damaged. But he got the port lifeboat into the water. Having gay life of a university student. the Italians were so confident it first made sure that no one was When he went home he took up could not be done that they did left on board, Captain Robinson, the cause of emancipation from not even post sentries over the
Turkish rule. with: twenty-severi men, stood by waiting calmly for a rescue ship.
Captain Robinson is also made an officer of the Order of the British Empire.
John Henry Cook, of St. Andrew Road, Gorleston-on--Sen, was master of an unarmed lightship which was bombed and machine- gunned.
A third of his crew was out of action, but Cook 'kept his ship on station as a good sea-mark, and "showed great courage and devo- tion to duty.
He
receives the medal of the Civil Division, Q.B.E
FATHER GUARDS HEROES NAMES
Clydeside was the main objective of Nazi raiders
dunes.
1,000ft. Hills
"Behind
He entered Government ger-
became
Sidi vice,
Barrani the Minister, and a formed his own government in dunes form hills 300 to 1,000ft. Eiffel of the 1922. He all'ed himself with a high, the height clique of reactionary ex-officers, Tower. They change constantly. but when he tried to cut adrift Major Bagnold knows the winds office in 1924. from them they drove him from of those parts; he knows how the and with After fleeing his dunes would change,
revolution in his records and data and personal country from a
well 1925 he returned and became knowledge, he could very President. Blood was shed as have keept track of the changes he consolidated his rule, and he until the exact moment when the called in British experts to form dunes would pass and light cars could fly along on the rock sur- a police force for him.
face beneath. *
While he tried to increase the "In the Libyan desert that rock prosperity of his country, he is as hard and flat as a billiard found himself short of cash. table.'
Mussolini Zog used to call him "Mr. Shaw could have been the "the Lion"-nipped in with a link between the British and timely offer of £2,000,000, and Free French forces coming up later with 100,000,000 gold francs, from Lake Chad. He used to spend. his time mapping the desert spaces in winter and then going to Eng- land in the hot weather to lec-. ture and write.
Those loans gave the Duce the hold he wanted. He de manded eight years' interest in 1938, and Albania could not raise the sum.
So the next Good Friday Mussolini seized Albania.
Belfast and other Ulster ports watcher from. the flames”” were also attackeds s
Liverpool had its fifth succes
..
"Captain Hillier was without a job after the last war. With his experience of the desert he or- ganised the Western Desert Transport: Company.~^ANE
"His headquarters were at Mersa Matruh where the British. on recently and casualties in the A.R.S. The building caved drive into Libya started, and in on top of them as they wereSlway the great Oasis of Jupiter, were heavy
trying to rescue an injured fire in the heart of the desert,
He had rest houses and de- posits of water and food placed. The man refused to give his strategically all over the desert. The Senussi, who still call Graziani "the Butcher," "are be- A weary-eyed man of about 100 "This luka war or nameless hind: Hillier. They are behind sixty-five, frayed war ribbons on
anyone who is against Grazlant. this breast, stood watching a
Hillier helped hundreds of the trblesmen to escape from the Ita- Liverpool rescue squad toiling Fecently amid charred ruins. Food convoys from other north-liang through the barbed wire "My two lads are beneath orneities went to the blitzed fence Mussolini had set up along flint lot, ho... said.. loy were arco;
the Libyan-Egyptian frontier,"
slve raid. Damage was wide-name- spread, but casualties were few.
haroos,
"explained. "The Inds would sooner have it that way.
"I can tell
WHITE
Page
HORSE blindfold
... it's equal to a fine liqueur”
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