THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 9, 1941
BOY ON ROOF TOP STOPS FIRES ABOVE 300 SHELTERS
(By HILDE MARCHANT)
LONDON, BLASTED ONCE again with bombs one Saturday night, was saved, once again, by the average citizen. The Civil Defence forces, exhaust- ed and scarred by the last blitz, took the fresh bur- den of death and salvaged the living.
These are the names and stories of some of those average people who by night show the in- spiration of bravery and by day employ the quiet virtues of citizenship.
These people belong to London.¡
The Boy
This courage belongs to the
VARSITY
young as well as the mature. IN STRIP
Michael O'Connor Is sixteen years old. four feel eight inches In height, and an A.R.P. messen-
ger.
He began his duty on Satur- day night by polishing the shoes of all the wardens at the post,
Then the raid began, and he car- ried seven messages through the
bombed and blasted streets.
The incendiaries fell and kept every one busy-including Mike, for Bre had broken out at at church he knew.
He knew it because his father slept there in a 500-year-old stone coffin in the crypt, and until recently young Mike slept there
too.
He knew that more than 300 people slept in the crypt under the church.
out
Mike climbed on to the roof of the church and put bombs. He organised fire parties with stirrup-pumps,
Не put out nine fires him. self-and then fell through one of the church windows.
"I wanted to climb on a ledge in the church to put out another bomb, but they wouldn't let me," he said Inter with a slightly grieved tone.
He led a casualty to a first-aid station, he helped to rescue people who were trapped.
Then as the dawn broke in'o the night, Mike bean to help to clear up the streets.
At sixteen he became a de- fender of London.
The Nurse
A hospital which huddled in
a closely packed wedge of streets was hit.
It was not the first time. The hospital was evacuated some time ago after a hit, but came back to nurse the people around.
TEASE
One thousand Harvard undergraduates reversed procedure when they dis- robed last night before Sally Rand, America's queen of strip teasers.
She had promised to do a fan dance, but did not keep her promise, and students started chanting: "Take them off. Take them off."
"I will, if you will." cried Sally.
Instantly coats, socks, shoes and trousers ru ned about her,
a zipper. but she didn't as much as unzip
Miss Rand spent the rest of the night being walized about by half-clad Harvard men.
SOVIET MISSION
STEAL 24,000 EGGS, ABANDON VAN
Nearly 24,000 eggs were stolen by thieves who broke into a gar- age in Stamford Hill, London.
They took the eggs away in a two-ton van which Was found abandoned later in Plaistow. It had been repainted green and been fitted.
The eggs, belonging to a wholesale firm in London, had been brought in the von from Dereham, Nor- folk, for grading.
"BACHELORS
SHOULD PAY"
was
Taxation to encourage bachelors to marry advocated recently by Sir Ronald Matthews, presi- dent of the British Cham-
IN LONDON bers of Commerce.
"Bachelors are getting off too Golíkov, | lightly, to the
detriment of the said Sir Ronald
Army married man," services to a reporter.
Led by Lieut-Gen. Deputy Chief of the Red General Staff, a Soviet mission arrived in London On Monday evening.
"Take off some of the income They were met at the station tax load that burdens the shoul- by the Soviet Ambassador, theders of the married Vice-Chief of the British Imperial put it on those
people and of the bachelor, General Staff, Vice-Chief of the who can afford to pay it. Naval Staff and Deputy Chief of the Air Staff.
"Couples who got married a Early in one Saturday night's the Soviet officers stepped year or two ago intending to have raid the hospital was blasted, and' from the train a large crowd babies can't afford it." while the staff were evacuating which assembled to greet them their patients a direct hit scatter-, began to sing the "Internationale." ed the wards.
A young Irish nurse, Nurse O'Sullivan, was trying to rescue ten children. Ether and other spirit caught alight: the whole block was ablaze, but the young nurse went on to try to reach her patients.
She was killed by blast.
The children were safe. A ward sister took them out.
The Firemen
An A.F.S. station was working in the middle of a circle of fires, Twenty-one men from station, who had no fires in their own district, came over to give them a hand.
-British Wireless.
NEW CHIEF
OF A.T.S.
Appointment of a new Chief of the Auxiliary Territorial Service -the women's branch of the Army--is announced.
CANADIAN WOMEN IN WAR WORK
Opportunities for Canadian women to take an active part in war work are increasing and it is now announced that a Canadian been Women's Army Corps has established..
She is Mrs. Knox, who hitherto has been Inspector of the A.T.S. another
Mrs. Knox is 33 and has a decided daughter of 14. Her husband is thousand women
The station was cut in half by a bomb. Some of the volunteers were buried,
Two telephonists were found dead. One was Mrs. Peters, the mother of three children. She had sent her children to the country and come to work at the station,
The other was Miss Hilda Dupree, who had fallen in love
The Canadian Government has three to enlist two or
volunteers for
a squadron leader in the R.A.F. service as full time auxiliaries to British Wireless.
PLANS FOR ITALIAN PRISONERS
British polley is to
remove
with one of the firemen, was Italian prisoners taken in Africa engaged to him, and was to have had a wedding-in full uniform from the zone of operations as soon as possible, the War Secret- in a fortnight's time.
The station officer, "Christmas" ary stated in the Commons yes- Sidstead, was burled. He has been
a fireman for
poned it war.
terday.
Capt, Margesson added they
take over tasks now performed by soldiers and thus relieve men for service overseas.
In addition the organisation for a Women's Auxillary for the Roy- al Canadian Air Force is well ad- vanced.—British Wireless.
1
WIFE CITES HITLER
Hitler was cited iná divorce sult at Palm Beach, Florida, recently:||
thirty years, and was due to retire; but he post-were being sent to various parts He WÁB held responsible by until the end of the of the Dominions, including India. Mrs. Elizabeth Barnard, giving It was also proposed to retain a an address in Surrey for war number in Kenya-British Wire-conditions which she said pre- less.
vented. her from Joining her hus band Sidney, in America,"
The Wardens
Six wordens went to report at ú post that had rescued eighty people since the beginning of the heavy raids,
These six men were all killed. Their colleagues worked for hours trying to rescue them,
***
At another. post rescue parties worked, for afteen; hours to get buried people out. They worked in'
The: husband, seeking divorce, splio of a time bomb a few yards alleged she had refused to join away. N
hima They found no one alive Just In her deposition, the wife sald the bodies of men and women she would gladly go to him but who had been waiting at the post was unable to do so because of for the next call, w
the machinations, general un-
Theoo, wardens who died. had social conduct und aggressive Just returned from rescuing, attitude of a third party one people trapped a basement, Adolf Hitler.”