THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1947.
It's Fun Finding Out
by
BERNARD WICKSTEED
HAVE beon studying ichthyology, some- thing I might never have done had I not spent two years of the war navigating a Beaufighter piloted by a Falmouth tobacconist.
We have just had a reunion, my pilot and I, and what do you suppose we talked about? Air battles and prangs? The party in the mens when old So-and-so pulled out a gun and shot at flies on the ceiling?
No, we hardly got round to these subjects because our time was fully occupied talking about gupples.
And guppica, you'll Ond, cannot be lightly dismissed. Among other thing they help to explain why re- habilitation hin presented no pro- blems to Mr A. B. "Len" Harvey, my old pilot.
In fact, it is through the guppy that he has changed, without trouble, from being a D.S.O. plot and mem- ber of the Goldfish Club (you have to have ditched in the sen to get in) to no less a figure than the founder and president of the Cornwall Aquarist and Pond Breeders' As- nociation,
He is also able to boast that, so far 4 he knows, every guppy in Corn- wall is descended from the original pair he brought back to his Lo- bacconist's shop when he was de- mobbed Inst March.
Personally I had never heard of guppy before, and perhaps some of you haven't either, so I'll explain right away that it's a small tropical Ash that gets its name from a man in the West Indies who sent some to the British Museum in 1006.
His family was originally French and named Goupil, which they pro- nounced Goopy, but when they moved to the West Indies they found that everyone called them Guppy.
You can't
keep a good
guppy down
He has what he calls a fish house at the bottom of the garden. It is rather ke A greenhouse (with plumbing by Mealand), but instead of plants inside hen got about 50 heated aquariums or tanks as we aquarisis call them.
About age
With this end in view one guppy breeder has offered to put up a challenge cup for the biggest male guppy of the year.
the
Now then, how do you tell difference between a good guppy and und one? First of all they save to be the right shape in the body (15 marks).
Then there's the tail, which is most important. Six different tail shapes allowed-spear, lyre, upper- sword. and round (30 marks).
lower-sword, double-sword
THATS where he spends most of
his spare time.
His wife, here says, is not so interested in fish as he is. ever
So they took this name on, and ex- cent for ecensional throw-hacks the Goups have been Guppies
since.
Hawever, it is the guppy fish and not the Goopy family that interests Harvey and me and, considering that they're only an inch
or so long and that
you can buy one for
birth
Cupples don't lay eggs. They give
alive. to their young!
Mr Mealand bred one once that had 120 at a birth.
Jd., it's surprising how Guppy Dates
popular they arc.
with
you KAW publication called the C.U.S. Year Book, for instance, would you think I had SoInc- ป.กร 14 do George Bernard Show?
Harvey and I kanw belter than that. We know it the handbook of the Guppy Breeders'
Society.
Mr
1859-Discovered in
Venetucla.
1866-Preserved
spect
mens sent to the British Museum. 1908-Flent brought to
Europe alive. 1946-Djicovered by
Bernard Wicksteed.
Then there is the current Issue of the Aquarist, edited by Mr A. Fraser- Brunner, a scientist at the British Museum.
This in speelal цирру number with a coloured supplement howing 10 guppies of ideal colour and dimension.
There's also a strip cartoon in it featuring Gussie the Guppy. and several announcements of forthcom- inf guppy shows.
About a name ALL. ls, mind you, about a 9d.
fish that doesn't even get a men- tion in the Oxford Dictionary--not under its English name, anyway. There's poppe, guppe, g'up, guipp and guep, but they're all cpntrac tions of "get up, which is not fish but something you say to a horse,
So, just that I should now more what he was talking about next time
have we
a reunion, I accompanied the Cornish aquarist, alias Flight- Lleutenant Harvey, on a tour of his contacts in London.
The first man we called on was Mr R. G. Mealand, who is a plumber in Putney. He's reckoned as a king- pin among guppy breeders and holds the GGB (Gold Guppy Badge). There is only one higher honour left and that is the G.JG.B., or Gold Jewelled Guppy Badge.
Weather Gone Haywire
BY QUIZ
the season of Now is
showers and breezes. The sort of weather for an umbrella and a philosophic turn of humour.
A boisterous clumsy sort of wind, as full of pranks as a mischievous schoolboy, can be quite fun-and ikeable but I never could become acclimatized to the sharp, inquisi- tive piercing wind that, with cold, seeking Angers, gels by all the do- and fences of furs and woollies. keeps its victim chilled and shiver- ing.
Their expectation of life varlen with the temperature of the water you keep them in. At 65 to 75 de- grees they ought to live three years, It the water is warmer than that they live a much foster Ike
and consequently die Boomer, just like the rest of us.
They eat fish food which you buy in shops and also little live
called things daphnine that can be caught with a net in ponds and
static water tanks, They'll also cat eggs for breakfast....eggs of other flait of course, as they don't lay any of their own.
