1940-09-11 — Page 7

THE CHINA MAIL, SEPTEMBER 11, 1940

CHINA MAIL Calmness In The

WINDSOR HOUSE

A WAR OFFICE INNOVATION

The War Office an- nounces an innovation of a most promising kind. A standing committee has

Front Line Villages

Once we thought of front- to the naked eye. Then, often, on the beaches

ruins in

ine village as a heap of shattered there is a fiercer drone, and R.A.F. dered how flesh and blood could some shabby topers at the village and won-out" as if she were talking about bordering the tumbled wilderness realises the immensity of the However, there was no sound of

a pock-marked earth fighters sweep across the sky. One possibly face this blast of fire Inn., been set up to consider are hundreds of British front-line hunt its focs, but also, with pride, and gradually the small arms are under the immediate com- of No Man's Land, Now there space in which the R.A.F. must deroplanes and no artillery fire, The Local Defence Volunteers the working of the De-towns and villages along bur that "Jerry" is now exceedingly racket died away.

coasts, in the shadow of a menace, wary.

mand of an ex-captain of the Irish partment and to effect but as yet preserved from the

Constabulary, just the man to worst of war's ravages. "No man's

It was practice, after all, but cope with the Fifth Column-if any changes needed to Land" is

In the night sometimes we are during this dawn alarm no sound any... He, takes his orders from our own alement, the sea, where the Royal which rattle the doors and win-No

protecting awakened by heavy explosions, came from the slumbering homes. the colonel of a famous regiment give it the simplicity and Navy rides and rules.

door or window dows. None stir from their houses, nothing stirred. Across the shingle hours together his recruits, but- opened; of the line stationed there. For Yew even from their beds. In any bullets whipped the sea, but the cher boy and retired I have just spent a week in my event, the silence of the night is civilians, men, women and child-firmer and potman, lie

officer," of the war demand. These civilian life goes on side by side lenges and the buzz

English seaside village, where punctuated by the sentries' chal-ren, were as disciplined

on the as the stone rifle range blazing away at changes are to be carried with an unfamiliar military acti-

motor Guards.

targets. At night the little groups march or ride on horseback to Then I knew that the courage their posts, units

of a of our troops will be matched by

trained force.

steady, the courage of the population be- hind them. On this historic shore, where invaders trod löng centur- ies ago, they shall not pass`again,!

flexibility that the needs

vity.

Barbarians Over

The Channel

out without disturbance of the war effort. Two features in this new in- stitution deserve particu-cross the Channel, lar notice. The commit-blue, the enemy is pressing for- ward with his plans; but here lit-

Less than a hundred miles away!

50 serenely

tee is not an advisory le children gather in admiring

groups to watch the Tommies at.

of

-By- L. MARSLAND GANDER

Some Unpleasant Surprises

and

In our village we have grown soldiers are preparing some un- On our part of the coast the used to the whine of bullets and pleasant surprises for the Nazis; the crash of bombs. We are used an invader will get the kind of to the sight of shells throwing up shocks the Germans are accus body. It is part of the work on the defences.

black columns of smoke in the tomed to administering to others. transport. On occasion War Office machinery, Nobody can tell where the bar-lage like a charge of cavalry.

troop of sea. motor-cyclists comes into the vil-liminaries, the orchestra tuning Belglum and Dunkirk. Their fine We regard these as only pre- These soldiers are Regulars from and comprises members of barian will strike with

up for the show; but we believe bearing all his savage force. It may be that my

that we are now braced to meet spirits are a rare tonic. They have marvellous good the Army Council, repre-village will escape; it is certain be a favourable hour to start a occur.

One morning at 4, which would any ordeal should zero hour ever learnt war in a school that does that its residents know their dan-Blitzkrieg, a senting four mainger and face it with a quiet con-machine-gun fire on the beach a flerce burst of

not forgive mistakes-and

there will be none. branches of the office and which seems to crystallise the stillness. Other machine-guns took cat

Adence and that shining resolution hundred yards away shattered the who lives alone, with her Persian admiration when they swing down Elderly widowed Mrs. Brown. We feel a glow of gratitude and including a civilian, Mr. of Britain through the ages. up the chorus, and there

as sole companion, not 20 the street singing "Roll Out the Slowly the children are disappear-crackle of rifle, fire,

was alyards from the sea front, delights Barrel," · as their fathers sang R. J. Sinclair, Director-ng to safer districts or overseas; rippled down the coast.

The noise to talk over the garden gate abou "Tipperary." They are, genuinely. most of the men of military age invasion? I thought of the Prime me away," she said. "I'd like to once on equal terms, and to hurk

Was it the war. "I hope they don't, scht anxious to meet the enemy General of Army Require-disappeared long ago.

for Minister's words: "We shall fight' stay and see the Germans thrown him back into the sea. ments, who has now been appointed to the Army milkboy goes, his round and

Council itself.

While the soldiers hew defence works in this Anglo-Saxon soil the

cheerful cyclist delivers the morn- Mr. Sining newspaper. True, a steady trickle of evacuation is in pro- clair, who was released gress; this accounts for people Im-with children or those who have

for war service by the

been occupying seaside houses and have homes elsewhere. Some

perial Tobacco Company have been advised by the military last year, is not the only authorities to move. The major- ity have accepted the official ad- civilian among the mem-vice to "stay put and sit tight" bers of the new commit- tee.

until further orders,

"Jerry" is Growing Wary

"Jerry" is about to make a 'day-

This is, as it should be

Sometimes, nowadays, the dis- for the purpose, a formid-tant wall of a siren announces that able array of organising light call. The streets clear quietly and administrative tal-and methodically, and the erit, and the War Office is a pause the faint hum of high- wardens take up their posts. After to be congratulated upon lying aeroplanes may be heard, having assembled and in-such an immense height that only but generally, the machines are at corporated it within its the tell-tale trails of white vapour domain. The task of ex-

from their exhausts 'betray them panding an army of a few hundred thousands to a vice when it is required to total of several millions turn over at short notice thrusts a huge and pecu- from the procedure of liar. burden upon the De-peace-time to the exer- partment. Though the tions and improvisations Ministry of Supply has that war exacts. Sweep- been called into existence ing attacks upon it are to relieve it of much of the no novelty in time of war, work of design, produc-but they are largely mis- tion, and equipment, the directed. The Civil Ser- normal machinery of the vice is likely on the whole Department has to grow to reflect the faults and with the Army's growth, virtues of its political or indeed ahead of it, and masters, upon whom, suc. to adapt itself rapidly to a cessively, the final respon- number of unfamiliar sibility for administration requirements. It is emin- and policy alone can lie. ently desirable that there The War Office at all should be considered, con- events now meets the cri- tinuous, and scientific tics more than half-way. control, and, where neces-Its normal organisation sary, correction of this is designed to secure the process if the three main full cooperation of a civil- needs of the hour are to ian and

military staff. be met. They are acceler- Since the war came it has ation, efficiency, and eco-drawn in addition upon nomy, and they are not the administrative skill of easily to be harmonised. large-scale commerce, and Too little allowance is is now tapping this source often made for the dif- afresh. The precedent, is Aculties of the Civil Ser- significant and salutary.

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OIL SCRAMBLE IN THE BALKANS

SAM: "HM! LOOKS AS IF SOME ONE'S GOING SHORT OF OIL”

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