THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 1980.
STOP IT!
OH!
THAT
COUGH!
BEFORE IT CAUSES SERIOUS TROUBLE
J
WITH
WATSON'S
PECTORAL
WAIT
DON'T BUY ANY CAR UNTIL YOU SEE THE STUDEBAKER CHAMPION
Duo in Hongkong middlo April,
A now car from bumper to HQ bumper, no parts from previous
COUGH BALSAM
FOR COUGHS, COLDS and BRONCHITIS RELIEVES TIGHTNESS IN THE CHEST, SORE THROAT
AND. HOARSENESS.
IN $1.00 or $2.00 BOTTLES THE HONGkong diSPENSARY
A. S. WATSON & CO., LTD.
HEAR
TEL. 20016.
BOTH SIDES
OF YOUR WIRELESS SET
BY ATTACHING THE WONDERFUL
ALL ELECTRIC
GARRARD
"
RECORD PLAYER
THERE'S A SIDE TO YOUR RADIO RECEIVER TO WHICH YOU'VE PROBABLY NEVER GIVEN A THOUGHT THE BACK! YET THROUGH IT YOU CAN EASILY DOUBLE YOUR ENJOYMENT. JUST PLUG IN AND YOUR SET IS AT ONCE CONVERTED INTO AN ARMCHAIR CONTROLLED RADIOGRAMI
HEAR YOUR FAVOURITE RECORDS PLAYED WITH ALL THE ADVANTAGES OF MODERN ELECTRICAL REPRODUCTION
AUTOMATIC and NON-AUTOMATIC MODELS in STOCK
SOLE AGENTS
S. MOUTRIE & Co., Ltd.
York Building
Swan Culbertion &
models used...It's NEW all tho way through, NEW ECONOMY, new type body with ample room for five grown people and still it has a wheelbase of only 110 inches.
The ideal car for
Hongkong
Thirty miles to the gallon of gasoline
Solo Distributors:
HONGKONG
Stubbs Rd.
HOTEL
GARAGE
Phones: 27778/9
BIRTH
STANESBY-At the War Memorial Nursing Home, on 11th April, 1939, to Constance Mary, wife of S. J. C. Stanesby, a daughter.
The
Hongkong Telegraph.
Wyndham St., Hongkong 'Phone 26615 April 12, 1939
"Mare Nostrum" THE CRISIS pot boils and bubbles along the shores lapped by the placid waters of the Mediterranean,
MENACE of the
MEDITERRANEAN ́
By GENERAL NIESSEL
The distinguished French solder, who, da a former Inspecor- Generet of Aviation, is one of the greatest living authorities on the air arm. He was a member of the French Supreme War Council, and has been decorated with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.
T
HE whole world lives in the hope that Mediterranean tension
will soon find a satisfactory settlement.
It is proper at this moment to
LIBYA
no safe base on
study the strategic situation in plenished from England, and the Mediterranean, with special would have reference to the changes which land. the use of warplanes has brought to the normal conditions of naval warfare.
the British Fleet are too inferior
The warplanes carried with--
in number ever to hope to be Before the development of the able to gain supremacy in the age of machinery and before the air over the Italian seaplane and birth of those two new weapons Inndplane war fleets, whose of war, the aeroplane and the technical efficiency is quite equal submarine, fleets of warships to that of their British rivals. could hold the high acas for It is therefore plain that months at a time and could though British naval superiority blockade from a close range an in surface craft would compel enemy coustline. At the same the Italian surface flect to be time, with the artillery of that extremely careful, the Italian pre-aviation period, well defend- Navy, aided by its proximity to ed ports, even. if they were right its own bases and powerfully on the coast level, formed safe supported first by its air fleet, harbours for warships.
and secondly by its considerable however, modern number of submarines, would be
To-day, ships need to return to harbour able to find many extremely very frequently for repairs and favourable occasions for success- for re-fuelling; ports on the ful attack. actual coastline can be bombard-
ed from a distance by artillery, Looking Eastwards and all ports are within the field In the Eastern Mediterrancan of netion of enemy aircraft. the comparative situation of the Warships, moving fast, can to two hypothetically rival Air a small extent protect them-Forces would not be so extreme- selves from attack by air. But ly unequal. aeroplanes and submarines work.
British Air Forces could, like ing together make navigation
the British Fleet, find bases in Cyprus, at Haifa, and on the
for hostile war fleets in narrow seas extremely dangerous.
heated by the fires of aggrandise-Strategic Advantages
ment on the one side, suspicion and fear on the other.
of the inland sea.
Italy calls it "Mare Nostrum"-
northern coast of Egypt, where they have an admirably well- organised refiting station at Aboukir,
ANGLO-
EGYPTIAN
SUDAN
ITALIAN TERRITORES
RABIA
SMELLS AROUND THE WORLD
A famous explorer re- cently followed his nose around the world, and these are the points he touched upon:-
Straits of Malaces-You meet o wem, fruity Emell, especially when
fruit known as the dourion is ripe. A dourian always reminds me of Singapore.
