1940-02-07 — Page 5

THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 7, 1940

SERGEANT'S

"HOUSE"

While Hitler has been hesitating, the French have been working with ant- like activity extending and strengthen- ing the defences in front and around the Maginot Line, writes a war cor- respondent from France.

fortification

Each week some new rises, with anti-tank guns

and ma- chine-guns and rows of barbed wire to hold infantry at bay.

An officer described how the Ger- mans would be fought, how the guns from the forts would produce a series of flank bombardments which would bo like huge blades cutting back and forth.

Artificial flooding of low-lying areas would put enemy tanks and heavy equipment out of action. In nearby woods, cach of them ringed with barbed wire, were innumerable ma- chine-gun nests which you could not discern until you were on top of them. HIS "NEGRO VILLAGE" These nests, so hidden, so sinister,

A.R.P. HAS

IN A A TREE

sweep the low-lying country about knee high. They fire fast. The guns are the joy of the men.

One young officer proudly showed me what he called his negro village of mud huts. Each was warmed with a brazier and had a comfor- table bed of straw. One ingenious sergeant had gone

completely aborigine.

He had bullt a platform for him- self high up in the fork of two trees growing close together like the houses New Guinea natives build.

The French can build their block- houses in a few days. You have only to talk to the men who have built them, and whose job it now le to hold them, to realise the confi- dence they have in these compact steel and concrete forts.

grow

I have watched block-houses from the preliminary excavations to the building of the thick walls and roofs and the laying of the guns.

This huge task had been achieved by frontline troops despite torrential

Groucho Marx who, with Chico' and Herpo, appears at the Queen's and Alhambra Theatres to-day in "Marx Brothers at the Circus" rain and snow and bitter cold. French block-houses which have come under enemy fire have proved to be imper- vious to shells.

OWN 'UNION' GERMAN BOMBS WILL NOT

Progress is being made by the new- ly formed A.R.P., section of the Trans- port and General Workers' Union. Members are enrolling in all parts of the country, and a number of local branches are already at work.

The autocratic inclinations of some local authorities have been

Success- fully curbed.

In one instance a Coun- cil was compelled to cancel a plan for route marches of A.R.P. workers.

In other cases where local officials have opposed Trade Union member- ship, the matter has been taken

up with the local authorities.

Where A.R.P. workers are already Trade Unionists, their cards are re- cognised by the new organisation.

SCARE OUR FISHERMEN

In towns and little villages along to spend some time with their fami- the East Coast of Britain there are allies, but soon they will be off. thousand and one proofs of the futili-

"We are going with good hearts,"

ty of Hitler's barbarous bombing of coinmented Mr. Brooks. ilshing boats.

Following on the heels of the old They are the fishermen of England, salts are young. fishermen, who will the men whose prototypes have been carry on the fight. They are merely immortalised in verse and ballad just waiting until they are old enough to as long as there has been an England. Join the minesweepers. Meanwhile,

"If Hitler hopes to scare us off the mince no words about Hitler.

they are fishing "as usual.". They sea by this sort of thing, he's got an- other think coming,” one man declar-Calster, a drifter deckhand said, with Albert Smith, of Braddock-road,

a flash in his eyes. "It is a rotten, cowardly game to sink the boats and then machine-gun the crews of it."

on top

ed.

That seems to be the attitude of the whole fishing community.

"It is like this," said Harry Brooks, of High-street, Cuister-on-Sea. "Fish is good food-particularly in war-and It has to be got regardless of Hitler. We shall try to get it."

REPRISALS WANTED He is going to the fishing grounds regardless of the cold or the Nazis.

"To blazes with Hitler," he com-

Many of the fishermen, are asking for reprisals.,

"We have made representations to the Home Office as a result of which one complete day's rest in seven has been granted," Mr. W. D. Goss, who is in charge of the section, declared. "Hours of work and the difficulties created by the rise in living costs since

Cool, implacable Harry Brooks re-mented. the £3 rate was instituted will ob-presents the kind of man Ribbentrop viously have to be considered in the

should have told Hitler about instead future."

of gabbling about British decadence. He risked his life in the last war in the dangerous work of the Dover patrol, and now he is ready for the national service of fishing.

For workers in the Auxiliary Fire Service a joint committee has been set up which is now considering wage

questions.

SHOP TO BEST ADVANTAGE AT

THE

ASIAC

COY

01-KWAN BLDG. DESVOEUX RD.C

FOR

GROCERIES BUTCHERIES

FRUITS GREENS & SUNDRIES

TIME

MON

DELIVERIES

LEAVING

".

DEPOT

7. A.M. 12.NOON. 4.P.M.

NO EXTRA CHARGE FOR MONTHLY CREDIT

At present many of the East Coast fishermen are seizing the opportunity

OFF THE RECORD

Here's Luck

*

"The best way

to answer madman like Hitler is to give him a dose of his own medicine," sald ona veteran, "These attacks on are as bad as bombing civilian populations."

fishing vessels unprotected

By Ed Reed

2-3 and Trinat tynda

“You're out of step, Daisy!",

EWO BEER

Tl. 30311

NUDE GIRL IN SEA MYSTERY

A girl, whose nude, mutilated body was found in the sands of Foulness Island at the mouth of the Thames, had been in the sea for three months.

This was stated when a verdict of "Found dead" was returned at the. In- quest at Rochford.

The head and limbs were detached from the body, and a doctor said that it was impossible to determine the cause of death. The girl was between 24 and 25 and was well-developed.

It was stated that the only clue was an elastic band from an undergar- ment bearing a manufacturer's tab re- lating to goods made In this country and sent to Germany or Scandinavia.

MOVE TO STOP BARBER-SPIES

Because they hear so much from talkative customers, barbers are re- commending approach to the Home Secretary for legislation prohibiting enemy allens working as barbers' as- sistants.

The decision was taken at a Lon- don meeting of hairdressing trade de- legates.

One hairdresser complained that an advertisement for an assistant to re- place one called up for military ser- vice had been answered by an Aus- trian refugee in an internment camp.

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