1939-11-10 — Page 17

THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 10, 1939

Sidelights

con-

On England In War-Time

We have all felt recently, I think, of Britain in war-time, the point of that we have not been told nearly view of the man-in-the-street, the enough about life at Home as it is human and personal side of life as it being lived under war-time

is being experienced by our relatives ditions. The Empire News Bulletins and friends and countrymen at Home. of the B.B.C. and the news agencies This talk is an attempt to meet that have given us the news, but that need. news has not conveyed to us the back- ground of the war, the atmosphere

THE IMPOSSIBLE PERSON

(Continue from Page 16)

tc

a

The moral is that during black-outs dren know nothing about the country. you must not wear your hat tilted, side, and therefore the B.B.C. has on the back of your head!

found it necessary to broadcast Farther down 'in this series of pic-warning not to allow the evacuated tures one sees a man with a large children to eat wild berries. Unfor- white tab tastefully displayed in the tunately these city children do not middle of his tie, and another man know the difference between a I hope that the title has not led you

with a white band around his cuff. | blackberry and the berries of the to expect an eye-witness account of It is interesting to discover that deadly nightshade and various other Britain in war-time. That would conventions cannot be observed be- poisonous berries on the hedges and hardly be possible at this stage, un-

tween' strangers under black-out con- fields. less the person giving the talk had

ditions. For example, here is a com- come out by air, but a batch of Lon-ment by a girl reporter on the "Daily don newspapers arrived in Hong Mail" who is also an Air Raid Ward- Kong by the last air mail, and those

en. She writes: "Night after night I papers make intensely interesting have to grab dark shapes seemingly reading to anyone in Hong Kong, in-

intent on suicide as they step into asmuch as they contain many items of news which we have not yet heard out here and throw many sidelights on life at Home. Accordingly I have been asked to give you some glean-

ings from those papers.

the path of vehicles."

CHANGING FASHIONS

BULL LOOSE

One young scamp from London gained notoriety while living on a farm in Somerset by opening the gate of a pen and letting the bull loose. This caused such excitement and gave Black-out necessities are also him so much pleasure that he re- changing women's fashions at Home.peated this performance three times Here, for example, is an extract from and became known as "the boy who the woman's column-no longer Inlet the bull loose.' In the interest of these days a full women's page of the his own safety and that of the vil- "Daily Telegraph:"

lagers he was transferred to a dis- trict where bulls were not to be found.

"Following the suggestion of а Birmingham City Coroner at an in- quest on a black-out fatality that the wearing of white gloves would be a safety-first measure, white gloves are being featured by many shops. White walking-sticks and gas-mask cases, white handbags and even white umbrellas are being bought. Inexpen-papers

in white American

These newspapers also remind one that many middle-class children, as well as working-class children, are now in unfamiliar surroundings. One notices many references in these to boarding-schools which have moved into new premises in safe areas in the western parts of England and Scotland. Here is an announce ment by a London school which is typical of many:

saw the topographical missior through its work. We had an Idea that there might be trouble out here, and it was suggested to me that should go and have a look-see."

"But why did you

BLACKOUT TIME not introducc yourself properly at Governmen

The first thing that one notices is House?" "Well, to tell the truth, I'm

the reduced size of the papers. Here a disreputable sort of cove. I hate

in Hong Kong we have become ac- ceremonies and dressing-up and tha.customed to smaller papers since the sort of thing. Besides, we have

outbreak of war, but it is still strange work in secret you know."

to handle a fourteen-page Daily Tele- "Humph, you sound like somebody graph and a 12-page Daily Mail. The from the American magazines." "Yes, next thing I noticed, on the front a little dramatic and all that sort o page of the Daily Telegraph, was that thing, I grant you. But it could no.

the familiar notice "Lighting-Up be helped. By the way, you migh. Time" always looked for by cyclists sive handbags ask me to have a drink."

and motorists at Home-has now been cloth to match gas-mask cases are changed to "Black-out Time." Black-being bought." out Time in Britain on September 14,

At the time when these papers were you may be interested to know, was published the rule against the use of,

electric torches in the streets had just been modified slightly and you may be interested to know just what you would have to do if you were trying to pick' your way through a dark London street with a torch at the present time. In the first place you would have to paste two sheets of tissue paper over the bulb, and then you would have to be very careful to project the light downwards, and of course you would have to put out the torch immediately if you heard the air raid sirens. Alternatively, you might find yourself very curiously equipped with a torch gleaming in the middle of your chest; a special house. Suit officer and wife. Garden. type of standardised torch has now

Gas-proof room." been manufactured for black-outs. It is designed to fit on the chest and

The governor frowned, pushed i bell, and a negro footman came in with a salver on which stood a long glass half full of ice and the othe half full of the national wine of Scotia.

The governor stammered, "Ho.. "Oh, I'm sorry, your Excellency,' said the Impossible Person, graspin the glass, "Azrid, this 'boy of yours, used to be in my command and he knows my little ways. Here's how.' Beattie gulped down the drink with. evident satisfaction.

7.30 p.m.

