1936-12-25 — Page 11

HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1936.

GREAT FIRE DESTROYS CHESS SEASON

CRYSTAL PALACE

Orchestra Escape As Transept Crashes

LONDON FIRE BRIGADE

MOBILISED

The Crystal Palace, London's £1,500,000 amusement centre, on the top of Sydenham Hill, was destroyed on Nov. 30, In the most spectacular fire seen in Britain for many years.

The flames spread "with amazing · speed through the great halls. Within half an hour of the Orst alarm the building, 1.850ft long. and covering 25 acres was ablaze from end to end. Sparks were. blown as far as Beckenham two miles away.

Rising to a height of 300ft, the flames lit up the sky of Bouth 'London. The glow was seen, from an aeroplane in mid-Charmel and

the from

Devil's Dyke, near Brighton.

Hundreds of thousands of peo-

A police official pointed out where the South Transept had collapsed, and the Duka walked across the road and into a yurd by the side the North Transept.

OPENS

Why England Cannot Produce Masters

IMPORTANCE OF MATCH-PLAY

'When "Summer Time," in the ómcial sense, comes to an end. every chess player of repute m- celvra postcards saking him to take. Fart in club matches. The Lon der League contests are now in full swing, and the numerous organika - tions, such as that of the Civil Bervice (with over a thousand members), which hold team com petitions, have got to work. The Gambit Café, which, under the He stood in the yard, while water gracious autocracy of Miss Price three times holder of the British Ladies' Championship, has long been known as a chess rendezvous all over the world, is crowded in the afternoon and evening. When a foreign master visits Landon, he always calls there, and the month- 1 lightning tournaments attract many strong players.

was gushing, by him and watched the firemen at work.

While he was there a puft of

wind caused a casende of water to be thrown over the Luke. He laughed as he pulled his handker- chief from his pocket and wiped

His face and head.

He spoke with the Fire Brigade ple Locked to the scene and are superintendent and then walked engines

from every! summonea

across to the firemen's coffee stall station in the London area had

and took a cup of coffee while great" dimculty in getting through

firemen stood around him. Mr. J. the congested streets,

Cruse, chairman of the L.C.C. Fire Brigade Committee, chatted with him.

90 ENGINES AND 500 FIREMEN

More than 90 are appliances, with 500 Bremen were erigaged-a record for any London fire, Owing to the height of the Palace there was great difficulty in obtaining adequate water pressure. and domestic supplies were cut down over a wide area.

#

Several of the men injured by flying glass and others were over- come by the terrific heat

Hundreds of spectators were imperilled when the South, Tower, 282th high, threatened to collause Into the streets from which they were watching. With great dif- Aculty mounted police forced them back. Finally 3,000 police threw B cordon round the whole area.

HOTEL AND HOUSES EVACUATED

Houses and an 'hotel near the tower were evacuated and build- ings at the foot of the tower were blown up with dynamite. Early this morning it was believed that the tower was safe, but the police refused to allow occupants of buildings rear It to return.

An orchestra practicing in the Palace had a narrow, escape, leav- ing the building just before the Kreat Centre Transept erashed, with a roar that was heard for mtes, burying the cars of several members.

DUKE OF KENT VISITS SCENE

The Duke of Kent, accompanied by Lord Herbert, his equarry, visit-". ed the scene,

He motored to the Crystal Pa- lace from the West End, after at- tending the dininer of the Travel Association at Grosvenor House.

Wearing evening dress and a black overcoat, he stood in the roadway gazing up at the blazing buildings.

LORD LUGARD AND

OUR COLONIES

"Cannot Be Handed

Telegraph,"

Over"

45

There is just as much liveliness . chess circles in the Provincial cities and towns, and a number of ties for the County Championship have already been played off. This season Lancashire and York- hire hope to build up teams can able of beating Middlesex and Surrey, though more often then not the South gets the better of the North in

this intellectual rivalry.

THE NOTTINGHAM CONTEST Considering the large number of keen club players in this country

BARRAGE OF RAYS IN AIR DEFENCE

Chemist's Plan

DEADLY NEW GASES

Hope that the menace to civili sation from the air may yet be thwarted by science was held out by Mr., Henry T. F. Rhodes, editor of the "Chemical Practitioner at the annual meeting of the British Association of Chemists at waldorf Hotel, London, recently.

the

ROYAL NAVY

her G. C..

Lang

Lieutenant-Commander G. Colin Lang, Assistant Inspector of Naval Ordnance at Woolwich. has been placed on the retired list at big _own_request_with the rank of "com- mander. He was the senior lieu- tenant-commander on the active Bat, a rank he had held since 1922.

years in the Navy, joining as u Commander Lang has been `31

cadet at Osborne in September, 1905. He was third among the 58 cadets of his term in passing out of the HMS Cumberland in April, 1910, and was promoted to Heutenant in June, 1914, with five "rets. During the War he served in the Jason, minesweeper, and the Bellerophon, battleship, up to February, 1817, when, he was ap- pointed to specialize in torpedoes; and in 1918-19 he was torpedo and executive · „officer of the Bonaventure, submarine depot-ship. He continued to serve with sub- of | marines after the War, in the Fear- less, and Lucia, and was also aircraft-carrier Eagle. In 1929 he squadroń torpedo officer in the

became Superintendent of "Anti- Gas Training. He is an interpreter in French and German. ⠀

High frequency rays projected in sufficient distances, he said. could bring down a fleet of aero- planes carrying bombs and gas. What was wanted however far we were off such a thing-was a barrage of rays for the protection of civilised countries. Nothing else would stop the modern seroplane neet.

on

He recalled that in simultaneous experiments the Lake Geneva and in England in 1931 at a minimum of 100 yards, been the mechanism of a clock had.

completely disorganised by the impact of high frequency rays.

