1940-02-23 — Page 13

THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 23, 1940.

News Snack Bar

THIS SNIPER

IS "GEORGE" TO OUR TOMMIES

Maginot Line, January 17.

“GEORGE” IS A German sniper who lives like a bird in the trees that partially conceal the German outposts op- posite our own. And like a noisy bird, he is more of a nui- sance than a menace.

He comes out before dawn, complete with his rations for the day, and for as many hours as it is light looses off at anything he sees moving about. To date his bag is nil: his nuisance value fairly high.

In the last few days he has been less active, for the men at whom he shoots have more or less located him; and they are teaching him to keep his head down. Sometimes they do it with a sudden burst of machine-gun fire, sometimes with a rifle to which telescopic sights have been attached.

A typical pliot of the Royal Canadian Air Force. (Fox Copy- right).

Between dawn and dusk "George" is almost the only person on or op- posite to the British sector of the Maginot Line who shoots at all; for this is a strange war, and neither side does much to molest the activities of the other.

Because the sky is now cloudless all day visibility is better than it has yet been; and from the outposts this morn- ing our men could clearly see Germans moving unconcernedly upon the far side of the disputed territory that is called No Man's Land.

At one moment three mounted men rode slowly across an open space; but there was no firing from our side any more than there is from the German when our men similarly expose themselves, as they sometimes have to do. We know that there are German machine-gun posts in certain places just as they must know where ours are; but nothing happens.

DECK-CHAIRS ROUND FIRE

Three pilots at Trenton, Ontario, in Oxford Medium Bombers, swoop in formation. (Fox Copyright).

Customs Seize

Batteries

Between £200 and £300 worth of torches and batteries have been seized by Customs officials in South Armas, Northern Ireland. The articles, it is alleged, have been illegally imported

from Eire.

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Smile Ends Judge's

- At our own machine-gun posts the men have begun to make themselves as comfortable as the cold weather will allow, and have even got out a 18 Years' Service couple of deck-chairs. that they found --

in a deserted and ruined house, and With a bow to the Bar and a happy in these they sit round the fires that smile, Mr. Justice Branson completed they manage to supply from the wood eighteen years' judicial duties at the in which they are stationed.

Law Courts and passed into retire- That tranquillity by day punc- ment without ceremony of any kind. tuated occasionally by "George" and Only one junior counsel was present by the distant firing of artillery is at the close of the day's business to disturbed at night only by patrol return the judicial bow and smile.

U-Boat's

Victims Claim

Lieutenant-Commander Herbert Schultze, whose U-boat has just re- turned from her third trip in British waters, has sunk 80,380 tons of Allied shipping, the Oficial

German News Agency claimed.

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Holiday By Custom, Law

Claim of 4,000 miners employed by the Amalgamated Anthracite Com- pany at their four Vale of Neath, Glam., collieries, that they were en- titled by custom to take a holiday on Neath Annual Fair Day was upheld at Neath County Court.

The men, sued for alleged breach

work, when silent men move care- There were no farewell speeches, of contract, by absenting themselves fully through the woods and usually and no reference to his great services. from work on this day, were given

Brought In 1914-18 Mine return some hours later with another He was not even wearing his judicial judgment with costs. Witnesses for

A mine which, from its markings, is known to date from the last war, has been brought ashore near Caen (France) by a French trawler.

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Pioneer Star Dies

Flora Finch, English comedy actress who attained world-wide celebrity in pioneer film days as leading lady to John Bunny, the fat comedian, died in Hollywood.

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'Old Bill' To Be Filmed

By permission of the War Office, a film unit has left for France to make "Old Bill and Son" for Legeran Films, Ltd. Capt. Bruce Bairnsfather is in charge. - His collaborator is

Ian Dalrymple, who wrote "The Lion Has Wings."

Paris To Have

"Rue Helsinki"

Paris Municipal Council has passed a resolution. that a street in Paris should be named "Rue Helsinki" councillor added that the "Rue Moscou" should be the street to renamed.

little piece of information that helps to robes, for he was sitting in Chambers the men said that in more than fifty complete our knowledge of the enemy to deal with a few commercial sum- years at the collieries they had never and of his intentions.

worked on Neath Fair Day.

monses,

Ten, thousand pilots a year for the next ihres yadra will” ga” the Empire's training scheme. Numerous schools hava' been est ordered, and men from all parts of Empirs are pouring into during a parade at Trenton, one of the big training cont