1955-07-09 — Page 5

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THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JULY 9, 1955.

HÌ

THIS MODERN AGE COMES TO AFRICA!

By Gavin Gordon

ม

Leopoldville.

LL over Africa, and

Ahere in the Belgian Congo in particular, the cry

of the moment is for elec tricity and more elec- tricity. It is a modern cry coming fast on the heels of the old untamed Africa and it shows that the way of the West is seeping through this vast Continent to such an extent that the big day- dream of thousands is for an all-electric home.

In order to make this day- dream u reality and in order to put eletricity not only into the African home but more important at present-into mushrooming

are

showing

appetite for

power

milions of k

the

industries that

स

astonishing

this particular

millions upon

souwatis are to be conjured from the roaring waters of Africa's multitudinous rivers that run, vein-like across this waking continent.

There is, for instance,

the

Zongo Falls hurling their spurse into the air and casting grea tree-trunks into a 200 ft. abyss.

tro-

Eighteen thousand cubic feet at - water pass over the falls every

second-not a big flow as picpl waterfalls Go but more than sufficient to drive the turbo-alternators which will supply power to this Congo

300

eity of Leopolville,

ALMOST DOUBLE

At this moment work is also starting on the nearby Zongo 2 Falls, which will be rated at

kilowatts 100.000

almost double the rating of Zongo 1.

Such is the picture all over Africa, except that in the Bel- gian Congo the picture is form- ing more rapidly than anywhere clse"

Not long ago the growing and transport of raw cotton

thought work enough for

negro; today he pins it

was

the

and

spins it, he weaves it on the latest-pattern aut

automátie loors; he makes bandages and now, he shirts and singlets

is making

and underwear.

out.

He has not yet found even under his European s

the cotton how to make

lers,

prints with which his women- adorn therrselves

folk

but

makes today Africa can make

REGATTA JUNEZ

"I expect it's these Tory dockers, sabotaging the Communists this time, don't you. Daddy?"

London Express Service

BEGINNING THE STORY OF THE MEN WHO DID IT FIRST

0

FLIGHT TO GLORY

ALCOCK

N July 16, 1918, the

headlines London shouted

of the papers

the news

Probably most people in the world still believe Charles Lindbergh was the first to fly the Atlantic. James Stewart, playing the part of t Lindbergh, is soon to star in a Hollywood film that will almost. inevitably per. petuate that legend. To correct, what threatens to become an historical in- justice, the China Mail to- day begins publication of a digest of a book" on the first 'real heroes of the Atlantic air-Alcock and

BROWN

out to

were on their way

the airfield in his Companies pyjamas, took of and shot down to Newfoundland with their air- two, bringing his "total bag to craft seven. For this he was awarded the D.F.C.

Not until the beginning of May 1919 was the Vimy ready his for crating up and dispatch to Newfoundland. Alcöck and Brown

with a party 01 mechanics sailed on board the Mauretanid wondering if their journey

was to be in vain,

But that night he and crews were captured by the Turks after their bomber had crashed into the sea off Gali- poli. For six weeks they were kept locked up in a

in a althy, bug

rivals would be unable to leave

assembled and ready to £y.

NEXT SATURDAY:

ridden gaol in

in Constantinople hoping against hope that their before being transferred to a regular prisoner-of-war camp. Newfoundland before .they To pass the time Alcock watch- arrived there and had the Viny ed the birds flying outside Lis cell window and dreamed of the when he could stretch his "He held no doubts as to the day

the conquer Brown, eventual

outcome of the war: eva wings and He knew that the Atlantic prize Atlantic,

production would stimulate the bigger aircraft. Sand more powerful engines which Britain would need if we were to estab- lish a lead in civil aviation dur- ing the first years of peace.

By GRAHAM claims that what Lancashire of fresh disasters сп the

WALLACE where the Guch Western Front, Except that depends on the Germans were making their successful harnessing of the final, all-out effort on the

the feed

Marne, driving the Allies

tomorrow." progress all

turbulent rivers that

factories he works in.

