THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1948.
A PATH FOR THE POLLEN OF DEATH
Rican
Shila
U.
*MANCHURIA Harbin
Aldan
Verkhne
MARCUS
3510 MILE
2000 PAPER OR RUBBERIZED-SILK BALLOONS 33 FEET IN DIAMETER AND CARRYING BOMBS AND INCENDIARIES WERE RELEASED BY THE JAPANESE FROM NOV., 1944 TO FEB., 1946
BIKING
Arrows show direction of prevalling winds during January
6300 MILES
*5135 MILES
PEARL HARBOR
Where's Wicksteed?
• IF YOU made a blind date last Saturday with Bernard Wickstood you can keep it today on the top of Striding Edge in the Lake District. From there he sends home the first nows of bla random tour....
TELL, here we are-at the top of
Helvellyn, in the Lake District, 3.118 feet above sea level. It's
a wonderful day, with the sun shining on the snow, just as it does in Switzer- land, and the air so clean and good that every breath you take has a kick to it.
I must say I'd no idea when I caught the 10.40 train from Euston that I'd be looking at snow before nightfall. That was just one of those happy chances that come to you when you do things on the spur of the moment.
The reason I chose this place was because of a book I'd been reading about Mount Everest. The author is a climber so pure in his beliefs that he thinks Presa publicity is the curse of mountaineering. He says this
in his book at least three times, so we'll be kind to him and not mention his name or that of his work.
Of course there are plenty of people who will say that Hel- vellyn isn't in the same class-as Mount Everest. It isn't even the bigest mountain in Eng- land, let alone the world, but why worry about that?
So
Gone to
Honolulu
7
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Helvellyn!
an
BORNE BY PREVAILING WINDS, 194 WERE FOUND IN THE U. S., CANADA, ALASKA, MEXICO AND PACIFIC OCEAN. POSSIBLY 900 LANDED BUT WERE NOT FOUND,
T
In
6STH MERIDIAN --- FARTHEST EASTERLY POINT AT WHICH JAPANESE BALLOONS: WERE FOUND
MEXICOL
awYork
Havand
{{RI, MOHOLIRAS ;
HONDURAS JAMAICA
CARAGUA
EXPANALA
RICA
PANAN
CAHAL
MILLIONAIRE WHO NEVER MARRIED
BY GWYN LEWIS
MBITIOUS mothers in British, American, and
A French Society tried for half a century to win as
son-in-law the millionaire Mr Eugene Higgins,► American banker.
But the man known in his youth as "the richest and most eligible bachelor in the States" clung to bachelor- hood until his death, at the age of 09, in a Torquay hotel.
Only two people know the secret of why he never married-Madame Roger Ivy Chappello, his friend for 30 years, and M. Cousteau, his secretary for 41 years.
Madame Chappelle will only say, "Ho was a great gentlason."
His millions, for the most part, will be shared by Harvard, Yale. Princeton, and Columbia universities. They will devote the interest on the residue the £10,000,000 he left to scientific education anul research.
of
Is will, drawn up in Paris in 1936, and a codicil added recently, the day before he tied,
The Higgins fortune was founded by Eugene's father in the carpet business.
Eugene disposed of this business, then vastly increased his inheritance by banking and investment,
Young Eugene took up fencing-with such zest that
he became an amateur champion.
He was a keep horseman. His stables were sald
to be the best-appointed in America.
BUT NO WEDDING
He became the owner of two magnifcent ynchis, first
the Varuna 1,584-ton steam-driven vessel, and, after that wus wrecked In 1913 off Madeira, the Thalassa in which he made his Inst voyage across tlic Atlantic.
Yachting took him to the Mediter- ranean playgrounds.
IIE above map, on Its between New Orleans and Jack prevalent in Russia, Asia and Africa; the pneumonie form of black plague; face, is fascinating his sonville,
104 complete balloons psittacosis or parrot fever; tularemia tory. In its implica- were found in the United States, or rabbit fever; certain typhus-Ilko It was there, when he was 33 tions, it is a warning of what Canada, Alaska, Mexico. and the diseases, and yellow fever.
years of age, that his name was of could happen in the
Ocean; 83 fragments futare, Pacific
Yellow fever could be spread linked with that of Madame Calve, or bomb anywhere, liku the common should a ruthless enemy take balloons, and 32 bombs
cold.one of the great opera singers of her, Rabbit fever could be spread generation. advantage of the natural flow
through the air and produce dis-
fragments.
of winds to sweep balloons The U.S. War Department re- case of the lungs. carrying deadly germs-deadly cognised immediately the terrible possibilities of the balloons for to crops, to animals and to bacteriological warfare. Fortunate-
human beings.