RE-ARM CHEMICALLY As far as he know, no means of

Projection over long distances had well be that the perfection of this yet been achieved, but it might invention might save civilisation from complete annihilation.

WAR-TIME PATROL BOATS » EMS. P.59 has now joined the

tended notice. This leaves in com- Reserve Fleet at Devonport at ex-

mission only one of the '84 patrol boats built during the War to sup- All this was said by Mr. Rhodes plement the destroyers for use in in-enforcement of a ples that convoy, escort, and anti-submarine civilised countries should chemi-duties. Since the construction of cally and physically re-arm for destroyers fully occupied the Arms their own protectiori.

accustomed to naval work, the There were certain governments building of the patrol boats was and perhaps peoples in Europe, he entrusted to merchant arms. An

ethical standards had degenerated later for a further 30. At the end to those of Neolithic man. They of 1918, in anticipation of unres- were more dangerous because they tricted submarine warfare, 10 were armed with scientific means existing P-boats were adapted as of destruction unparalleled in the decoy ships and termed PQ-boats, world's history.

INTELLIGENCE STATION The Duke asked questions as to how the are was fought and the number of firemen present. An officer of the brigade told him that about 500 men were on the spot.

Having expressed a wish to see the Are from the other side, the and the high standard of their pointed out, whose moral and order was given for 24 vessels, and Duke entered an open fire brigade play. It is surprising that we can- motor-car and drove around to ob- not produce young masters able to tain a view of the flames from dif-hold their own with the foreign ferent angles of the building. experts. The "lamentable object

He then drove to the High Level lesson of the great Nottingham Masters' Tournament—the tour English representatives bunched together at the bottom of the final order of merit-is not likely to be forgotten in a hurry. It is, per taps, responsible for the refusal of several strong players to play in League matches, in which the

rallway station and spent 20 min- utes in the intelligence room es- tablished in a waiting room there, Here were

spread out largescale plans of the Palace and grounds and reports were

received con- tinually of the progress

of the fight against the fire and the

movements of the engines and ap- pliances.

The chief of the brigade explain- ed the procedure to his Royal High- ness. It was half an hour after midnight when the Duke left the

room.

He then drove back to the fire. Stumbling over a network of pipes at the entrance to the Palace he found the grounds Sin deep in water.

His thin. "evening shoes were soaked, and a fireman provided him with a pair of thigh boots and

He was still present early this morning. His white evening scarf and his face were covered with smuts and drenched with spray from the hoses.

|

The

GERMAN INGENUITY.

Germans were producing new and deadly gases, particularly of the chlorarsenic type, of which a concentration of less than one thousandth of an ounce per cabic yard was intolerable and quickly time-limit of 24 moves an

hour fatal. Lachrymators, Tung ir and the 34 hours' duration of playritants, vesicants, and arsenical lead to unsatisfactory results. The smokes were being made more and time-limit is too fast for accurate, more efficiënt. analysis of dificult positions, and the match does not last long enough for an end-game to be finished off. It is in the end-game that the in- feriority of English representation is mast marked.

Another cause of the fallure ul our gifted young amateurs to be come masters is the impossibilY of getting first-rate practice. There is no resident "great master"

Mr. Rhodes stressed the desir- ability of adequate instruction being given by chemists to the civil population in air raid pre- cautions. A representative of every professional chemical society ought to be represented on the appropriate committees. The chemical personnel should mobilised for this purpose, and the British Association of Chemlata offered its services to the Government in this capacity.

QUEEN VICTORIA'S FEAR OF GAS

Wanted Supply Cut Off

a helmet. The Duke walked in London as in the days of Simp-ad. through the water and slush togon's Divan, when. I and other am- the bandstand, where he ateodbitious members of the Oxford and with senior officials of the brigade Cambridge Sevens could do battle watching the blaze.

for a hit of silver with Teichmann and other world-famous experts. When the Jovial Blackburne and the gental Amos Burn, most un- assuming of masters, passed away. there was nobody to succeed them. No professional master, às the sad fate of F. D. Yates proved could now make a decent living in Eng- land. England is an also ran " in international chess and likely to remain su, I very much fear."

'PLANE DECAPITATES

HORSE

Three Men Escape

A remarkable accident occurred

at the R.A.F. Aerodrome, Fort Grange, Gosport, recently, resulting in a horse being almost decapitated

by an aeroplane propeller.

