THE HONGKONG
DENKODA Y
Hankow Despatch By Vernon Bartlett, Famous War Correspondent
CHINA SEEKING NEW TRADE ROUTES ADVANCE MODELS
FOR SUPPLIES
Attempt To Speed Hongkong Imports
Hankow.
Dr. Hsiang-hai Kung, Chinese Premier and Finance Minister, plying me to-day with sharks' fins and birds' nest soup, warned me that these luxuries will probably be for bidden soon owing to the need for reducing imports, writes Vernon Bartlett in the London News Chronicle.
Even firecrackers have been banned, partly because of the campaign against superstition, mainly owing to the necessity for reducing the transport of non-essentials on China's -crowded channels of communication.
over-
Despite the Japanese inva- sion the total Customs revenue in
SUPERMEN last year was higher than
1936. Until the invasion the Bilver reserve increased every
FOR R.A.F. month since stabilisation in
1936. How to retain some of THE Royal Air Force is to this progress, with Canton the build up a corps of super-only outlet to the sea, is one for its 400m.p.h. fighter of the 'Government's gravest
pre-occupations.
mmen
squadrons.
Each man will be 100 per centi During January only six trains physically and
mentally perfect, carried goods from Hankow along able to control his seven-mile-a the world's most-bombed railway- minute single seater machine with to Canton and Hongkong; 10 split second timing.
February there were nine, but the new Trade Commission hopes short- ly to have a train daily carrying 400 tons
of freight. the Government having granted £100,000 towards war
benefiting foreign
These pilots will be the cream of the best specimens entering a service whose medical examination is al- ready the most rigorous in existence, Discipline in these squadrons wil be the strictest in the service.
TAKING THE STRAIN
enormus
The coming of the 400 mph. machines has brought new pro- blem to doctors and psychologists. Can the pilots stand the physical and mental strain?
Manoeuvring at these speeds is a "black-out," ilable to
to produce temporary unconsciousness, in the pilot, through the increased weight of his body produced through the elemental forces af work in the tarzi If this is overdone serious in- ternal injuries may be caused. Test pilots who have to undergo these
insurance Chinese exporters.
Proof that the Hongkong-Hankow road is also available is contained in the recent dispatch from Hongkong of 22 lorry-louds of medical supplies sent by the League of Nations.
The French Government is timidly developing traffic with Indo-China, which is likely to become the most
with impor important link
the outside world.
I understand the Burma road is now complete on the Burmese side, but that on the Chinese side about 300 miles is lacking though coolie labour is rupidly diminishing this.
GUNS FOR TEA Despite the Japanese advance to- strains when trying out new nir-wards the Yellow River the Han- craft usually wear a type of corset kow-Sianlu rallway is still operat-
11
For instance, the pilol weighs] ing. ten stone, and through a manoeuvre he produces a force of what is called
0 G-nine times gravity-his weight would go up to ninety stone.
Unless the pilot was very strong and in perfect physical condition the strain might be fatal.
to
Trucks bringing munitions Hankow return towards Russla
with loads of tea,
Should the railway be cut, it is claimed, somewhat doubtfully, that the new road from Cheng-tu to Lan- chow could be completed within a month, thus allowing the mainten- ence of communications with Rus- mite are sia.
NERVE EXERCISE Again, enormous
distances covered in a second at these speeds. Doctors are asking if the nervous reflexes of the pilots can be speeded up enough for them to make de- cisions in the split seconds allowed to them.
A message from the brain to the hands or feet takes a certain time to get there. Will the speed of the air- craft be greater than the speeds of the nerve messages?
Tests now being carried out should give an answer. It is possible that the supermen pilots will have to take some form of nerve exercise before they fly the machines.
BABY HAS 11 GRANDPARENTS
Candy, Minn.
The crisis is leading on the one hand to an attempt to set up a na- tional. Dplanned economy. whereby the Trade Commission is authorised to stabilise prices by buying surplus stocks, and on the other to the re- exploration. and development of every route over which, centuries ago, the Chinese brought silk civilisation westwards.
WALLACE BEERY, AIR PILOT
Dad.
Wallace Beery has completed cluborate plans for # flying trip round Europe and North Africa accompanied by his wife and little daughter, Carol Ann.
Six grand fathers and five grond-
Except for the Atlantic crossing, mothers gives year-old Vernon Hon- the whole trip will be made by plane. son a new record number of living Beery plans to pilot himself most of
A great great the time. relatives. He has grandmother, two great grandmothers He will visit England, France, Hun- and two grandmothers, four great gary, Switzerland, Italy, Egypt, Nor- grandfathers and two grandfathers. way, Sweden, and the Far East.