Guppies are popular for many rea- sons. Some people, like Mr. Mean land, get pleasure out of breeding new varieties. Others like to keep
The fins,
score 15, the colour 30 and the con- or Annage, as we say, dition of the fish 10, making a pos. sible 100 for the perfect guppy.
Experiments have shown that the male recognises the female by sight and not smell.
gentleman
In fact, a susceptible guppy was found to show interest In the shadowed silhouette of a lady guppy.
on a
The maximum distance at which a female can exert any lure male is 5.9055ins., which is just about the distance he can see.
About bubbles
ROM Mr Mealand's Putney fish house we went to one in a North London back garden that is kept by Mr. H. J. D. Dunbar, an analytical chemist in the paint business.
But Mr. Dunbar has rather gone off guppics Intely. He's become much more interested in the bubblenesters. Bubblenesters lay eggs and are
Д quite
different type of tropical fish. They come from Slam and China and pinces like that.
ANTI-FRANCO UNDERGROUND
By Carl Hartman
AFTER more than 10 years during
which Generalissimo Francisco Franco's government has punished political opposition as "milllary re- bellion," the clandestino under- ground forcea continue to fight against his rule in a conspiratorial atmosphere of false names, hidden mlineōgraphs and sudden polico raids.
An outline of how one clandestine group operates is shown by a copy of a letter from the "Union of Free Intellectuals" (Union de Intellec- tuales Libres U.IL.) to Jono Oiral, until recently Prime Minister of the Spanish Republican Govern- ment-in-Exile.
This document has by now un- doubtedly reached the hands of the Franco authorities.
The U.LL. clatma to be an all- party anti-Franco troup, and although its literature closely fol- lows the Communist line, diplomats who have met some of its represen- tatives say it contains spokesmen of other parties, too.
How System Works
The letter to Giral explains:
or
"Our organisation adopts, in general terms, the following system. Each section covers a university dis- trict (Spain has 12 universities) and la led by a superior council. Under fls direction are local councils in those provincial capitals whoso im- portance require them. The level below this is the group, with a chairman and secretary. The group contact the chairman I divided into sub-groups which through their chlefs.
secretary
"Maximum rigour is practised in the use of pseudonyms and such in- dispensable measures of security as the avoidance ings and
ince of over-large macet- extensive acquaintance- ships not required by the activities of the
regular organisation. No. afternoon meetings in cafes, no per- sonal sequaintances and no sporn die jumping from level to level. Everything is completely arranged down to discussions by every mem- constant use of the right of criticism ber of fundamental problems, with
by all members. Within the measures of security required by clandestine activity, the Democratic norms are scrupulcualy observed."
2,000 Membara
The organisation claims to have enrolled 2,000 active members in its two years of work. Its purpose is to unite "all Spaniards in the intel lectual professions" who want to overthrow Franco and restore the Republic.
The U.I.L. represents one type of underground activity. Some clon- destine organisations have more and others try direct contact with guerilla groups, cadres and collect arms against the to form military day when they can rise against the government: party especially
Communist guerillas and the formation of
help to the "National Resistance Council" to direct their operations,
The
urges
cently arrested at least 20 alleged In the Barcelona area, police re-
members of the "Agrupacion de Fuerzas Armadas de In Republica Espanoln" (Grouping of Anned Repubile) initials ag usually known from its AFARE. In Tarragona, a cache of dynamite
them for the beauty of their rainbow they make a nest by blowing sticky Forces of the Spanish
As you can guess from the name bubbles which cling together on the. culouring
top of the water. The male pushes There are several scientists who the female into it and won't let her breed them in order to study here- out till she's laid her eggs. alty, and thousands have been releas ed in places where there is malaria, beenuse they eat mosquito larvae.
About imports
Before guppies got their present RESIDES being one of the fore- name they were called rainbow or D. most breeders of the bubble- millions fish. Even the scientists 100k nesters,--Mr-Dunbar-is-the-hon. some time to agree on a name for secretary of the Federation of British them.
The British
called them Girar dinus guppi and the Germans some- thing else, and wasn't until 1013
that they hit on Lebistes reticulatus might which made everyone happy.
Male guppies
pre much smaller than females, though they are better coloured. Recent breeding has tended to make them even smaller, and there now a movement to make the males bigger and the females brighter.
is
N. may become a yearly habit. In 1814, after the Napoleonic Wars, Europe was in an iron grip of cold, even colder than the recent ice age". "Fortunately, the weather regained its sanity, and we have had a cen tury of fairly moderate
winters since, though there have been a few extra chilly lapses, perhaps.... Then there is the big bully type of wind that uses gusty bludgeoning
Then there is the atomic bomb' to get one down. Throw, out the school ut thought. The weird cheat and stand up to the breezy weather is all blamed on that...But fellow. The tussie la a tonic and a hlatory records that it has happened beautifer, giving rosy checks and long before, although, perhaps, the sparkling eyes.
head-waggers of Napoleonic days put it all down to the infernal machines of those warlike timest
All over the world the weather has gone 'haywire. It is treating Europe with cruel severity, literally throwing money down the drain, and costing untold sums in misery and suffering.