HASTINGS CONGRESS Arrangements are already ad- vanced for the Hastings Christmas Congress always a very pleasant affair.

be

The days when Queen 'Victoria: was afraid of gas were recalled by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir George Broadbridge, at a luncheon of the Gas Light and« Coks Com- pany at Fishmongers' Hall recent- ly.

"Eighty years ago," said the Lord Mayor, "people knew so little of gas

that Queen Victoria told the Duke of Wellington to cut off the gas and stop up all the pipes in Wind--

sor Castle, because she was afraid of it."-

Sir George said he believed that a company was formed in 1810 to light London with gas, Sir Hum- phry Davy, he added, "declared that to get all the gas that was wanted dome of St. Paul's for a gas holder. and that would explode,

to light London it would need the

Five foreign masters. Alekhine, Fine, Eliskases, Vidmar, James Cannings, of Meon-

and another, will play in the Pre- terrace, Fontley Hill, near Fare-

mier Tournament, and the homie ham, had delivered a load of turves representatives will be Vera Men- The handing over of our Colonies at the aerodrome, and was leading chik the only woman ever to at- to other nations would belther be the horse and cart away when he tain master's rank), Sir George consistent with our national hon- | heard an ́aeroplane behind hht.

Thomas, T. H. Tylor, W. Winter, our nor would it make for peace, "I. turned to see the aeroplane and A. Reynolds, who tied with Dr. said Lord Lugard recently in the 'bearing down on me," he said. "I first address given at the Royal saw I could not save the horse and Custerman, of Paris, in one of the Empire

divisions of the Major Open Tour- Society's new building cart, so I dived clear and lay down.nament at Nottingham in Northumberland-avenue. Mr. The aeroplane crashed into the Ormsby-Gore, the Colonial Becre- back of the cart and unshipped a matches at regular intervals for the slso likely challengers, though suc

Meanwhile plans for arranging tary, presided states the "Dally torpedo from the undercarriage. World's Championship, which can cess in tournament play is not a was badly shaken, and I don't never be decided by a Tournament, reliable criterion of form in a man- Lord Lugard pointed out that think I want to work on an aero- are being seriously discussed. The to-man contest with a time-limit world movements had created a dromé again.”

date of the return contest between of 16 moves an hour. It is thought new 'Colonial problem. Powers The 'plane which was wrecked. without Colonies were demanding was piloted by Lieut. Newcombe, we and Alekhine has not yet (1) that every world's champion share in the control of those who had with him a naval rating cher of mathematics with an ap- title, when he has held it a year. been settled. The holder 18 a ten- ahould be prepared to defend his

possessed by others

alleging as observer. Both escaped titude for original research, and and (2) that the minimum prize- dimculty in obtaining raw materi hurt. They were taking-off he does not intend to adopt chess money should be £1,000.

carry out torpedo dropping exer-

as his profession. He will give the elses over the Solent when the ac-chief expondent of the "heing the chief chess playing nations. If a strong committee, represent- cident occurred.

romantic style his chance of re were to get to work, these condi gaining the Championship, after tions could be enforced, and class which the claims of Capablanca, literature enriched by regular sup- who, seems to have regained his ply of masterpieces, which would best form, and some of the younger give pleasure to Caissa's votaries masters will have to be considered. hundreds of years hence. I think BEST OF THE NEW PLAYERS at least 60 per cent. of the contenta Botwinnik, the Russian cham- |of any anthology of the finest re- pion, who tied for the first prize corded games would be products of at Nottingham, seems to me the match-play, in which errors in -étrongest and soundest of the new technique are less frequent than In men and to have the right tem the exciting hurly-burly of a perament for match-play. But tournament. Mohr, Fine, and Reschevsky are

als and foodstuffs.

"But economists have shown that the dimcuities are caused not by the lack of colonies," added Lord Lugard. "but by post-war barriera to international trade. Moreover, the foreign exchange available has been chiefly used for the needs of armaments.

whom we have pledged our tection"

pro-

Bir Bernard Bourdillon, Governor of Nigeria, Bir Daniel Hall, director of the John Ihnes Horticultural That we should declare our Institution, and Sir Herbert Stan-. selves ready to share any economic ley, Governor of Southern Rhodesia, advantages accruing from our also spoke. colonies is an honourable gesture The meeting was preceded by a of goodwill, but we cannot hand dinner at which Bir Archibald over on demand, as though they Welgall, chairman of the society's were slaves or cattle, peoples to council, presided.

EB. O

but to avoid confusion with the re- gular Q-boata they were afterwards styled PC-boats. Ten new PC- boats were ordered in 1917. The

latest of these, PC.74, is the only survivor of the whole series, and serves in the 1st Anti-Submarine Flotilla at. Portland.

A Great Name

and a

GORDONS

¡DRY GIN

DISTILLERY LONDON.

Great Gin- Gordon's

KNOCK KNOCK

Who's there

Anna Anna Who?

An (n) appeal for food and toys.

Needed for Christmas

HONGKONG BENEVOLENT SOCIETY

Mondays & Thursdays, 10-12,

11, Ice House Street.

DIRECTORY & CHRONICLE

OF

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First Edition 1862, revised and enlarged annually

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