1931-12-10 — Page 2

THE CHINA MAIL.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1931.

MOTOR-CARS AND CRIME.

A Disquieting Problem.

MOTORISTS THIS IS YOUR PAGES

.

FORD PLANES.

Aid in Combating Forest Fires.

a small parcel of very warehouses and roads, and 'chasing safety mensures has been enor- of quite

They were carried actual thieves with fast cars direct- mous. In the first place, an ade-costly rings. quate force of very fast police cars off in a mass-production car, com-ed by telephone and wireless,

Several palliatives have been sug- must be maintained over the whole pletely indistinguishable from hun- area. Secondly, élaborate com-dreds of sister vehicles. Within a gented, and it is conceivable that' munications are needed to concen-mile of the scene of the theft, this some of these palliatives may yet!

Such measuresj Ford trimotor planes during the trate the speed patrols at the small parcel was transferred to an- be forced upon us. briefest imaginable notice in any other mass-production car of ajinclude mechanical provision for past Summer, "successfully aided in at some un-making care comparatively thief-combating forest fires in the United Thoar of us who assisted to de- locality where a crime is reported.' different make; and velop the motor-car from a noisy Thirdly, a network of foot patrols known distance farther along the proof. The ignition lock is useless, States forest preserves in the North- and unreliable toy into universal must cover the whole area, in order thieves' ultimate route, the spoils but a goarlock is far more promis- west, according to information just transport failed to realise the glee set the speed patrols in action were handed over to yet a third car, ing. Some police authorities con received by the Ford Motor Com- mean of the lightning com-equally indistinguishable. Two of sider that personal identity cards pany from N. B. Mamer, operations with which the underworld would by

But this de- the three cars are supposed to have may one day be forced upon us. manager of Mamer Air Transport,i adopt the new locomotion and theunication syster..

creates reac-been stolen, and the third very Others hold that a modification of air mall operators, of Spokane. velopment natural it was to

Flying over dangerous rugged acute problems which create for the police forces of the tions. London is not the only part possibly bore an imaginary or re- the French octrol system would

help; that outside every consider-country, through dense smoke and world. The professional criminal of England where rich booty awaits varsible number.

As motor bur- The Police's Main Dificulty. able city each main road should be in tempestuous, air currents boiling of life the daring thief. bas snatched a new leaне

It is very greatly to the credit furnished with a safe and simple up from the fires beneath, Mr. with the aid of the motor-cur, and glaries are made more and more

be Mamer, at the controls of a Ford has been able to fend off the as-risky in the Metropolis, the expert of the police that they already. con- type of barrier, which could

A1 trimelor, powered with Wright J6 repentedly transported cendancy whith scientifle police thief shifts his attention to the trol so difficult a position in all its brought into action at will. methoda were fast establishing over provinces; and the inevitable corol- major aspects. If they were allow-present when the pece definitely engines,

gang of dangerous large crews of Government firs lory is the building up of a similar ed to defend themselves againat: know, that a There was a time when an inno-system of safeguards in the other criticism they would probably cluim thieves are racing into London by fighters and their equipment front] Spokane to the acene of fires in the' Idaho and the Nez Perce forests cent Home Office imagined that a

THE MODERN “SHIP OF THE DESERT"

during the dry season late in the system of registration and number-

Summer. The fights were accom- plates would checkinate the dis-

plished in approximately two hours, honest motorist. They ought to

whereas four to five days wauki have been disillusioned at the very

have been forced to travel by rail, outset when a mischievous journ-

motor car and pack horse. alist, perceiving the meshes in the Government net, announced that he, had driven his car scatheless fur three months with a licence-holder. containing the label.soaked off a bottle of atout. The Home Office was shocked, but it did not perceive the red lamp. To-day everybody knows that the registration-book is an expensive nuisance and does no It practical service to anybody. occasionally assists the buyer of a second-hand car to discover its pre-: cise age; but he can always obtain this more accurably by sending the

the factory. | chassis numbers to

him.

cities.

Buicks are helping to Automobiles are rapidly displacing camets and Arah horse in the desert. carry the desert mail as well as furnich fost transperiatlon for the Arab shulka. Note the plumed midla tor cup and the old and new Arable numerals on the fcense plate.

.r

During the coure of the fires the Ford trimator carried 300, fire fighters and their equipment into the district, as well as 60,000 lb. of equipment and merchandise. For this purpose the seats were removed so that maximum loads could be! carried. The plane, thue lightened, repeatedly carried londs af 2,500 to 3,000 lb. of men and merchandise, even though it was necessary to climb up

to 14,000 feet to clear the mountains and the stifling smoke from the fires beneath,

Most of the fighters and their equipment were landed at Chamber- lain Bassin Meadows field in the Idaho National Forest 6,000 feet above sea level. Others were de- livered at a field recently developed by the forest service at Moose Creek] in the Selway National Forest, The latter feld lies at the confluence of Mose Creek and Selway River. It is 1,700 feet long and surrounded by high mountains and tall, dense! Limber.

