THE CHINA MAIL, MAY 5, 1941.
CHINA MAIL
WINDSOR HOUSE
A DOUBLE DOSE
The ingenius idea of the late Mr. Willett for getting the utmost enjoy- ment out of our summer days has been seized upon by the war for purposes which he, happily, never contemplated. The Gov- ernment, having kept! "summer time" running| throughout the winter, recently decided to add another hour to it during the months from May to 3 August and it came into effect yesterday.
Nobody will imagine m these days that the extra hour is for delectation.! Its purpose is to increase: the working hours for munition making and for work in the docks and on! the railways. For this and for more selfish rea- sons most people welcome it.
TOBRUK
THORN IN THE SIDE
Help For Britain
But on the farms it has appeared as a consider- able grievance, as creat- ing special difficulties on dairy farms. The cows must be milked at regular intervals. To maintain the hours which custom and the sun have In a 400-miles journey established would put the work of the dairy and the distribution of milk seri-
from
Atlantic seaboard. I have seen at first hand what the passage of the Lease-and-Lend Bill by Congress
Portlanul, Mane, down America's
means to Britain
against the U-boats, bombers to
ously out of step with the They are making merchant life of consumers. Under ships, patrol bombers for use the new summer time, itak the U-boat buses, torpedoe, has been pointed out, the for the British Navy, depth charges, and even huge quantities of foodstuffs for Britain (mainly such things as powdered milk),
1 made the following notes in the places I visited along the coast
By Walter Farr
Philadelphia. During the hour I spent here between trains I was invited to attend a conference of leading American machine-tool
manufacturers,
Machine tools are the very foundation of war industry. The conference discussion showed that machine tools in America will in
charge that once they begin roll- future be used almost solely for ing out of the basins they will be the manufacture of war material, completed at the rate of one every not for making new designs for fortnight. Each ship will be of American motor-cars or other 10,000 tons dead weight.
Secret Bomb-Sight Brooklyn (New York).--Coming here from Portland I passed through hundreds of small towns and villages each one of which is doing some kind of job to help the Aud to Britain progranime.
cowman would have to
such luxuries, and that ધ large begin his work at three in
quantity of American machine the morning. Those who
tools are being sent to Britain. have charge of children, to give you an idea of the gigan-
A Heartening Sight too, will find the problems, lic speed-up now going on:
Baltimore. Here is the most of bedtime enormously Speeding The Ships
heartening sight of the whole trip. In the vast Glenn Martin bomber' increased.
Portland (Maine). Hundreds
factory they told me that the new The Government hasure workmen are being rushed
orders which Britain has been able One of the most vital sections to place now that she doesn't have recognised these griev- here to hurry forward the bul
ing of a series of basing in which of the Lease-and-Lend' Bill from to worry about the dollar sign will ances, which were urged a mass of new cargo ships for the uur point of view is that it gives ensure us getting a new batch of with almost dramatic British Merchant Service will be Mr. Roosevelt the power to send many hundreds of fast medium:
constructed.
Britain many more of Ainerlea's bombers of the type specially sult-! force; but it weighed the
secret weapons, such as the Nor-ed to the job of lashing the in- The first order was for 60 of advantages and disadvan- these ships.
vasion ports and breaking up the den bomb-sight. Now the number is
(A large I was shown over the home of barge concentrations. tages against one another expected to be doubled or trebled
number of these have already To get increased speed in the that famous American bomb-sight and it found that the building of British Government here in Brooklyn, the factory of been delivered to Britain.)
The head of the Martin factory' former preponder-shipping, experts decided to con- the Sperry Company one of the
acres and acres of struct the vessels in basins in- most closely guarded buildings in showed me ate heavily. The COW-stead of
new workshops doing scarcely anything" 011 ordinary sloping America. As the result of
orders thousands more else but build these bombers for are to
Instead of launching them British adjust stocks.
These constitute one in the ordinary way, they will be workmen are being taken on to the R.A.F. their hours by starting launched by water being let into double the manufacture of such of our greatest needs at the pre- for sent time. Included in our new later. But there is the basins and floating them out things as bomb-sights and
gadgets ensuring accurate anti- orders here will also be a mass of immense value in the
It is a secret when these ships aircraft fire by day and by night. newly designed Martin long-range extra hour to transport will be ready for service, but The Sperry people have many bombers for use in attacking Ger-
was told by one of the men in other secrets beside the bomb-mun U-boats in the Atlantic. and industry. It will
sight. One is
The last, and probably the most on this enable many factories to lish native has been cele guiding-ray which helps aircraft significant, thing I saw
to land in bad flying conditions, trip down America's coastline was work two shifts in day- brated for centuries and and which
may be used to help the huge Bethlehem shipbuilding Mr. Frank light. The effect of the it has even been claimed the R.A.F to carry on attacking yards at Baltimore.
Germany in the worst kind of Hodge, who is in charge of the change upon the black- that it was one of the weather.
yards, took me along the shore of out will be remarkable in things which brought the huge Brooklyn factory, I saw hun-proudly to nine different slipways A few miles away, in another the Patapsco River and pointed Romans to Britain; at dreds of torpedoes being made for each with a merchant ship on it
rate, they devour the British Navy-torpedoes which, nearing completion.
can be taken aboard British war- "We are not wasting a minute," OYSTERS ed it in great num- ships when they come for resaid Mr. Hodge. "There is no red tape now. I get people ringing bers, as is proved by the pairs to Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Not far frorna Brooklyn are Port me up and ordering a batch washington and the LaGuardia new ships by telephone, instead of Field, now two vital airports for arranging conferences about it. Britain. Special arrangements "We delivered
ship last
men
midsummer.
"
to sea.
any
1
a
new kind
of
one
of
Are there any grounds oyster shells on the sites at all, except those of of their villas.. local patriotism, for the Perhaps he is thinking are being made there to provide Saturday. We are launching a new obiter dictum of Mr. of mere size, and it may depots and extra facilities for one this Saturday. A few hours with the hundreds of the afterwards we lay down another Menzies to Fleet Street be admitted that South-giant new type Flying Fortresses new one. What is happening her: journalists, "The British ern seas produce some and patrol bombers-the first is happening everywhere through- oyster is incomparably in- whoppers; there
batches of which are arriving from out the country. It's the last war are California which use these air-all over again, ferior to the Australian oysters dredged up near ports as the last ports of call be- The ships Mr. Hodge is building oyster?"
are not destined. directly' for the If that state- Ceylon which measure The ferrying of these bombers British merchant fleet, but every
fore heading for England. ment is correct the Aus- eleven inches across. But across the Atlantic is being enor- one that rolls off the stocks means tralian oyster must be then again, especially as mously speeded-up by the use of releasing an old American ship for a series of transportplanes for use in carrying supplies to Bri- very good indeed and he was speaking in front rushing ferry pilots here from
tain.
"Across Chesapeake Bay they're worthy of far more gen-of journalists, he may Britain Instead of bringing them
over by boat: The number of building more shipyards. It's the eral fame than it has have been thinking of ferry pilots has been doubled and same wherever you go in America. yet secured for itself. For another kind of oyster trebled, showing that Britain can The avalanche of American in-
now expect many more blg bomb- dustrial aid to Britain is begin the excellence of the Eng- altogether.
crs from America,
ning to Tolk
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