Thursday,:
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
MAGAZINE
April 11, 1940.
PAGE
DRAMA OF A NAZI GRIN AND BEAR IT
NAVAL FUNK HOLE
"I WOULD
Here is told the
THE KIEL CANAL
rather have the neutralisation of the Kiel Canal than a thousand Heligolands," said Winston Churchill during the peace. negotiations of 1918.
He was speaking from experi- ence, for it was the opinion of naval strategista during the war that the Kiel Canal more than doubled the potential value of Germany's navy.
*
I represented a bolt hole not
only from the North Sea but from the Baltic, and in less than nine hours a German warship could pass from one sea to the other.
Blanurck, Germany's Iron Chan- cellor, had realised the potentinil- tics a generation before. I was his legacy to the young empire.
Until it was built the only route for all sea traffic between the Bul- fle and the North Sea was round the long Jutland penlasula, and through one of the three tortuous passages of the Little Belt, the Great Belt, and the Sound, which separate the islands between Jut- land and Sweden.
Linking Jutland with Germany are the flat sea marshes of Schleu wig-Holstein, scarcely higher than the sen, Through these marshes Bismarck started to drive his canal in 1887.
It was finished In 1895, 6114 mlies of waterway, a ̃ ̄few ́miles longer than the Panama Canal. protected from the maradand by high banks and crossed every few miles by high-level bridges.
On June 18 of that year it was officially opened and christened the Emperor William Canal. Nearly every Power in Europe was present at the celebrations. We sent some of our latest and most efflelent warships and King George V., then Prince of Wales, to, represent us..
IT was afterwards suggested
that the ceremonies had a double-edged significance, for да the British warships steamed slowly through the canal after the Imperial yacht, official, German photo- graphers stood on the banks and took close-up photographs of them.
As soon as the ceremonies were over the Emperor showed Europe that he realised as well as any one else the military importance of the work.
There followed years of measure and counter-measure, spying and counter-esplonuge.
For as soon as Germany, mode confident by the canal, aufopted cocksure altitude towards Western Europe, Britain built her dread- noughts. The Emperor, too, kept up the race.
There he realised that efficient as his great warships might be, they were too large to go into the Kiel Canal
German opinion about widening and deepening the canal was clori- ned in 1909 by a mysterious acci dent. A
Belgian steamer passing through the Canal on her way to the Baltle struck one of the banks, sprung a leak, slewed completely across the canal, and sank.
This anticipation of Zeebrugge startled Germany. Withlo A month the work of reconstruc- tion started; it was reckoned that It would lake seven years.
Germany guarded the secrets of the canal zealously. Two years before the war
an apprehensive
English newspaper painted out that this was the only way down which German warships could pass from the Baltic to the North Sea in wartime.
In August 1912 Ave. Engilshmen were arrested near the Kiel Canal
suspected sples. The
дя
'Bame
full dramatic story of Germany's vital
waterway, which Bismarck built.
month the Emperor sent out. in- structions that the work at re- construction must be speeded up.
*
IN the summer of 1914 the work was finished, two years before schedule.
com-
It had cost £11,150,000, pared with the £7,000,000 cost of original construction, and the canal had been widened from 215 feet fo 331 feet, deepened from 29 feet to 30 feel. Here and there Inlets had been built so that two ships could pass.
The sluices near Holtenau, the gateway to Kiel Harbour, were the Inrgest in the world.
On June 24, 1914, the canal was reopened.. At the dinner which followed the opening the Kaiser made no attempt to hide his jubi- Intion.. He gave some facts about the canal.
He pointed out that in the sld- ings in which ships could pass the whole of the German Navy could _be_accommodated. It was noted. by the guests that Kiel had become Germany's Portsmouth, defended by powerful batteries on both sides of the harbour.
The southern end of the canal was guarded by Cuxhaven, then the most strongly fortifed district on the whole German const. A ship with a draught of anything more than twenty feet-that is, anything bigger than a second- class cruiser-would be compelled by sandbanks to keep within 2,000 yards of the const for more
than twelve miles.
"Germany," said the Emperor at that dinner, "must be in a position to carry out one of the best say- Ings of the Iron Chancellor: We Germans fear God and otherwise absolutely nothing and no one in the world. **
BUT two days Inter an in-
cident occurred which marred the even tenor of Ger- many's celebrations.
Police guarding the Imperial Duckyard at Kiel noticed that a little rowboat was within the limit prescribed by tho huge notices which warned off "Trespassera." They arrested the rower, who was an elderly man,
Two hours later he established his identity as Lord Brassey, one of Britain's most distinguished re- presentatives. Lord Brassey also the founder and editor of the Naval
celebrated Review and a naval observer.
Wan
The police had no alternative but to release him.
A week later, on July 4, 1914, an Elustrated London paper published a map of the canal and noted with alarm its signi- Псапсе.
A month later England and Germany were at war.
All strangers were immediately forbidden either to enter or leave the town of Kiel. All, restaurants and popular places near the har- bour had already been closed for several days. All neutral vessela were ordered to clear the port within twenty-four hours.
For the rest of the war the canal was the secure haven of refuge for the German Fleet, and a thorn in the side of the Allies.
Hence Mr. Churchill's declara- tion. He had his way: the Kiel Canal
Internationalised, W35
thrown open to the ships of mil tutions:
Within four years Germany challenged the treaty. The British ship Wimbledon, carry- Ing war munlilons. from Franco to Poland (who was fighting Rus- sia) was held up by the Germans In the Kiel Canal.