CHINESE AMAZONS FROM KWANGSI WILL
FIGHT IN NORTHERN WAR ZONE
New Death Ray Kills Snakes, Not Humans
I have seen hundreds of mixed grubs, up to an inch in length, killed by new death rays, in a' big house in Beckenham, Kent.
The rays worked through thick glass and a sheet of tin, taking a little longer than when they struck the wriggling creatures direct (writes a Special Correspondent),
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PHOTOGRAPHS. above and on
left show the new Amażon Army that has risen in Kwangst. These Chinese xiris are members of the 2nd Kwangsi. Women's Unit which will shortly go into action. The ist Kwanrst Women's Unit was in action recently af Changsha, where they suffered considerablo casualties, -Albert Kahn, Photos.
Air Drill In Dutch
Raid
E. Indies
By RICHARD C. WILSON / United Press Staff Correspondent
Batavia.
Gay and picturesque Bata- via is learning rapidly some of the grim realism of war as new Martin bombers roar over this famous East Indian port in manoeuvres nightly to the tune of anti-aircraft guns and air raid alarms.
When the first of these mock-war drills was held re-. cently, night club revellers turned out en masse as the city was "black out", and witnessed the crash of one of the big planes, about a mile from the airport at Bando- eng.
:
FIVE AIRMEN KILLED Five airmen were killed in the ccident, which occurred during
a driving rainstorm. Maný mid-
IN
SMART
HATS
NEW
YORK
SEE THESE EARLY
THIS
YEAR WE ARE
MAKING A SPECIALITY
OF DRESS FABRICS BY-
TOOTAL
WEMCO
CEPEA
THESE ARE THE LATEST 1938 DESIGNS AND SHADES BY THE
FAMOUS
BRITISH MANUFACTURERS
ALSO-
DRESS
LINEN
NEW
BAGS
night celebrants had gathered at IN A VERY WIDE VARIETY OF
the airport after the lights were dimmed, in what seemed to be
Ja midnight social function.
The sudden squall drove the re- vellers to shelter. A few minutes later a five-plane squadron roared They have not been developed through the rain-swept darkness and as a new war horror, but to en-as it passed over the airport, one of able householders to get rid of the planes keeled over and crashed,
ground. pests, to enable the gardener to exploding as it struck the
The accident, amid the rumble and save his, cabbages and roses, flashes of anti-aircraft guns gave the and enable women to rid 'furs scene a realistic touch, particularly and clothing of moth simply by as the Dutch Blers did not halt in holding a hand lamp over the their manoeuvre, carrying out their night raids while the anti-aircraft affected spot,
guni still blazed away into the sky. It was my first view of Dutch de- tensive manoeuvres, and it was an It is claimed that any white cor-impressive one. The Dutch have puscled ~creatures, such 28 fish, been steadily building up their East snakes, and frogs, may be killed India airforce, buying American-
built planes, quickly by the rays which cause the corpuscles to burst.
EXPLODE EGGS
NEW IDEA FOR BATAVIA Although "blackouts" are frequént Mr. W. T. Russell, of Southend- at Singapore and Hongkong, where road, Buckenham, showed me the the British have been educating the rays. He is the discoverer of the raid alarm is a new phase of night populace to war conditions, the air "Heala" roys, now used extensively ilfe in Batavin and one that was seized.
for curing deep-scated ailments, and upon in a holiday spirit until the
he has worked on the subject since crash at the airfield.
1012.
The alarms are sounded shortly be
raids fore midnight and the
last Mr. Russell dropped a handful of about two hours. activé grubs on the table and held a
lamp in a reflector over them, about ment are closely guarded, and no one There both fortifications and equip-
a foot away.
In ten seconds they jumped con vulsively. In 30 'seconds they "were dead.
I held my hand under the lamp.
is allowed to walk through certain areas The Dutch, on the contrary, vere glad to exhibit their rapidly ex- panding fortifications, which they regard will national pride.
TO NEW MACHINES
There are more than 30 Martin
It was warm, but not hot enough, bombars regularly stationed at
In my opinion, to destroy the grubs Bandoens, about 20 miles Inland jby heat.
from Batavia, which lies on the The lamp works off ordinary northern coast of Java. The Dutch 70 additional bombing house voltage. So far I have made plano, paraly to defend the valuable
planes, no attempt to gợi dalani effects by Borneo all, Leids which are scattered
are!
- concentrating the rays,”, hadd› Mr. over Borneo to the north,
danken as Dutch now plan to
Makananufacturing gas maaka lit a factory
kill larvas and explode eggs here. At present the supply is pure
egar ko chated from Slatapora, co v
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