Let's start with history. By U.S. War Department estimates, the Japs
some
the of
·
•
made a
many more
оп
Madame Calve,, who died in 1942, is said to have agreed to consider marringe with Eugene only after The same winds that
yachung cruiso carried she had ly, the Japs confined their experi-
Incendiaries the ineffective Jup incendiaries and with him to "enable her to maku ments to bombs and
be used to carry the up her mind." and, fortunately, the
in bombs can cost launched 9,000 paper on rubberised caquaffles and damage was small. is no special need
terribly effective bacteria. There The cruise was never made.
Rumour supplied for precise ac- silk balloons, from November 1944, Total casunities were six persons to February 1946. The Japs re killed in Oregon by careless hand- curney, as in gunfire or aeroplane candidates for his hand in marriage, If they missed one cily but Eugene Higgins denied all in- member, were experimenting. They
a bomb that had been on bombing.
or one flourishing countryside, an- tention of ever marrying. did not know quite what
they
ground for a month or more,
a prize of other city. another countryside In 1023 ho offered but they had
warning. astonishin
Now, let's consider the
£1,250 for the would do just as well.
best treatise The frightful results. They found that the best
possibilities of time of the year for launching was
was bacteriological warfare were set Look at the wind arrows on the Einstein's theory of relativity. It in the late autumn and winter forth from the detached perspective map. From the Kamchatka Penin- was won by an English clerk. when the west-cast prevailing of the scientist last year in a 40,- suln of Russia, from the Sea
ONLY ONE LOST winds were most favourable. 000-word technical sum
summary pre- Okhotsk, the prevailing winds are January, as the map indicates, was
by Drs T. Rosebury and E. A. north-south. These winds lead into
When his yacht Varuna sank particularly favourable,
ans the general west-cast wind swe during one of his cruises he had 65 EnDay of the College of Physicians the and Surgeons of Columbia Univer- ncross the Pacific. Nearing the sity. They
be guests aboard. Only one life was considered the pos- American coast they would
to the Jost For the Brst time, the U.S. War sibilities of 33 discase-producing diverted gently northward
The French Government awarded viruses Department has revealed that one bacteria and uses in spreading Northwest; abruptly northward to
Canada and Alaska; gently south him a gold medal for saving the of these balloons travelled some pestilence and famine. thing like 6,300 miles, or to the High on the list were anthrax (in ward to the Southwest; abruptly lives of two of his French guests.
The war was responsible for Mr animais and which both
humans); southward to Mexico; or straight in- 85th Meridion (sce map) bisects Hudson Bay, the Great botulism, a form of food poisoning; land. Look at the map-(Map by Higgins spending the last nine years Lakes and Mid-West industrial brucellosis or undulant faver; glan- H. C. Detje. Copyright, 1010, King of his life at Torquay. Ho arrived there shortly before its outbreak in area, slicing Into the Gulf of Mexico ders, a disease of horses and men; Features Syndicate, Inc.)
the yacht Thalassa.
SMERTENKO PLANTS PICKETS · BUT NEW YORK STILL BUYS BRITISH
The 'Boycott Professor'
regrets a flop
Scattered about in little pockets of you can still see the covering rock that was ence sediment at the bottom of that ancient seu. It's called Westmorland limestone, and By EVELYN WEBBER
In such a pleluresque it weathers way that people pay money to have it transported to their rock gardens.
T At Camp IL wo's better take on- other. swig before
tackling the
these camps begin at about 17,-
the beauty 000 feet, but Helvellyn is that you can begin resting as soon as you like and I have a theory that the less still have time to reach the top. you know about anything the
we'll Our expedition
NEW YORK. easier it is to get fun out of it. establish Camp I. at 500 feet. One
THE "Boycott Britain” move- and if you know nothing at all of the native porters on Everest
ment here is a flop-despite about mountains you don't have sustained himself on a long march to go to Tibet for a thrill. by boiling his shirt to make tea, famous Striding Edge. In midsum-the efforts of the Zionists, the but we've no need to do that, be mer there's nothing much to it if "professional Irish" and as- .can get all you want
enuse there's beer in my rucksack you've got a good head for heights.
sorted Britain-haters banded Helvellyn.
and coffee, too, if you'd rather,
Small children and old traverse it easily, but there's melt-together in the so-called "Song Camp I. has a mountain stream ing snow on it now and that makes of Liberty."
man slipped gurgling past it, and though I've it harder. Recently a never been to the Himalayas I'm there and was killed, and half-way rendy to bet that the mountain along is a memorial tablet to some- streams there
better than one else who did the same. those in the Lakes.