Ceylon-In our enthood's days on occasional Sundaya We sang about the "spicy breezes" that blew from Ceylon's late, but I have been to Ceylon dozens of times and have never noticed the sount of shore. But the moment you get on shore you scent the betel nut; you can shut your eyes and Imagine the naked
working bases for the Italian brown body of the Fietshawak under-sen flect. The British China China conjures up in my Fleet,
despite its
mind
the smell of math-eaten cen- great luries; I think it is due to the length superiority in tonnage and num- of time the country has lived, and bers, could not prevent the the lack of disinfectants, Italian over-sca and under-sca fleets working in combination.
West Coast. The smell of decaying vegetation recalls the West Coast of In the Red Sen, however, the
Afrlen. British Fleet would exercise ansley smell. If somebody handed Japan-Japan has the genuine undoubted superiority, for it you a Japanese article and your eyes can be taken that Italy would were closed you would know it was not commit the grievous fault of
Japanese. sending to that region any im-would remind me of Chilli and Peru. Chill-Any hot, dry, hard smell portant units. But here again The Ideal Mauritius, however, the powerful Air Force that has what I call the ideal smell. You Italy has built up in East Africa are up in the mountains with the would be able to exercise a police a charm about it that
roses, and there is a freshness and I have never control which would be extreme-met elsewhere in all my wanderings. ly dangerous to any commercial Berlin Berlin eonvey the im- navigation in that narrow sca.pression that even if there were any It would also be able to effect smells they would be numbered and diversions, conjointly with the under police regulation. Italian land forces, in the direc- careless smell about it.
Paris. The French capital has a tion of the Sudan, which would On the Ocean-The deep blue seat be excessively unpleasant. has no smell of its own, but that separates the South-east of
Despite the distance that old sailing ship the smell of the tar very fact strengthens the smell of the
Libya from Eritrea, it would not be impossible, either, for Italian warplanes to cross the distance and fly right over the Sudan. The Aeroplane's
Influence
This is particularly the case
Nevertheless, even here the with the Mediterranean, and it Italian warplanes based on The real quarrel is the lordship would be no exaggeration to Rhodes and the Dodecanese look upon the whole of this sen Islands are only 450 miles from as a focal area of grave dunger Haifa, less than 400 miles from where sea movements would be the entry to the Suez Canal, and most difficult to protect, above only 350 miles from Alexandria. all, from air attack.
There is no denying the patent Dangerous Possibilities e a marked influence on the
Chater Road.
+++++++++ | "Our Sea.”
Frith J'
Investment Bankers and Brokers
Members of New York Cotton Exchange
Chicago Board of Trade
Winnipeg Grain Exchango
Commodity Exchango, Inc., New York
Canadian, Commodity Exchange, Inc., Montreal,
New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange
Manila Stock Exchange
Hongkong Sharebrokers Association Shanghai Stock Exchange.
SHANGHAI, HONGKONG, MANILA AND SINGAPORE
•Cable Address: Swanstock
A.
PEN
with
Adjustable Point
No two people write aliko-use the same pressure, stroke or style. And since pen points are made by hand, no two pens perform Iden- tically. So only this pen that you can tailor to fit your handwriting gives you that particular "feel" which seems natural. The precise thick- ness of line you prefer. Smoothest,' casiest writing
for you.
A patented little adjuster on the point door it! By moving it up and down the point, you rogulate the flexibility of the point to get the exact "feel" and width of line 'you want. You write your way-not as a pen factory dictates !
EVER SHARP
THE WING
Pan, Pencil & Sots
Authorized Dealers-
Ordinarily, that would not matter, But when Mussolini decides that the Mediterranean becomes his sen to the exclusion of other nations, Britain must act. It may be Italy's sea, but it is Britain's artery. An Italian torniquet would stop the
life-blood of commerce flowing be- tween the heart of the Empire and its finger-tips in Hongkong, Singa- pore, India.
That is why there is stationed in the Mediterranean now a very im- pusing portion of the British fleet. Britain's warships are not there to impede the communications of any nation, but to protect her own.
Because of this, the position in the Mediterranean to-day is n very interesting one, vastly different from 1914-18. We had enemies in the inland sea then-Austria-Hun- gary and Turkey both had respectable-sized fleets.
To-day, Britain's warships are still to superior that they could bottle up any possible combination of enemies in the Mediterranean. But a new factor has entered into consideration. Were there no Air Force, the British fleet would do- minate the Mediterranean as former times.
In
on the ropes that brings with it a sense of heart yearning
Other places which have distinc- live smells in his recollection are:-
Aden.-hides and heat, Leningrad.-wood fires.
Oregon (U.S.A.) and Sutherland- allrepine trees.
Son Francisco." really fruity smell."
and
Rumania, - cattle.