In Leopoldville alone there into retreat.

are two giant textile factories,

a brewery,

.a.

wine-bottling

A German victory was in

plant, half a dozen newspapers, the air and there were many

and a shoe factory.

ALL-ELECTRIC

This, however, is not whole story;

for

the

in world dustrial leaders are planning to

gloomy faces at the editor-.

ial conference of the Daily Mail. Only Lord Northcliffe. the "Chief," was unperturb- After dis- ed by the news.

come to Africa to make electric cussing the contents of the power and to consume it there. following day's paper he The chances are that soon there

gave decisive orders. There

defeatist

will be a lower-Congo power station bigger than any in the would, he insisted, be no headlines: world, rated at 20

20 million kilo more And the

the Canadian instead they would give the Aluminium Company partly responsible for building it, will public something really ex- citing to think about. The

watts.

be its biggest

consumer.

Thousands of tons of alumin-Daily Mail would re-offer its ium ore, mined in the Guianas £10,000 prize for the first (French, British and Dutch), instead of making the expen-non-stop aeroplane flight sive trip through the Panama across the Atlantic.

Canal to be processed far north The offer

сл the western seaboard,

will

be slipped across the Atlantic

"We offer £10,000 to the first to the Congo to be processed there and the metal then re- person who crosses the Atlantic shipped across the Atlantic to from any point in the United North America's casters' coast. States, Canada, or Newfound- Today in fact it might be said land, to any point in Great that Africa is well on the way Britain or Ireland in 12 con- " to becoming an all-electric continuous heurs. The fight may tinerit

be made, of course, either way

THE

AM

J

Daily Mail

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FLIGHT ACROSS THE

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Atlantic.

The prize ed

scrost the is open tionality foreign as well as British

'struction."

and

to

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A Frantic Race Against Time

- and many more convenistica features,

Arthur Whiten Brown was -Two Rivals. Are "Out”---- eight years older than Alcock. At Last the Take-Off, His parents were American, but he was educated as an engineer in Britain.

A prison

He was

an observer in

the

By coincidence the two men who eventual- ly won the prize, Al- Royal Flying Corps when he cock and Brown both was shot down over the German became obsessed with lines. His left leg was severely the idea of tying the injured in the crash, and he re- Atlantic while they, mained lame for the rest of his weary were prisoners-of-war fe. For 23 long and

one

in Turkey and months he remained a prisoner the other in Carmany, in

any, in Germany and Switzerland. By а further coin- To occupy his mind he took up the study of aerial navigation cidence they both grew

and became so interested that om he felt quite confidently that he

could war.

navigate a plane across the Atlantic.

up in Manchester but never met "unti day after the

Alcock was

a bril-

He was repatriated during the went to liant pilot who learn- summer of 1918 and

fly et Brooklands work

as an engineer for the

transferred to the pad Brown had a good civvy

two

to pilots of any La in 1012 when he was only Ministry of Munitions. Here he machines of 19, soloing after only two hours met his future wife, the viva- en-instruction. As soon as war dous red-haired Kathleen Ken- broke out he volunteered for the redy daughter of his depart- They planned to This oder was originally made Royal Naval Air Service. After ment chief. by the Daily Mail in 1913, and spending two years as an in- marry once the war was over

selt

job. But ex-officers were now it was crageously restructor in Britain he got peated during the darkest hours Mediterrancan theatre of opera a penny, and Brown, like the of World War 1.

himself tions. Here he was in his sands of others found It was sensational, but many element, flying all day long workless.

Once the Armistice was signed people criticised the Daily Mail for being frivolous in a time of against the Germans and Turks.

"recce"

machines, all the leading aircraft cera- national peril. Lord Northelife, Fighters, "rece

started a hectic race to panies Lowever, stuck to his guns and bombers-anything so long

he was airborne.

be the first acrces the Atlantic. and refused to withdraw the other.

September 30, 1917 was

a Aeroplanes were designed lucky, and an unlucky, day for constructed behind locked doors,

pilots him. He was enjoying his mora- leading bomber

by placéd Germany Place ing bath when three

under contract, and planes flew over. Alcock dashed spring 1919 there were no fewer

han

nine British entries for

Alcock abd Wallace, Graham

The Fight '_of_ Brown." by

pubilated by Putnam's.