You
on
Down in Patterdale, where this expedition begins, the rooks are nesting in the tall trees by the church that was named after St. Patrick because he stopped there once. The lambs are so now they haven't had time to get dirty yet, and the woods are full of infant rab
bits.
Snow skyline
FROM this you raise your eyes to the skyline of snow, und the mountains вест 80 enormous you have no trouble at all in pretending you are looking at the Himalayas from Darjeeling or Kalimpong.
are no
women
Lack of oxygen
Streams have a universal quality as soothing as a symphony concert. The bubble of water as it falls over rocks shuts out external distractions MY wife, who was dragged pr
and
you can dream yourself Tibet without effort.
to
Americans are still drinking our Scotch, wearing our tweeds, cutlery, cating with Sheffield and driving in their new British curs to see British pictures.
Behind the boycott move- ex-ment is 51-year-old-Russian. American Professor, Smertenko formerly a top Bergson group official and executive of Ben Hecht's American League for
Free Palestine.
testing from her children and spring cleaning to join this pedition, began asking at this point But we must not let the pleasures whether our journey was really of the valley keep us too long. It's necessary, and wondering out loud 1,000 feel more to Camp 11, on the if the baby at home was being pro- Striding Edge arcie. Arete? Oh yes, perly fed." we've got them on Helvellyn. You don't have to go to the other end of the world to use words like that.
Lava rocks,
"As we are only pretendlry: this is Mount Everest," she said, "can't we turn back now and also pretend we've been to the top?"
You have to be prepared for that sort of thing at high altitudes. It's Narete is simply a place where a the lack of oxygen, you know. It anti-British literature his or
7
of
Mr Higgins settled down with his secretary and valet. Madame Chap- pelle also stayed at the same hotel. He would never use the holët lift, saying that he enjoyed the exercise of climbing stairs. His day began with physical jerks at 0.30 each morning.
Wealth often engenders a care-
··lessness-over--clothes, but—every-
dressed fur
Seven--co-workers were mailing. requests for literature. Five more were preparing a "Doycott bulletin evening Mr Higgins dedicated to hitting the British dinner and would not enter the din
ing room until Madame Chappelle Government.". It contained brand
buttonhole.
names and manufacturers of Eritish had pinned a pink rose in his goods of many kinds.
Three months ago he was perudd-
ENCE OLIVIER.
been
TFRI 215.8.30
TWEE JEWELRY BEN
INDITIONED
DONT
PARTY TO KERDEN
"A lovely tight." says Pra- fassor Smertenko: Britain's Hamlet Tim is picketed at Boston.
interpretation
alt.
!
had
The executive bald there had noted to allow a local doctor to ex-
him after his health outside New amine any. pickets York
bave cinemas, "We
Just given cause for anxiety. threatened exhibitors, that's We have been helped by the panicky film trade Press and some of your own film, uxhibitors who have announced they won't send their pictures here because they are afraid.
IN EVENING DRESS
On August 8, his secretary and valet entered his bedroom to areas their master for his last voyage.
He lay
was in full dead, but evening dress waen his embalmed anybody was taken aboard the liner pickets we did employ would have Queen Mary at Southampton for to be volunteer ones-and we have New York, where he was buried. to find them first."
"They don't
know that
Pinned to his dress jacket was tho medal he had won for bravery. (An all-star programme of
Relatives recalvo under the will British revivals, "Four Feathers" small legacies of few thousand and "The Drum," is now showing pounds "merely as tokens of affec- despite the boycott fu the pre- tionate remembrance and regard dominantly Jewish Bronx
and knowing that all are already amply Brooklyn districts. These pictures provided for." were booked by one of America's biggest circuits.)
the
SALES WENT ON
"Only three exhibitors out of many we have circularised have so for refused to show British Alms," he added.
And your 45 percent quota has a fot to do with that. We are just taking advantage of the 'situation."
Professor Smertenko, bland, bald-
ing soft-voiced, said: "Two New ' of York department slores. wero
New York reports of the will, make no mention of provision for Madame Chappelle.
Shortly before Mr Higgins died a lawyer had been called from New
York to discuss the will.
MODEL CARS
ON SHOW
HE COPIES HECHT Smertenko uses the IIecht.. line. He quotes, George Washington in the virulently There aren't any yaks on the A couple of glaciers have caters into saps the
Their will power and makes ganfaation sends out. He even lower slopes of: Helvellyn, but a mountain from two aides and left you imagine things, like the tracks copies Hecht's use of the Irish. liberty. for others la to tele- picketed. I regret to say that sales London now can be reen model from a distance the sheep look a sharp and precipitous knife-edge of abominable snowmen. much the same. They are called behind.