One of the main impressions that I have received in looking through these papers is that most of us in Hong Kong have not fully realised what an enormous change has been made in the normal ways of life at Home by the black-out regulations, which are, of course, in force every night. These regulations have been slackened slightly in the last few days, but only slightly, and at the time when these newspapers published-that is to say, ten twelve days after the outbreak In the next Birthday honours, Hiwar-they were still in force in their Highness the Prince of Kordofan wa. full rigour. granted a very nice decoration indeed. Hamid Brown was made an O.B.L

"Well, good-bye your Excellency Will you be so kind as to convey my respects to her Excellency, your wife.

P

П

STRANGE ITEMS

were

or

of

As a result, one finds innumerable

|

and James Beattie received precisely items in the London papers which read its light is so directed and screened

nothing, much to his own amusement. He had plenty already, but the pers spite of the Smarts amused him an certain colleagues of his.

Incidentally, Mr. Smart was in- formed by a gentle-voiced official of

the Colonial Office that he-Mr. Sma.. -had served so long and so faithfully in tropical climates that His Majesty. Government deemed it high time 4. should take a rest, and so he, accom- panied by Mrs. Smart, retired to Bau. (or was it Cheltenham?) where they are to this day as far as I know.

witty

(Released by The Bell Byndicate, Inc.)

The mentally sketchy giria friend thinks when her beau anyi he's reached his goal ha'a baen practising football.

very strangely to anyone in Hong Kong. For example, here is a let- ter from a resident of Hendon which appeared in the Daily Telegraph on September 14th. It is headed "Pillar- box Collisions" and reads as follows:

"Our pillar-boxes are invisible in the darkness. The public would be grateful to the Post Office if white paint could be applied to some part of them so that they could be distin- guished during the black-out."

|

that no direct illumination is visible more than three feet above the ground.

ALLOTMENTS

"Highgate School has been evacuat- being at Westward Ho and the junior ed to North Devon, the senior school school at Hartland Abbey."

And now let us turn to the "Houses for Sales" advertisements in the Lon- don newspapers. The first thing one notices is that they are classified un- der unfamiliar headings, such as: "Safety Zone.," Reception Area"-by which is meant an area safe enough for evacuated children — nad "Neutral Zone. Here is an advertise- ment of a house not in a Safety Zone: "Most Comfortable little Kensington

FATAL ACCIDENT

in

Des Voeux

Admitted to the Queen Mary Hos- pital with injuries to his head, Tang Po-chi, 61, of 318, Des Voeux Road The allotment is coming back into Central, died carly this morning. It its own. Many of us remember how is believed that Tang was knocked in the last War every piece of waste down by a vehicle land and unused field in and around Road yesterday. cities at Home looked like one vast market-garden, with hundreds of in- dividual allotment holders cultivating And here is a curious news item: vegetables for their own tables, keep- "Luminous button-holes are the latest ing poultry and so on. And a very novelty. Carnations, roses and camel- 'valuable moment it was-from the lias, specially treated to show up in viewpoint of national health as well the black-out, will be on sale to-day as food. Well, the same thing is at several West End Stores."

already happening again at Home. Those who were at school at Home | For example, in the "Daily Mail" is during the last War, and remember a news item pointing out that one of the interest aroused when the pillars these allotments will keep a man, in the cloisters suddenly blossomed his wife and three children in pota- out in a paint which was supposed to toes and vegetables for two hundred glow in the darkness and prevent and twelve days in the year, and in you bumping against them, will be many cities vegetable plots are al- interested in an advertisement which | ready being laid out in the public caught my eye in this batch of papers. Here it is:

parks, so that people can go and see how it is done.

"Luminous paint. Glows at night. While on the subject of food, an- No restrictions. Apply it yourself to other item in these papers which will keyholes, door number, gate-post, car interest you is that one and a half wings, gas-mask container. Practical-million acres of new land are to be ly permanent. luminosity. 2/9 per pot."

GREAT CHANGE

put under the plough in the United Kingdom within the next year, and MANY SUGGESTIONS

sixty thousand tractors are ready to One finds in these London papers help the farmers to do it. In other many suggestions as to how best to words, British farmers are to be ask- avoid bumping into other pedestrians ed to do in one year in this war what when walking along the darkened ❘ they did in four years in the last War, streets. People are advised to carry a handkerchief or some other white ob- One great change in family life' at ject, and there is much discussion as Home which perhaps we have not to the best thing to do. For example, thought enough about is vividly re- in a copy of the "Daily Mail" which flected in these newspapers. In thou- I have been reading, there is a series sands of working-class homes in Lon- of pictures. The first shows a man don and certain other cities, the chil- wearing a white tab in his hatband. dren are absent. They are elsewhere- Underneath is another picture show-in safe areas, frequently' living apart ing the same man carelessly wearing from their parents. This has led to his hat at such an angle that the many strange situations. warning tab is concealed by the brim.

These London working-class chil-

Well,

It's only a Sore Throat

--but be careful and give your. child Formamint at once. Formamint destroys the dan- gerous disease germs in mouth and throat and is more affective than gargles, which only Irri tate the sensitive throat. Be- cannot sides, most children gargle in the right manner.' Give Formamint also to, the other members of

your family. to prevent them from catching your child's Sore Throat.

Buy a bottle of Formamies tablets th-day at your nearest shamlet or stora dualar,

FORMAMINT

The Germ-killing THA

HOLT