ART OF SAYING

NO

when the question is "What's Yours?"

secret non-

I drinker. And at last I

male

+

SHARPLEY By ANNE

rap-

.cope

as

It is not as though non- drinkers were met with rarely.

Were

Mail prize, with com

{on from Italy and the

States

The US. Navy announced an attack on the Atlantic with a squadron of giant tying-beats which were to cross from New- foundland to Lisbon via the Azores.

Rivalry

two

The last House of Commons Home again and now de- am beginning to have the

was 15 percent non-drinking. I mobilised, Alcock was signed up Chateau Haut-Bailly and રા Grrr! sense to declare my vice. For Chateau Haut-Brion with

to plot The knock-out comes when learned from C. W. Black, MP by Vickers Aviation years I have joined in the ture and feeling none of their one

"Eighty or a cigarette and refuses

30 members were elr Vimy bomber across the

note of with a hearty British games of bar, rapture.

explains - one does not smoke teetotal," he 537 haven'te, Powered by

pride in his voice.

Rolls-Royce Fagned for the engines the "Goodbye" to all the other either. propping, club-wallowing brave little women sipping their -Reaching heights of originality sorted out the new House`ret" vmy had been but the war i and just-before-closing-time gin and oranges determined to they all ask archly: "What do

Mr Black has passed through bombing of

Berlin, the corny-comment stage,

sd ended."before it became pub-erashing.

keep their dainty feet in this you do, then?"

new Now a preserve

people and not look How do other

"People just know. I don't operational. The potted palms I have killed bored.

with this cliche-ridden situa- drink. It's quite a long time machine was being assembled by pouring unwelcome drinks And such a happy "goodbye" tion? I wondered.

since anyone said that to me*

and

d adapted for the Atlantic over their innocent roots (a to

o my duty (as the soberest) of Dana Dors, whose name may Lucky Mr Black.

crossing practice known as palming off pouring people into taxis, drag- seem to be synonymous with

Old-fashioned Alcock worked day and night drinks).

addresses from their champagne would, if she were,

in the Vickers factory at Wey- ging The drinks I have mysterious- fuddled minds and watching offered it, turn it down fat, so There are two variants on the bridge driving the mechanics ly "lost" on distant ledges. 1 them slither off the seat on to to speak.

"You must have some vice on with his enthusiasm, check- them

ng and double-clicking every The friends who remember detall of the assembly knowing me in

in brave drink sinking days; that his life, and his naviga- depended on the faultless

the aircraft

art and laughter and order me

later Browz

remare," she

The times I have gone from the floor of the cab. I always cambow tired I am "of·

zix to midnight with one little ended

drink clutched defensively in my anyway. bot little hapd.

No more. I am about to give

all that

It

up paying for the trip

That cliche

But it's "Hello" to something

18 "goodbye" to the bores far, far worse.

talk endlessly and exclu- That is the

sively m the topic so drar. to inescapable reddening and

it."

** usually just glare, mention they burst into loud seco of 10 NE QU

gin

double (when I start looking for

planta again),

Or the others who look at you joltand him and the famou

with the dawn of respect in their eyes with dreadful sin

the name of an American soft drink, and say that's my drinis

"I hate champagne

and away from all cocktail parties." Group Captain Douglas Bader

was born Brown their heart. Bow much they drinkers make when faced with who does not drinic because me

and threw himself like the stift being a good old-fashioned type whole heartedly into the park. "Ooh, they ogle, one and all barks back at the unwary who of girl.

Thebe was no time to be lost. “You must have some vice,” inquire if he has other - vices, That

does it. I order Adreaded two rival teams from they, leer drkly,

Yes, thousands of 'em "

myself a double gla

drank, how it affected them and sometze who does not want to Mumo told my, not to and my cerity they compliment one on many postponed chia

how they felt the next morning, share their plight.

"Goodbye to the old hype

crley Pots listening to "friends

discussing the merita

way I don't

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