'France appealed to the Court-of International Justice at The Hague, and the treaty was upheld by the Court, which ordered Germany to pay £1,000 damages to the French Government.
*
FOR years after the war the only warship which the cunal saw was a French des- troyer guarding the mouth of Kiel harbour.· Krupps' works outside Kiel stood silent and empty.
A lew bitter anti-Germans wanted to destroy the canal, as they had destroyed the fortißen- tlons on Helgoland. The only concession to them was the destruc- tion of Fort Laboe, a fortined tower was built up again—into a Rigantic obelisk to the memory of Germann sailors lost in U-boats.
Within Aftcen yours Germany began
to rebuild her fortifications on Helgoland.
Krupps are busy again outside Kiel harbour, and the "Trespass" notice boards are up again.
PHOTOGRAPHY
176
By Lichty
1-301
"We hope our work is okay, lady—an' wo'd appreciate it if you'd recommend us to yer friends!"
PICTURES BY HOME LIGHTS
PHOTO bulbs either
the flood or flash type-are used for most indoor pictures at night.
However, such pictures can also be taken by ordinary home lighting..
even with cameras that don't have fast lenses.
The only difference is in the time of exposure.
With the photo bulbs, you can make snapshot exposures. But with ordinary service bulbs, short time exposures are needed, unless the camera has a fast lens.
Now that we have modern high speed films, the exposures re- quired are quite short. .. ca- pecially if the subject is near the light source.
For example, note the picture on the right. The child's fuce is about one foot from the light, which in an ordinary 100-watt ball. Therefore, an exposure of 1 second was ample, using a box camera loaded with high speed film. Slightly less exposure would have sufficed.
TIME exposures are about as easy to take as snapshots but you must remember to have the camera on a firm, solid support.
That's to insure. against acci- dent movement during exposure. If either the subject or the camera moves, the picture will be blurred.
The farther the subject is from the light, the longer you must ex- pose. Suppose, in the picture above, the child was five or six fent from the light. Then, with a box camera and high speed film, the exposure would have been 10 to 20 seconds.
Excellent exposure guides are now available for pictures by re- gular home lighting. These are helpful in taking pictures of people, still-life shots, table-top scenes, and so forth. They also provide a guide for picturing the rooms of the home; and, of course, rooms look more natural when photographed with the normal lighting.
..
སྐ
SOME evening soon, lond up your camera with high film and try a series of plc- tures by regular home light-
ing.
Watch for "off guard" picture chances-members of the family altung quietly under a lamp, reading or sewing.
A quick time exposure of a second or so will get them.
Shoot a fow "Interiors," show- ing different rooms of the house and maybe a table-top pleture, or two..
It's easy and you'll find more aubjects than you think,
A ano-second time exposure was ample for this, with a box samera, high- speed him, and 100-watt buth in jamp.
by LORD HALIFAX
THIE war certainly has not
T
developed as many people expected, and it is certainly not surprising that one of the consequences of that should have been some criticism of the Government.
Some people say we have taken a lot of action and imposed many restrictions that experience shows to have been unnecessary and are merely evidence of bureaucratic red tape, which we all very pro- perly dieliko.
No one could tell before the war that these precautions were going to be
pass without a great land offensive by Germany it would be the equl- valent of a victory in major campaign for the Allies. I am not competent to assess the value of that opinion, but I do know that we have made very good use in
We deed of these last months. have taken advantage of them to push on with our production and to land our ever-growing Expedi- tionary Force in France and, above all, to co-ordinate every side of our war effort with that of the French.
The #nancial and economic agreements we have made with arc unprecedented and open a new chapter in the relations between our two countries, and we hope that the close system of col- laboration which these arrange- ments represent may in time find a basis even broader and may lead on to such free and close associa flon in economic and financial spheres between the nations of Europe na may hold out in the future the best hope of peaceful reconstruction.
France unnecessary. Certainly no Government could have taken the chance of being on the wrong side, and the blame that is attached to us for action would, I suggest, be nothing to the blame that would rightly have attached to us if we had been, in fact, caught unpre- pared. The fact that precautions have been taken is one of the in- fluences which have deterred our enemy from taking a particular course of action.
M
M M THERE was another wider consideration.
Germany's only chance of win- ning this war was to win a quick war by cashing-in on the advan- tage they possessed through ton preparations, through their forti- fications in the West, their strength, and their readiness to stop at nothing in waging war by Бел.
ar in
ON and the French Army slands, as ever, the ballon of Western civilization, and here also we did not, as last time, wait until nearly four years had gone.
Unity of command was realised from the very first day of the recognition that wo in this country give to the Valour and military efficiency of our French Allies our troops, since the war began, have been under the command of a French Commander-in-Chief to
And to send where he thinks it. Meanwhile the Germans have been concentrating their efforts on forms of warfare that they have made particu larly their own. Indteerimtriate warfaro At DA against Kiritish, Allied, and neutral shipping quite impartially, by the unrestricted use of the submarine
But in spite of every breach of inter- hevo national las Cam gained astonishingly "fitila by
Bince the convoy system has been organised something like 6,000 ships had end of December, been conveyed to with the lots of only one in 500, To-day the oceans of the world have boots swept clear of German shina and 140,000 tons run aground or scustica.
Yet
to they have hesitated launch this big offensive on land
in the air.
and raine. Certainly not, I think, because of any tender feelings for you and me, but simply for the rea- son that makes the bully hesitate to hit someone who may hit him back.
I have heard it onld by men of responsibility and trained judg ment that if the winter were to
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