The criminal scouts the whole of this cautionary organisation. If a man is going to burgle a bank, or' anatch a cashier'a bag, or smash- and grab a jeweller's shop, minor offences do not worry him. He will perhaps equip a car with reversible number-plates. The crime will be committed with car XXXX42, and 38 Moon as the wires are singing with that number the plates will car YYY124 be swung over, and will pass innocently through the

from-for example-the Aviators said that no plane could The provinces furnish no that sooner or later they lay all the night cordon with which the police have surrounded the area. It is even such acute problem for the police. leaders of the new crime by the north, they experience considerable be landed there, according to Mr." possible to.camouflage a car, så A provincial city admits of closer heels, and that their main trouble difficulty in stopping them, even Mamer, who was doubtful himself thut its appearance can be substan- shepherding; ita residents are more is that anybody can join the ranks when the appearance of the car is whether the chance should be risk.! If the depredators come of their enemies at brief notice, so known and the stolen goods are too ed. The first time a fire emergency! tially changed in a very few stubic.

superficial arose, however, a Ford trimotor, of roads that they are perpetually hunting bulky to elude even a minutes. But such complications from ufur. the number

Of these expedients, the carrying a load of fire fighters, was are hardly necessary in these mans- which need watching after a raid for new recruits. The recruit to search,

without trouble in the лен crime really needs no personal identity card may prove set down production days when any

fewer, and the night trafle the

some small tie most useful. It is odd to re-field and since that time repeated dozen factories may turn out in one along the main national roads is equipment except week as many as 100 cars, each of easier to supervise. But at the garage, a little mechanical know-flect that I cannot easily establish! trips have been made without acci- which is an exact duplicate of the moment the nation is unquestion-ledge, and the address of a more my identity in any part of England dent.

"These experiences have demon- others, except for numbers stamp- ably faced with a situation which or less trustworthy receiver, to where I am a stranger; but that

eaid Mr. Mumer, "that! ed on inaccessible portions of the will multiply its expenditure on whom he can sell what he steals. when 1 tour the Continent I am strated,"

identifiable anywhere large trimotor planes, such as the mechanism.

police by very substantial sums, The existence of these recruits com- instantly Safety Mensures in London, and may ultimately compel us to plicates the proper tactics of the with the aid of my passport. It is! Ford, are ideally fitted for this to identify the true that photographs can be inter-sort of werk and I am certain that Recent developments in the Lon- adopt completely novel methods of police, which is don

It is alleged potential criminals, and watch them changed on passports, but a finger-their use for this purpose will bej area have rendered motor road supervision.

a rusent smash-and-grub) in their haunts, as a cheaper alter-print passport would be irrefutable. greatly increased as the years go

on." crimes extremely dangerous to their that in perpetrators, though the cost of the raid the valuable booty consisted native than watching shops and G.B. in Manchester Cuardian.

of a are

}

BUYERS' GUIDE

MOTOR CARS.

ARMSTRONG SIDDELEY.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's

Road. Tel. 24759. BUICK-The Dragon Motor Car Co., Ltd., 33, Wong Nel Chung

Road. Happy Valley. Tel. 30228. CADILLAC.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road. Tel. 24759. CHEVROLET.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road. Tol.

24769. FIAT MOTOR CAR-A Gocke & Co.. China Bldg.. 7th floor.

Tel. 22221.

MARQUETTE-The Dragon Motor Car Co., Ltd., 23, Wong Not

Chung Road, Happy Valley: Tel. 30228. MORRIS.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road. Tel. 24759. OLDSMOBILE-The Dragon Motor Car Co. Ltd., 33, Wong Nel

Chung Road, Happy Valley. Tel. 30228. ROLLS-ROYCE.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road..

24759.

Tel.

STUDEBAKER.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road.

Tel.

24759.

WILLYS-KNIGHT & WHIPPET MOTOR CARS.-Gilman & Co.,

Ltd., 4a, Des Voeux Rd. C. Tel. 28011.

OUTBOARD MOTORS.-Rudolf Wolf & Kew, 64 Queen's Road

C. Tel. 22173.

MOTOR TRUCKS AND TRACTORS, CHEVROLET.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road.

21759.

Tel.

G.M.C. The Dragon Motor Car, Co., Ltd. 33, Wong Nei Chung

Chung Road, Happy Valley, Tel. 30228.

DODGE-South China Motor Car Co., 38, Des Voeux Road. C.

Tel. 25644.

MORRIS.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road. Tel. 24769. STUDEBAKER-Hongkong Hotel Garage. Queen's Road.

24759.'

Tel.

WILLYS-KNIGHT & WHIPPET TRUCKS-Gilman & Co., Ltd.,

4a. Des Voeux Road C. Tel. 28011.

MOTOR CYCLES. :

B.S.A.-The Sincere Co., Ltd., Des Voeux Road, Tel. 27767. NORTON The Sincare Co., 18., Des Voeux Road C. Tel

27767.

MOTOR OILS.

GARGOYLE MOBILOIL-Vacuum Oil Company, King's Bldg. SHELL-Asiatic Petroleum. Co., (S.C.), Ltd., Asiatic Bldg.

Tel.

TYRES AND ACCESSORIES. ACCESSORIES-Hongkong Hotel, Garage, Busen's Road.

24759. ACCESSORIE-The Duro Motor Co., Nathan Road, Kowloon.

Tel. 56288.

FISK TYRES.-Gilman & Co., Ltd.. 4a, Des Voeux Rd. C. Tel.

28011.

INDIA TYRES.-W. R. Loxley Co., York Bldgs. Tel. 22285. MICHELIN TYRES.-A. Goeke & Co., China Bldg., 7th floor.

Tel. 22221.

PRESTOLITE BATTERIES.-Hongkong Hotel Garage. Queen's

Road. Tel, 24769.

WILLARD BATTERIES-Gilman & Co., Ltd., 4a, Des Voeux Bd.

C. Tel. 28011.

THE NATIONAL MOTOR

MOTOR CAR COMPANY.

sole DISTRIBUTORS IN SOUTH CHINA

FOR

CHRYSLER - DE SOTO - PLYMOUTH

MOTOR CARS

BEG TO ANNOUNCE THE OPENING, TO-MORROW, OF THEIR

NEW SHOW ROOMS and OFFICES AT

71

73 & 75 HENNESSY

ROAD, WANCHAI.

HONG KONG.

Telephone 27914.

W. HONG SLING, Secretary.