1935-10-18 — Page 15

HE

SAVED

.100

LIVES

Canadian Mountie Who Turned Pirate

Visiting Hongkong

THE - HONGKONG TELEGRAPH FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1935.

"TWOMA INCHES IN WHO'S WHO"

Paris's Grand old man of the River, Pere Chartier, who has saved 100 lives, has retaived the Legion of Honour. He is Seine lifesaver and the picture above shows him in his work-a-day costume.

Mines That Did Not Explode

BRITISH PARSIMONY IN NORTH SEA WAR

"When the war started, our regular mincsweeping force consisted of six old torpedo gunboata fitted.

fleet

sweepers.

as

FOUNDER OF

OF LEGION OF FRONTIERSMAN

Troubles Started So He Joined The When He Became Famed Yokohama

A Missionary

Pirates!

I

"Telegraph" Special Representative

HAVE just met Hongkong's most amazing visitor.

His name is Colonel Roger Pocock. Thirty-one years ago he founded the Legion of Frontiersmen, which has for its motto: "For the Safety, Honour and Welfare of Our Sovereign and His Dominions."

Conservative "Who's Who" gives Colonel Pocock a bare two inches, and that for his work. in connection with the League, whose ramifica- tions now spread throughout the Empire, includ- ing Hongkong.

But the story of the life of the grizzled veteran would fill volumes. In the span of man's allotted time, he has crammed six decades of amazing ad- venture. Even at seventy years of age he has far from ended his remarkable career.

Strangely enough, despite the, ties, including myself, were sent fact that he is an inveterate up the raging rapids to where they traveller, he is visiting Hong-were kicking up a fuss. kong and China for the first "But when we got there we dis

covered that we were on one side of a raging, impassable torrent of In 1884, Pocock, n lad of nine-water and they were on the other.

South Sea Missionary Colonel

time.

"At the time of the Armistice it comprised 720 vessels-110 teen, joined the famous Canadian regular naval vessels, mostly North West Mounted Police as a built during the War, and divid-rookle, serving principally in ed into 20 fast sweeping flotillas; Saskatchewan. 52 hired paddle steamers of the

type patronised by excursionists in Canadian history when Louis It was during the troubled time in peace time; 412 fishing traw-Riel, the French half-breed, carned lers; 142 drifters; and 10 shal-fame in his country and a page in low-draught 'tunnel' minesweep Encyclopaedia Britannica with his flighty, and mystical revolutionary activities.

ers.

"

That is a measure of the growth and importance of a service of which Taffrail writes in "Swept Channels," published recently.

Riel WILH

"It spoilt the war altogether. So I gave up fighting and be- a missionary in New Caledonia, down off the coast! of Australia."

came

That, added Colonie! Pocock, was when all his troubles started. Nevertheless, he claims that as a missionary he was a great success.

To what do you attribute your) success?" I asked.

Captain Reper Pocock, whose amazing coreer is described on this pago, He was the founder of the famous Legion of Frontiersmen, and is on a world tour to all its branches.

ITALIAN TROOPS DYING LIKE FLIES)

Halifax, Oct. 10.

Italian soldiers are "dying liko flies" of tropical Hiseases in East Africa, Captain John Smith, of the motorship Cingalese Prince said upon his arrival

here to-day the Near East, from

Captain Smith and disease has blinded hundreds, while shiploads of fever victims have been return- rd Italy.

The Cingalese Prince is on a round the world freight and pas- Renger service by way of the Panama Canal, Manila and Hong. kong.

most a decade, and "Who's Who" records nothing of his adventures until 1914, when the Great War commenced.

Despite his amputated tacs he managed to scrape through the medical examination, en- listing within a few days of the declaration of war.

Professor And That Afternoon Siesta

PEOPLE who feel that they

simply must have "forty winks" after luncheon were de- fended by Professor D. F. Fraser-Harris, late professor of physiology at Dalhousie Univer- sity, at the New Health Summer, School, Margate, recently.

He was asked whether thoso

who feel a strong desire to sleep in the afternoon should follow that inclination or fight against it and go for a walk.

