1940-04-19 — Page 13

THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 19, 1940

News Snack Bar

MILITIA FACE UP TO NAZIS' GUNFIRE

SOME OF Britain's youngest troops have just had their baptism of fire in France, writes a war correspondent.

They were a night working party. Shells exploded around them or whined overhead through the night,

Several Very lights were fired by the Germans, illu- minating the rolling countryside for miles around. When the bombardment began the sergeant in charge told his men to down tools and take up their weapons in readiness for a Nazi attack.

HE'S A WINNER

"

--SO ARE HIS EYELASHES

Jean de la Luns, who won the Ford Selling Handicap Steepļo- chase at Fontwell Park is unique among racehorses. He has sweep- ing eyelashes five inches long.

He was bred in France and is the envy of every filly in training.

Gas Masks In Italy

Mussolini had a conversation with his Minister of Defence about the dis- tribution of gas masks and the build- ing of air-raid shelters.

Saw Bad Language

Solicitor at Tottenham. →→→ I under- stand you are very deal.

Wife. Very deaf.

And your husband speaks with a very soft voice. How did you then know he was using bad language?

By the snarling look of his lips. May Wear Pilots

Badge

*

Temporary R.N.V.R. (A)

officers

who have been trained and passed as

qualified to pilot Service types of air-

"Many of the man in the party were very young, little more than boys," the sergeant told me. "This was their first experience under fire, but they behaved splendidly and showed по sign of fear."

This party was held up for six hours longer than expected owing to the extreme danger of attempting to re- turn to their base through a belt which was continuously under shell-fire.

At one point a shell burst within a few yards of an outpost position. For- tunately the position was so strongly constructed that flying shrapnel did not penetrate and the men in it were safe.

VILLAGE SHELLED

"Daily Herald"

Swastik and Siegfried

London.

"Dor trouble mit you, Swastik, is you haf no stomach for war." "Der trouble mit me, Siegfried, is I hat der stomach for food."

An officer whom I saw in a village War Office Man

in the forward area told me that he

counted sixteen shells fired in a quarter

of an hour. The village, occupied by Told To Be the British, is in easy range of enemy

guns. Although shells can frequently More Discreet

be heard passing over, it has not yet suffered any damage.

The war is livening up.

A man said at Clerkenwell Coun- Where British and French face the ty Court, London, that he was em-. Germans ácross no-man's-land in ployed in a department of the War front of the Maginot Line, the enemy Office, situated in a town which he are doing a good deal more shelling, named. The Allies' guns always reply.

"I should have thought," said Mr. Although the amount of artillery fire Registrar Friend, "that a clerk in the is negligible compared with the heavy War Office would have been more bombardments_of_the_last_war, it discreet than to say where any of its seems as if the Germans, who must departments were now situated." take the initiative, intend to be more active.

On neither side is there indiscrimin- áfe shelling. The enemy realise that retaliation would follow, and have so far refrained from deliberate shelling of villages. Most of their fire is di- rected at French batteries, but without much success.

Swan, Run Over,

craft, including light types, are eligi- ble to wear the Fleet Air Arm pilot's Swims On badge.

The badge, states an Admiralty an- nouncement should be awarded as from the date of qualification.

*

Cheaper Beer

For B.E.F..

British bottled beer sold to the

A swan strolling down a crowded Pembroke street got frightened and flew against a bus, which ran over it.

But an authority on bird life re- vived the swan, which later swam gracefully down the river.

**

Taxes His Own

troops and airmen in France from Salary

N.A.A.F.I. stores has again been re-. duced in price and is 4%d. a bottle of approximately one pint.

The Captain-General and Govern- or-in-Chief of Jamaica, Sir Arthur When the troops first arrived in Richards, will during the period of France the price was 81⁄2d. per bottle. the war voluntarily pay back to the A fortnight ago it was cut to 7d., which Treasury 10 per cent. of his salary condition of left the beer still in the class of luxury owing to the financial

ro commodities. There was another small the colony. Normally, he pays

taxes decrease a few days later.

"L'Œuvre"

Says Ministers Should

Confess Their Sins

"It would be a good thing if Cabinet Ministers had to confess their sins," said Father Vincent McNabb, at Catholic conference in Nottingham.

a

"You are never safe from a ̈per- son who won't acknowledge his sins. I have never known a politician who has gone out in sackcloth and ashes and confessed his sins. -**-

"In fact, some of them are quick- change, artists and qualify for new positions by their failure in others."

Paris.

"Well, children, our good Dr. Goebbels says that France is suffering from a serious shortage of coffee."

"What is coffee, Daddy?"

Find British

Parachute

Belgian Frontier

Shots

A British parachute, recovered from

A sentry posted near the Belgian the sea near the Dogger Bank was frontier in the Limburg Province fired taken into Esbjerg bý a Danish

when he saw auspicious shadow. Men fishing-boat...

ran away after the shots and later it The parachute bore a British face was discovered that parts of a gun had tory label,

been taken-Associated Press.