In the Himalayas the critical stage is around 20,000 feet, but on Herdwicks, these sheep in the
The glaciers on Halvellyn melt- Helvellyn you get there sooner and Lake District, and they are ed about 10,000 years ago when the
the abominable snowmen wear much more use than yaks be- Ice Age ended in England but we hobnail boots and leave orange peel cause they earn dollars. Their needn't tell the Everest boys that. In their tracks.
And anyway, thero's still so much
wool goes to America and is snow that it's cary to think there's made into carpots.
still ice.
do
Tittlo
Over the brow
snow and
+
A
radio-controlled model of the battleship. Vanguard.
Jet-propelled frcraft, model. phone American firms wishing continued in both storea despite "An all-Irish picket at the to sell British goods or Ameri- our pickets. We will just have to racing-cars capable of 20 mph, and
educate the people. theatre-owners wishing Boston showing of Britain's can
They are among nearly 450 show British filins,
He admitted- bo did not know and Hamlet was a lovely sight," he to show
where the money would come from. pieces at the Model Engineer Ex told me, "and" (fixing me with threaten to picket them unless king at a small pile of dona hibition at the New Royal Horticul-
tural Hall, Westminster. menacing stare)we have they instantly join the boycott. tions for the day (they totalled
The exhibition, regarded as the William Ziff, vice-chairman of
25-the largest was for 258.) he finest of its kind in the world, shows They ore attempting to open the American League,, and Mr.branches in Philadelphia, Boston, told me:
this year, for the first time, model I rend in a book once that no At this point I think we should
Connally of the Echo, support Detroit and Los Angeles.
"We've spent all we got since we craftsmanship from many parts of
the
world. Canada, France, Sweden, scientific work
started three months ago—-£8,000. other breed has the same power
Workers in the organisation are We need £50,000 a month to get of CO, grilling out teeth, we press on,ing us."
Switzerland, Holland, Austria to
anch.. justify the expense of resistance or the same ready coming here.
two executives
Norway are represented. We won't call it up to our knees in
(When I left Smertenko I young. The top
effective action. are part-Umo students whose wit. The hardiness part I can geology, because that sounds auch wishing we'd never set out. Then, believe, but how does sheep a bere, but it does add to the in- hours later and quite unexpectedly, telephoned Mr Charles Con- salary is £10 a week (less than a "Twelve pages of advertisement now) cost us over £2,000. We spent £430 show its wit? All those on our torest of the expedition to know we come over the brow and we're nally, editor of the Irish Echo, street-elenner's wage here
occupy two floors of a who told me Indignantly: "I Offices
ou public meetings (our "last" near routo take one look at us and how the rocks you are climbing got up.
there.
everything seems clear off without a single ban -
ed by Rabbi Korff, who wanted to
posters and pamphlets. We need Most of the Lake District is made and
is exhibiting a detailed, scala Derwentwater and Skiddaw those organisations. Don't let bomb London.
more workers desperately-volun- of repartee.
del of the Old Berkeley Coach teers, naturally, ... of lava that welled out through and Scawfell, and it's good to be them got away with that.") up
One of the executives told me:
once the fastest means of transport On all the best mountaineer cracks in the earth a couple of alive.
I feel I saw Smertenko In the "Sometimes In our iile suburban way wo've
"The Sons of Liberty? ho echo on the road. The model is worth ing axpeditions the climbers. hundred million years before Himalayas existed. In fact, establish a sorics of rest camps whole area had been to the bottom that's more than the Everest boys the methods of his liberty- boycott. But the professor says and the organisation are both my ing is a 34-cylinder aloeve valve
the done what we wanted to do, and where they gather strength for of the sea and come up again before can say. They haven't climbed it
loving associates.
we'll get results that way."
Enero engine. the tests to come. On Everest Everest was more than a molchill. yet.
the
Immediately
A number of the exhibils ́wers made by women, There is, for example, a reallatic model of horses'
a timber tug iade by Mi 74d woman.
worth while, There's Windermere am not a member of any of Manhattan hotel, formerly, tenant- Ben Hecht's home) and £600 on ME, G. Hollebone, of Speldhurst,
ittle like B
course of an investigation into dictator picking up a telephone ed, in reply to my question. "Yes, £500.
and threatening people with that's our name. And the name. A miracle of miniature engineer.
Idea."
L