1941-01-31 — Page 42

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THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, JANUARY 31, 1941.

Paid-Up

It was raining a little at noon, but Simon Lasher drove out to his corner lot with the disc harrow. He had seen Dickie go up the back road, and he meant to intercept him as he returned; he had clean- ed hnd oiled' his old army rifle, and he meant to use it.

Simon gritted his teeth as he drove. Jim Dickie had asked for trouble. He had come into the farm settlement and bought the that Simon was on the point of buying. True, he and Hank Wheeler. hod disagreed on the pride, but what right had an out- sider to come in and pay more than the land was worth? Then insult added to injury, Dickie had taken Simon's girl from him. was carrying things too far.

It

SHORT STORY

Member

By Will R. Bird

You harrowed that would lieve that,

fleld the day Jini was killed-and good it was your rifle we found beside

He hated soldier stuff, as he Jim Dickie vanished. Simon went the corner lot, now a shimmering hard time maltin' the judge be hated this man who had won to his hoeing contentedly. Mary Mary Hawkins from him and the was recovering from the shock. solemn

way in which Dickie had got her colour back. He would would recite "In Flanders Fields." go and call on her in a few days. Such rot!

Mary and he had quarrelled when he criticised the poem, and Mary had refused him her com- pany. And now, a friend had told Simon in the morning, shte and Dickie were to be married as soon as school ended. cleaned his rifft.

He pulled weeds with a vim.

So Simon had dreaded.

en-

Dickie carefully fished an velope from his wet jacket as he came to where Simon had dug. "See what the Legion sent me, he said proudly, holding it out.

"It's-

Simon hurried his horses. He Crack! The sullen report of a must get to the road comer a few rifle. Simon had looped the reins minutes before Dickie came in about his wrists before he fired, sight. He held the rifle and a and for a moment he was busy shovel between his knees, and he jerking the horses to a standstill.

them Folks then he swung

round to swung his whip sharply. said Simon never urove without a where the limp body was pitched, whip, but how could one hurry face down, half into the cavity. horses without it? And where His aim had been true. A dread- would he be if he had not hurried: ful redness was welling from the

Blasti In ten years he had paid for his collar of Dickie's shirt. farm, and now nad his house in you!" Simon grated. "You kin be readiness for a bride.

a pald-up member of that hole till the Kingdom come “

At the corner of the theld he stopped his horses The ground

The horses quieted, and Simon

green, inches deep.

Who

It was guess its secret? ground and the rain was doing him." ihe. In the autumn he would scoop more earth in the hollow at the corner, nil it in.

were

Simon's "You-you-found-" face whitened, became ghastly. He seemed to wilt.

Everything had gone better than When he reached the house at he expected. There hadn't been supper time Hank Wheeler and

said "We did," Hank

grimly. much fuss over Dickie's disap- an officer from the city met him.

on "All I been doin' was watch that snapped pearance, not as much as he hud Handcuffs

And Dickie's

I knowed they'd Legion Simon's wrists before he could field of yours. had been a joke. An official of take in what had been said. Hank sprout if they was near the sur-

face." some kind had come one day and enlightened him. talked with Hank-that was all that had been done. Paid-up member--pooh!

never

"What-me--arrested for mur derin Dickie?" Simon shouted. "You're crazy. I don't know nothin' about him.'

Hank had

seemed the same. but perhaps the sheriff's complete failure to find a clue to Dickie's murderer accounted for "No?" Hank's voice sent shivers that. Simon had often looked at up Simon's spine. "You'll have a

licked his dry Simon

lips. "What-sprouted"" He whispered.

"Poppies, Wheeler snapped, as "Jim they led Simon to his car. got an envelope full of seed that day-a special good kind the Le- glon sent to paid-up members.”

U.S. Defence Needs

Evidence is accumulating that the various activities. which need The United States is badly in need co-ordination. of an Esher commission,

Needs Liaison With Congress

115

Purposes. Must Be Defined

But that the effort must be made is apparent, growing more dipped slightly, forming a small caught up the shovel. He had After the South African war

so every day. The present de- hollow, and he dug in the centre heard the chugging of a wheezy had exposed some of the defects Certainly also the British ex

Tence commission is concerned of it, scooping a short, shallow motor in the distance. It was! trench. He had not got it as deep Hank Wheeler's car.

perience should be studied, in se with procurement only. Suppose A twist of of the British defence machine, a

Jar time permits; but their it is required to produce 50,000 as he wished when he saw the his heel buried the envelope royal commission headed by Lord

organisation cannot be adopted in 'planes. The soldier will say, horses prick up the ears. Some Dickie had dropped, a single push her was appointed to make a toto because of the difference in "What kind of planes? Where one was coming. He chopped his

straightened the body in the

Over the are you going to operate? shovel. Jum Dickie was plodding trench.

He flung the rifle in be-study of the problems of imper- constitutional structure and

nature of the problems to be what distances? Against past, his head down to the tine side the dead man and shovelledial defence and their relation to

what rain. Simon sneered. Not one but hurriedly.

example, in kind of targets? Under what con- When the old flivver Dickie would go in a rain to Hank came in sight Simon was seated foreign and economic policies. Out Great Britain the presence on the ditions? Do you want all bomb- on his harrow, and had just cross-of the report of this commission C.L.D. of certain Cabinet minis ers, long range or short range, or do you want pursuit 'planes, ob- vd the spaded earth. Twenty grew the organisation known as

servation 'planes, and so on?" minutes later no one could have found the spot where he had dug the Committee of Imperial

Wheeler's Post Office.