suu, there may be some con- nection between the tomic ex- periments and Mother Nature's chilly choler, and I sometimes sliver in my shoes at the thought of
It has happened before, so per atomle South. Polo experiments haps that will prove to be some blowing off the world's ice cap and consolation to those who think that precipitating another ico age.
arms,
ammunition and was confiscated,
Spain's Gestapo
Spanish police has the "Politico- To fight clandestine groups, the Social-Brigade," headed by Lizardo Alvarez Perez. It appears to work largely through former Leftists, who initrate the resistance groups and inform the police at an opportune moment,
Aquatic Societies, which is now try- ing to persunde the Government to lift the import ban on tropical fislı,
He says that if this was done we
be able
able to capture the world's
Franco Spain bubblenester markets guppy and
was one of the formerly held by the Germans.
countries whose police signed an Well, that's all I know about gup-change methods
agreement with the Gestapo to ex- pics at the moment, but I hope to Gestapo chief
and information, know much more soon because, what made n visit to Spain during the Heinrich Himmler do you think? I've bought a tank and some guppies myself to see if subsequently the Cross of Merit of Alvarez Porez was awarded they'll settle my rehabilitation pro- the Order of the German Eagle--
Associated Press.
blems.
war.
WILLIAM HICKEY
BANK INTEREST?
AGE when a man becomes too old for a job is always dia. puted, but Barclay's Bank seem to be setting a new low...
When civilian high-ups were in- vited to a lecture by Field-Marshal arrived four minutes before the lec MONTGOMERY about his tour they
ture was due to begin, considering that sumclent margin to They want a caretaker or them to be in their places before messenger at a local branch, but time.
enable
الله
a former-bank clerk, now 45 Yet a military police corporal re- and disabled, who applied for fused admission, saying that it was
the deld-marshal's rule that the job ja told: "We are only those attending his lectures should considering applicants under be in their places 10 minutes be-
forehand.
Not having been told. they went away.
37."
And six years the locusts have eaten.
Toing holidaying dollars.
:
Even at functions when the Royal Family are present, five minutes is considered the courteous margin,
THOUGH charged with the job of
to A
MONG my household goods un- Britain, appointments to the
packed after seven years, was Tourists' Board have not aroused rent list of a London wine merchant a tantalising flash-back-the cur- much interest.
In 1030, have little enough to share
Most people seem
.to thirik
we Croft's 12 was 14s. Bd. a bottle, with 174s. a casó, tourists and cannot
Bollinger 28 at 20s. stomach the thought of any more pity or praise. whisky were offered and 30 kinds was expensive; 23 brands of good Only comment was that Miss of bottled beer. And only Reven CAROLINE HASLETT odds yet an- years ago, with "goods unused other non-paid job to her collection credited on return" and "telephone of Government boards and councils orders instantly despatched"
think it is now sixteen.
Her capabilities and energy are WOULD-BE divorcee in Kansas unbounded; I admire her greatly, City complained that her husband especially her gift for getting on as was "disagreeable, Irrliable, morbid, well with women as she does with cool, bitter, jealous, heckling, pica- men. And all this extra' work is yunish, loathsome. inmilting done without ever neglecting the job brazen, miserly, gluttonish, tempera- for which she is pold.
mental, selfish, contemptuous, in- attentive, uncivil and inconsi- derate."
Maybe she didn't love him.
•
Yet is there nobody else? DELATIONS between the War
Office and some of the civil de partments are strained.
*Insignificant.
66
REMINISCENCE OF PARIS
By STRUBE
PEACE: "I hope they'll remember the unity the other four achieved 28
years ago.”
BY THE WAY Beachcomber
the Ieller, "to
custard hot back to front, or sideways If en- trance is to be made through a side wall. So that all will know whether
Rustiguzzi, interviewed recently, said, "I don't know what came over me. I certainly lost my Wagnerian feeling for a moment."
they are coming or going on dark nights, small rear lights will be fixed to the front of each bat or cap, Note on picture-faking
"A MUSIC lover" writes in one step from this sort of thing," con- This can be helped by wearing the
dignantly to say that it is cludes unfortunate that, at a moment throwing anties." when the eyes of musical Europe are on the new craze for fearfully good music in England, a distinguished singer, making, his entrance in the part of Tris- tan, should be greeted by Bsolde with the irrelevant, disrespect- ful and absurd cry.
"Hello, Palsy Fagan!" Such incidents, says
the writer, are not likely to attract the tourist or to encourage great foreign conductors to visit England. "It is but
To simplify matters
IN the case of those prefabricated
BOOKSELLER who went into the
A pleture-faking business described houses which have been built a picture which he had picked up as back to front, local authorities (in, a very rare Fragonard." Probably touch with authoritative spokesman there were only about 18 imitations in official quarters) are being em- of it in existence. It used to be said powered to compel the tenants to by men of the world that there were cultivate a backwards walk when en- only 34 Rembrandts in existence, 51 tering the house from the wrong side. of which were in the United States.
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