1936-02-04 — Page 18

THE HONAKONG TELEGRAPH, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1986.

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**

"A penn'orth

bronze'

of

LET us try to polish up

the old war-word "hero" and put a fresh shine on the bloom of its patina, for one of the last acts of the late King George V was to graci- ously approve the award of the Victoria Cross to a dead hero.

The noble prose of the award

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The

Hongkong Telegraph.

TUESDAY, FEB, 4, 1936.

THE BETTING PROBLEM

we need a Victoria Cross for moral courage,

the courage to defend us

from war

by JAMES DOUGLAS

I knew the first V.C. because he was an Ulsterman. But our Irish heroes are not as well known as they ought to be. And who was the first V.C.?

His name was Charles David Lucas. He was born at Donegal, Co. Armagh, on February 19, 1934. The Lucas family scat was Castle Shane.

"

Lucas was a lad of eighteen. when he won the Victoria Cross which had been Instituted by Queen Victoria, and which be came known as "the penn'orth of bronze."

*

...་

HE served in H.M.S. Hecla in the Crimean war, the most. wanton and witless war in our annals.

The Hecla attacked the for- tress of Bomarsund, in the Gulf of Bothnia, which was armed with eighty guns. The range was 500 yards. Almost every Russian shot told.

Lucas picked up a live shell. and hurled it into the sen, where it burst with a terrific roar. Queen Victoria herself gave him. the Victoria Cross. He subse-

quently became an admiral.

I met Admiral Luchs at a din- a trumpet, and if our million Frontier. The Mohmand tribes- THERE will be no bellicose men had surrounded the for

archbishops in the thin red dend can cheer in their abode ward troops. Captain Meynell line. The League of Nations the 'ntics. He was a fine old Ulster Association in ner of of peace and honour we may be found them in sore straits. Union will not be there. They sea-dog, with a ragged rod sure that they all lifted up their

The Mohmand warriors were will not die like Captain Meynell beard, and he was as modest as voices in praise of "the under closing in from three sides, in the war they will have evoked he was brave. I could not per- mentioned officer":-

Captain Meynell had only thirty and provoked. For them the sunde him to talk about his

famous feat. men, with two Lewis guns, rest will be alience. which were damaged beyond "Be brave" is the Meynell it overboard."

"Sure," he said, "I only threw repair.

war cry. The Victoria Cross is I sometimes think we ought the reward of courage in every to have a moral Victoria Crosa forlorn hope. Are we sure we for moral courage, for moral of the British soldier? Where we need in times of peaco-the are all the V.C.s of the great courage to defend our soldiers war? Some of them are out of and sailors and our youth from the action work. The V.C. is not a pass- wickedly

.

ܕ܂

The late Captain Godfrey Meynell, M.C., 5th Battalion (Queen Victoria's Own Corps

During the last stand Captain of Guides), Indian Army, for most conspicuous gallantry Meynell was mortally wounded. and extreme devotion to duty. All his men were either killed deserve the traditional bravery courage is the sort of courage

"I am very proud," said Brig- adier-General Godfrey Meynell.

or wounded,

*

My son's wife is very proud, THROUGHOUT

too, to learn how his courage Captain Meynell endeavour- port to work. has been recognised. She and ed by all means to communicate her little son were in India, when the situation to battalion' head- Godfrey lost his life."

quarters, but he determined to

*

**

**

unnecessary wark like the Crimean war, which was caused by the cowardice of our statesmen. (and crowned by incompetence) Dgainst hold on at all costs, and encour OUR war memory is short. We their

have forgotten all that "ex- their own better judgment,

It was a war entered into THE award was announced in aged his men to fight to the last treme devotion to duty" which

the London Gazette an

By so doing he inflicted on saved our souls alive. There wantonly and waged without Christmas Eve, just before the the enemy very heavy casual were, not enough V.C.s to go foresight, a monument of dam- King died, and it came in time ties, which prevented them from round the heroes of France and nable mismanagement redeemed Flanders and Gallipoli, the a little by the greatest heroine to comfort the war widow who exploiting their success.

heroes of the sea epic, the men of our race, Florence Nightin- was spending a sad Christmas

"The fine example Captain of the Royal Navy and the galo, As in England, so in Hong- with her fatherless boy, one Meynell set to his men," says Royal Naval Reserve, the mer- kong, the laws on gambling year old, and his war-scarred contain many anomalies, mainly grandfather in the ancient home the Gazette, "coupled with his chant seamen and the fisher- WHAT we need in this hour of

determination to hold the post- men who manned the mine- due to the fact that certain of the Meynells nt Meynell tion to the last, maintain the sweepers, all the great unknown of this pioneer of womanhood in

Langley, near Derby.

traditions of the Army and who kept our command of the forms of batting are legalised and others declared illegal. At Last September there was a reflect the highest credit on the sea. its last meeting, the Legislative little war on the North-West fallen officer and his comrades."

The names of our V.C.s ought Captain Meynell was wound- to be household words. How Council passed an amending

ed five times. His last words many of them do we know? were: "Be brave, we shall get help soon.".