His answer, was that some poople should have an afternoon rest.

ten-

Another remarkable charactor. His judicial murder on March 4. 1870 of Thomas Scott, "To my own virtue," he ans-

"Generally speaking, the These little ships were at it an Orangeman from Ontario, rous-wered promptly.

dency to-day is to take fur too eternally, under conditions ofed against him the whole of Eng-

flittle sleep. People should sec There was a twinkle in his eyes! great danger and discomfort, Thelish-speaking Canada. An expedi-

that their children have enough "I was in the Infantry Forces sleep, and even boys of nineteen tales included in this book, many tion was sent out but Riel decamp when he answered the next ques-}

for two weeks before they chuck-should sleep at least nine hours a of which are told by the personnel ed. Later he was publicly thanked tion.'

ed me out because of my gummy day," he added. of the sweepers themselves, bring by the lieutenant governor for his

leg." he said. - s home the magnificent way in which activities against a threatened at-

Then he joined the Horse Artil- there was too little done in "My virtue was aa- this service-half regular, half tack on Canada by American volunteer, from fisher-folk, Vachts- Fenians, and in 1874 became a sumed, and I was fed up to the lery, in which he was appointed way of training a child's emotional

Captain, served on the Western life. men, and even "dug out" flag member of the Dominion parlia-back_teeth!

Front with the Labour Corps, and officers of the Navy-carried out ment.

spent the last two years of the dunies which saved Britain from starvation.

war with the Royal Air Force.

Sweeps Of 5,000 Miles "At a rough computation the distance covered by the periodical sweeps cannot have been much less than 5,000 miles."

. In 1884, in response to a deputa-

"I lasted for seven months," he confessed.

"Yokohama" Pirate "Who's Who" describes the next tion from the Melin-French half-stage in this remarkable man's breeds-Riel attempted to win re career as seaman with the Yoko dress for their wrongs.

hama pirates"!

His own rashness and the in- eptitude of Canadian politicians and officials brought on the famous Riel Rebellion, or, as Riel called it, the revolt for a "Heavenly Re- public."

The Canadian North

I asked him what it mennt.

"Oh, we used to go and rob the warehouses along the northern coast of their stocks of seal furs," he said airily.

Six months after he was demobilised, Captain Pocock's address was "Somewhere at Sea", his next adventure tak-

ing him to the icy wastes of

the North Atlantic with a deep sea fishery research party. Apparently, this type of adven- ture proved highly successful, be

The professor declared

that the

toys instead of meeting so early in They could be given beautiful

life with grotesque and morbid things, but that is the general tendency In modern life."

FORMER ENEMY

· COMBATANTS

Brussels, Oct. 1. The 16th annual conference of

Naturally, the efficiency of the sweepers increased rapidly with experience. This is clearly shown

"Most of the 'warehouses were by the number of losses sustained

West owned by Americans and Russians. cause "Who's Who" records that YEARLY MEETING PLAN Dy the minesweepers compared Mounted Police were sent to baltic Naturally, they were very annoyed he remained at sen on research with the number of mines swept the rebels, and late in April, 1884, at losing their furs and when they work for two years before joining, The reduction in the number of the nineteen year old youth-who had ships handy, chased us. But in 1921, the Oxford University

of our ship was too slick for them, Scientific Expedition to Spitsber ships sunk by mines in the latter seventy, as he unfolded his tale and we safely landed our precious gen. part of the war was, of course, last night, hoard the sound of cargoes at Vancouver, B.C., from also due in large measure to the whizzing bullets for the first time where they were sent to the London invention and more and more ex-in his life,

market, to our great profit." tended use of the paravane,

13.

sat besides me, a veteran

Taffrail points out that one of "It was an inglorious end to, my For the next ten years, unti! the salient points of the mine- career as a Mountfe," the warrior the Boer War, Colonel. Pocock sweepers' war was our compara-said. "All I got out of it was followed over fifty different pro- live unpreparedness in 1914 for frost-bite.

fessiona, ranging from cow-punch- minesweeping on any considerable

ing to arctie exploration and scale, mainly through our trust in

"Doctors in those days were "slushy." the Hague Convention, which för-

always keen on surgery, 30 bade the promiscuous laying of

they amputated three toes and mines outside territorial waters.

half my foot."

In mine warfare, as in most

Fidae, the Inter-Allied Federation of Ex-Servicemen, concluded here to-day. A unanimqus: resolution He Was The Cook

was passed instructing the execu- tive committed to establish con- "My previous experience stood me in good stead," he tact with the ex-Servicemen of all said. "I was appointed to this

a view to getting scientific expedition from Brit-together for the defence of peace. ain's great seat of learning im-` mediately my application was received. You see, I was the cook!"

nations with

The resolution added: "It may be agreed between the delegations of all the countries represented in Fidne and ex-Ser vice associations of former enemy delegates,

Perhaps the six years at sen "Who's Who" records a remark somewhat dimmed his ardour. for countries that their able ride along the Rocky Moun-adventure. In 1928, the man of meet at least once a year, in one that there were exciting times which he did not dwell during his and hence in the famous Charter assure peace in the wonde

But there was more in it than City of Mexico, an experience upon London and there sought solace discuss questions of a nature to tains In 1899, from Canada to the amazing adventures returned to of their respective countries, to in Canada,in those days.

other nepects of the sen, we paid the price of parsimony during the „Pears preceding the war. "Mines,'

writes Taffrail, "were regarded as At the outbreak of Riel's second rather expensive luxuries, and our rebellion, as it is known to-day, a mine-laying squadron in August, body of Pocock's companions, ad- 1914, consisted of seven old 14-vancing to regain a small post at knot, 3,400-ton cruisers.