"He comes regular", Hank had reported. "He gets soldier maga- zinės and Legion papers. He's a paid-up member, if he does live out here."

"Paid-up member!" Simon had Jeered, "What good's that to him? Will it help him farm?"

He pretended to be tinkering with the disc harrow. The rifle was on the ground behind dises.

the

"Hi!** he called "Been for mail? Come over 1 want to show you something."

Dickie turned. his pale friendly.

face

I been

for

"Yes. I got something expecting, something special

returned men.

I

been

"Come an' see where diggin'," Simon interrupted.

this after-

De-

fence, which in time of war mer- the

At six o'clock Wheeler knocked ges its identity with that of at Simon's door. He was county War Cabinet. In essener, it pro- sheriff as well as postmaster. "Didį vides a planning and co-ordinat- you see Jim Dickie

ing agency for the study of the defence of the empire and for the Boon?" he asked bluntly.

giving of advice to the duly con- stituted authorities on defence matters. It has a permanent sec- retariat, and a permanent place in the governmental structure, operating continuously in peace as

"Yes, I did, Hank." Simon said, "He passed when I was harrowin'. Why?"

"He ain't been seen since," said in war. Hank, as bluntly as before.

"I been all around," Hank said. "You don't know anything, eh?"

to

re-

with. dealt

For

By Major Eliot

In other words, in every major decision of procurement there are

Eliot tactical, strategical and political

elements which must be consider- ed. There is no way of providing a fighting force or a munitions in- dustry which will be worth any- ters assures

1979 και Parliamentary

thing at all without deciding what presentation and liaison, because ministers are ipso facto members purpose this force or this indus- of Parliament. With us, some try is meant to serve, and under

be what conditions it may quired to operate. No one is now making these decisions, or if they are being made the country

means of direct lialson with the interested committees of the two houses of Congress, foreign affairs, military affairs, naval affairs and appropriations, would bo essen-

tiol.

not being informed of it.

re-

is

It may well be suggested that no greater measure toward assur- The United States possesses no

ing the public confidence and in- "That's strange!" Simon stimu-such agency. Many proposals have

The writer was formerly in deed public enthusiasm in and for lated surprise. "Maybe he's al

been put forward from time

favour of actual Congressional the defence programme could be one of the neighbours."

time; but obviously what is

membership in our National De- taken than the resolution of some quired at the outset is a thorough fence Commission, but the divi- of these difficulties, the bringing study of the whole problem by an sion of executive and legislative of some degree of order out of "Esher_commission" composed of powers which is a basic feature of the present confusion. The re- men of capacity and experience. our government seems to place sources of this nation are not in- of such standing as to command obstacles in the way of that idea, finite, nor is the time at our dis- public confidence, and with ac besides the

objection posal. The best use of those re- practical cess to all the information in pos- that if all interested committees sources, and of that precious-and session of the various departments and both major parties are re- perhaps dwindling time margin, and agencies of the government, presented the commission becomes can only be made if we now be- gin to sort them out into some- too large for efficient operation.

thing resembling pattern of military and political order, rath- er than the kaleidoscopic mess which is all that even informed observers can now perceive.

"Me? No I don't, Hank," Simon said smoothly. "I'll send word if I see him."

find to all the advice of those Three months had passed since currently engaged in dealing with

There were scenes of devastation at Coventry following the attack made by German bomb- ora at night. Photo shows a view in one of the burnt out streets"ähowing tha debrieandım burnt out buna (Copyright)

Another point to be kept in mind is the impossibility (with out courting disaster) of divorc- ing planning from responsibility. The men responsible for the ex- ecution of the national, defence plans must have a hand in the making of those plans. Moreover, such a plan is not a thing which, when a certain point is reached, may be laid away, with a satisfied

a

PRECAUTION AFTER BABY ARRIVES

Doctors warn mothers to watch of á

sigh as a finished job. It is their diet after the birth rather a living organism, subject

to dally revision as conditions child. The right food is of vital change, and must be constantly importance to the mother and to kept up to date by those who are the child she is feeding: associated with it not only as ď

plan, but as a responsibility.

The ideal food must be casy to

digest and highly nourishing, There must therefore be found while preventing constipation. For a means of reconciling the ob- all these reasons doctors prescribe jection often made to the present

joint board that its members are Horlicks. It builds up strength,, busy men with jobs of their own promotes restful sleep, does not which take the major portion of tax the weakest digestion and in- their time and a method ‘of as-

sociating the making of plans with proves the mother's milk. the responsibility for their ex- secution: The writer does not pre- For many-years- Horlicks has. tend to be able to proffer a solu been given to expectant', and tion for this problem, certainly nursing mothers throughout

not within the limits of one short'

article: it is one, which requires Malaya, with remarkable success. thorough study and no doubt ex-You can get it from your store periment to some degree before to-day.

(11)

the ideal arrangement, can›› ‹ be,

worked out.