Arabla-rancid butter. Burmak, "the whacking
Hungary
sheds and stables.
white-
conflict in the Mediterranean To sum up, in the event of a
and in the Red Sen, the entrance
cheroot" and the "brown smell" of into action of the air flects would
ticular, it would compel the progress of operations. In par the Irrawaddy.
greater part of merchant ship- BOMBAY, Apr. 11.—About £100,- ping to avoid the Mediterranean 000 worth of sold left Bombay to-day, and thus cause in economie up-half of which is optionally being sent heaval.
to New York, Paris, and Amsterdam. --Reuter,
HOLLAND IS READY
fact that the central position of Italy, lying across the middle of available in Libya, the frontier The Italians also have bases the Mediterranean, gives her re- of which is but 300 miles from markable strategic advantages Alexandria. The coast of Libya, in the western half of that sea. as well as that of Rhodes, would From the coasts of Sardinia at the same time form admirable to those of North Africa the dis-
miles; tance is barely one hundred only seventy miles separató Sicily from the northern cape of Tunisia, with another seventy between Sicily and Malta. The triangle of sea between Sardinia, Sicily, and thei coastline of Naples has a base of only four hundred miles, and doesn't matter whether you visit there is not a point in the bloom or whether you arrive at the Holland when the tulips are in Tyrrhenian Sea which is more Hook of Holland before dawn on a than three hundred miles distant bleak February morning, the Dutch- from the nearest point either in man is there on the quay-polite,
calm,
unruffled, Italy or from the coast of Italian
And while you realise that Holland Northern Africa.
is not yet awake, you are aware, even so, that the peace around you is not due entirely to the carliness of the hour--for you have already noted the serenity in the people's faces.
In the whole of this area, which cuts the Mediterranean in two, the greater part of Italy's land flying forces could co- operate in Italy's offensive naval | operations and could ronder even ordinary navigation extremely dangerous, if not impossible, to an enemy.
Malta, with its harbour, re- stricted in size, could no longer It is in the air that Italy is so afford protection to the British
the superior in
Mediterranean. Į Fleet. The story of Abyssinia would have been a vastly different one but for these Italian planes.
The for western part of the Western Mediterrancan as far as You heard of what they did in Gibraltor becomes less exposed Albania, of how they destroyed to such terrible danger as the Spanish towns. In both those coun- distance from Sardinia increases. tries, however, only a few hundred Nevertheless, even in this part planes were used. Of Italy's 4,000 planes only 400 went to Spainan of the Mediterranean, the equal number was used in Albania. Italian acaplanes and Italian air- Against this number Britain has men who accomplished the flight no more than a thousand planes across the Atlantic would be within reach of the Mediterranean. capable of undertaking the jour- Malta, Gibraltar, Cyprus, the Suez ney of 1,500 miles (there Canal
are all within reach of Mus-back) which separates Sardinio and solini's bombers.
If there is ever trouble between from Gibraltar. Italy and Britain, we may be tem-
porarily forced from the Moulter Britain's Peril
randant. Hongkong's trade with Europe will have to be diverted via the Cape or Panama,
Will that help Italy 7
No! Britafi need only withdraw her warships to: Gibraltar in the
It is necessary to emphasise the fact that Italiun aviation
would in these scas have the
enormous advantage of being biased on its national territory,
west, to Aden in the East. Italy close to its reserve depots and to will be as effectually strangled as the factories which ensure its wis Germany in 1918,
ON CO., LTD. For it is not the Mediterranean replacement, its spare parts, its
itacit, but these two British for treases, which are the key to "Mare
Nostrum."
stores and arms. British war plane fleets, on the other hand, would have to be entirely re-
But
Dutchmen Will
Mind Own
THIS great little country, it must
be remembered, has been at: peace for over a hundred years.
Business
Says Barnaby Cobb
It was partly to discover if the Dutchman's calm had been ruffled by recent events that I visited Holland again.
What would the Dutchman have done had Hitler decided to put such What had the Dutchman said-ori fanciful dreams into action? done when he heard rumours that melting pot of Hitler's dreams to be his great possessions might be in the parcelled out as he thought fl?
GRIN AND BEAR IT
By Lichty
TRUST DEPT.
"More labour trouble, Snodgrass-the vice presidents have or- pinized and gone on strike?"
PUT the question to the man alt- ting opposite to me in the car- riage after we had exchanged cigar- cttes.
"We have a warlike neighbour." he said. "Why talk of tim
As though to humour me he said, finally: Wor is not won by nero-. planes or bombs any more, my friend, We have already seen that. The next war, they say, will be with gas. Well, our provailing wind is from the- west-from the sea.
Only for sixty days in the year does it blow the other way, So you see," he added, with a gesture conveying the futility of further discussion, "the gas would blow towards Germany, not to us." -"But war," I said, "Bas always been won on land with armies and artillery.
ow
Humouring me once more he said: "It is so simple. It war should come with Germany we concentrate army on the N.E. frontier. We can hold that long enough for our civil- Han population in that area to be evacuated. Then we fall back to a line cast of Utrecht and open dykes from the Zuyder Zec, That will save Rotterdam,, Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. No army- con cross that water."
LAT
the
T The Hague, where our train stopped for a moment. I Inter rupted his discourse on tullp-growing to ask if the Queen didn't live there. His solemn expressionleis face Ughted up. "Yes," he said, "and she's a fine woman, our Queen. Like, my mother. She wears four petil- costs,"
His wife didn't wear four patticants he explained, for it wasn't the custom now.
The Queen rode a bicycle, too, liko
ell people in Holland. His mother (Continued on Page: 10,)
Page 30Page 31