Duck Lake, of which the rebels had "The details and design of and twelve of their number killed. taken possession, were ambushed efficacious Russian 'Carbonit' mines, which were possessed by

The rest of the Mounties were the Germans, were also fully quieldy converged on the scene of known, and we could have had the trouble, and several minor en- gagements with Metis and Indians

*

interview.

house, the

"The Congress recognises the Carthusian monastery Unpaid Looters

founded in the city of A.D. 1371 by right of each association to es- Sir Walter de Manny, a knight of tablish contact with the cx- Then the Boer War broke out French birth.

enemies, without constituting with the South African Field Force. in South Africa and Pocock joined

During the few years he spent

them any new organisation, but in peace in his picturesque cottage condition that they keep Fidac "We were an unpaid looting there, Captain Pocock devated all advised of their action and do not. corps, ho confessed. "Our his time to the Legion of Fron-take any general doclsions con

trary to the spirit of Fidnc." job was to remove as much of tiersmen..

M. Marcel Heraud, one of the the enemy's food supplica The ideal formulated in the icy them if we had cared to pay the latter armed with rifles and

cattle and things as we could wastes of the sub-Arctic in 1908-French delegates, who is Deputy if for Paris explained that 04 had become a reality and spread opposition was made to the ad- the price £200 apiece.

"After a while we became the rapidly throughout the Empire. bows and arrows in approved Wild National Scouts, and worked with

mission of associations of former To-day there are few.corners "Instead of that we evolved bad- Western style--preceded the final the surrendered Boers who, desir- the partion of a map or Ure era of enemy countries, it was due to the ly-designed mines of our own, struggle at Batocho, where Rieling to put an end to the war, painted red that have not their of the statues.

fact that it necessitated a revision which cost 240 each, and possessed had skilfully entrenched himself, came over to our alde." no more than 4,000 of them when But the Mounties, and volunteer

When the Boor war ended, war broke out. Not only did they troopa stormed the position and the Pocock, fed up with African heat bronk adrift with appalling fre-rebels fled their cause abandoned and sunshine, decided on the ather quoney; but they failed to explode after three months of Intensive extreme. Six months later he was when atruck. It was September 1917, that a now type

not until guerilla warfare.

| shivering in' Greenland,

It was whilst there that be. con- ceived the iden of forming the Legion of Fronteramen.

With its creed of "For the

-

quota of Frontiersmen. Hongkong has its branch at 19 Waterloo Road, Kowloon, and each Armistice Day, Hongkong to-day by the Empress the, local members, in their pic of Russia. turesquo Trontier uniforms, gather

"Who Knows ?!! to pay homage at the Cenotaph, Then-Home to England, per- Their founder is now mak-haps to enjoy the remaining two Looking For Scalps

ing his first Empire tour of the for three decades of an adventur Legion.

ous life in peace-perhaps to feel · "My last attempt to do a bit of A book

He has already toured-New Zea-jonco, again the restless, urge to which is both a history of the the winter of 1887-88," Colonel Dur Sovereign and His Domin- now units have been started since that must surely be one of the scrapping on Canadian soll was in Safety, Honour and Welfare of land and Australia, where many continuo until tho and a career little-known deeds of the mine-Pocock told mo. sweepers during the war, and a

ions", the scheme caught on. like his visit. tributo

"The Indians were looking for wild-fire.

most amazing. to every man who was senipa and a battery of Canadian.

His next destination in his bei "Who knows?" were bis final engaged upon that nerve-racking artillery, a gunboat and 100 Meun-its founder strangely quiet for al- strongest, and he will depart from my departure.

Work in connection with it kept loved Canada, where the Legion is words; as I shook hands and topic. thek.

of mine, mooring gear, and sinker "becue available in any quantity."

Taffrail has written

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THE CHING Ling foo trouPE

MAGIC MYSTERY RARE ENTERTAINMENT.

SHE SHOT THE WORKS FOR THE MAN SHE LOVED! She was his guardian angel... pro recting him against the ruthless fol that clipped his wingsl The gloriously, human story of a woman so desperate-

ty In fove the risked her life to prove It!

Adolph Luker prèvents »

MYRNA LOY

CARY GRANT "Wings in

the Dark

A FarquaVAT #lature with

HOBART CAVANAUGH ..

KOSCOB KÁRNS DEAN JAGGER

QUEEN'S TOMORROW

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