Ordinance directed at certain NOTES OF THE DAY

When the late Sir Owen Seaman

The award of the Victoria Cross to Captain Meynell is the the well-known editor of Punch, first since 1921, when Ishan whose death is a national loss, Singh, a sepoy, was awarded the learned that he was to he made a V.C. for bravery in Waziristan. Doctor of Laws during a visit to It is therefore the second V.C. Edinburgh, he made witty speech awarded since the great war, paying a tribute to the Scottish and the first awarded to sense of humour. "Such a choice British soldier.---- as he himself for the honour of

AL A moment when our Doctor of Laws," he said, "reveal-

types of betting, the changes having apparently been found desirable. By the amendment SIR OWEN SEAMAN now in force, it is an offence to bot in the streets, or to conduct a club or building for the pur poses of betting. Gambling and betting as authorised by the Betting-Duty-Ordinance are not, however, -affected. Nothing was said when the amending Bill was introduced, nor in the Objects and Rensons, to point the necessity or desirability of the changes made. Street bet ting, as it is known in England,

had falsely alleged the Scottish

"a

destiny is the moral courage

the relief of human suffering. The women of England can save the men of England from the Inferno of a wicked and wanton war which may wreck the British Empire.

VETERAN DRINKERS

I NEVER kent onybody killed wi' drinking; though I hae kent some that dee'd in the training."

Support is lent to the

glasses of ale.

Charles Macklin, the ostor, who- was born in 1000 and died in 1797, is sald to have eaten when he was hungry, drunk when he

Was

thirsty, and gone to bed when he felt inclined. "His favourite "be"

wine thickened to the consistence

vorage was ale, porter, or white of a syrup with sugar."

An extract from the Scots Afnga- zíne of July 1788_runs:—"Died at:

Selkirk, aged one hundred and six- teen, William Riddel. In the early part of his life he dealt deeply in

ed on the part of the University peacemakers are war-mongers observation attributed to a an extremely koen sense of who are trying to drag us into humour of the situation that war we do well to honour Cap- Highland laird by the an- very virtue of which the ignorance tain Meynell's "extreme devo- and jealousy of the Southernertion to duty," for it is men like nouncement that a Hamp- race to be congenitally incapable him who will bear the burden shire lady of 91 attributes is, as far as we are aware, by-how falsely he could testify a of "extreme devotion to duty" her longevity to three daily the smuggling and drinking of no means prevalent here, but thousand times over." Sir Owen without the help of the furious

told a story of being once asked war-at-any-pricë bombastera. that there are numerous clubs by an interviewer if it was true and buildings used for the pur- that he had said that Punch got poses of gambling, whether 75 per cent. of its humour from Scotsmen. He was peevish when wholly or mainly devoted there-interviewed and had dismissed his to or not, there can be no ques-interviewer curtly-with-the state

ment that he Itad said nothing of tion. Organised botting on the kind. A few days afterwards Home football is also widely in- he received a cutting from a Dan- dulged in locally, and it remains dee paper to the effect that "Sir to be seen whether the amend- Owen Seaman states that he never said he got T5 per cent of the ments now brought into force humour of his paper from Scots- will affect this, and also whether men. We do not know who sprend certain clubs can be defined as the, rumour, but for years we Scotsmen have been writhing under gaming houses within the ex- this aspersion."

tended meaning given to that

term under the changes made. that as betting in all shapes and This general question of betting forms is injurious morally, its has, we observe, been engaging complote suppression is demand. per yard the renewed attention of the ed. The moderates reply that

FURNISHING- DEPARTMENT

Tel. 28151

authorities at Home, where a as betting is a habit common to Chief Constable has frankly humanity, it can never be to- advocated that ready-money bet-their assertions with a reminder tally suppressed, backing up ting should be legalised, the of the deplorable results that argument being that as it can have followed all attempts to put not be suppressed, it should be down the liquor traffic by legis regulated. It is contended that lative means. Looking at the street betting should remain whole question, it must be con- ceded that the betting laws, both| illegal, in the hope that heavier at Home and here in Hongkong, penalties will eventually have are in a chaotic and absurd con- the effect of stamping it out, but dition. They ⚫ come plainly that provision should be made within the category of class! sóme legislation, legalising for the supervision of betting forms of betting and permitting businesses, by the imposing of others which only differ in ap- restrictions and conditions to pearance. We shall shortly have the licences. The Home Office that fact pointedly Illustrated has, in fact, been urged to make whilst the annual Race Meeting changes along these lines, and is in progress, when, at the the public is awaiting with deep same time, hapless coolies who interest its decision. The total happen to be caught engaging in a mild flutter, will no doubt prohibitionists, of course, bringe sent to prison for having forward the familiar argument broken the laws.

.

SIDE GLANCES By George Clark

"Eddie's mother writes wonderful, excuses when he's late She used to be a teacher herself.

brandy, and was always no fond of good ale that he had been often heard to declare he had never taken a single draught of water...... He could never be called a habitual drinker, but frequently fell into intemperate rambles of several. -days-continuance, and-avon-after---

ho was ninety, he at one time drank a fortnight before ho went to bed. He married his third wife when he was ninoty-five, and re- tained his memory and judgmont to the last. For the last two years of his life he subsisted chledy on ale and spirits mixed with a little Greed."

In the Bedfordshira churchyard of Turvey, a stono bears the curious epitaph:-

"Here lies Jim, the wandering pipay.

Who was sometimes sober, yet oftener tipsy;

But with the world ha scomed to thrive,

For he lived to the age of an hundred and five.".

A tombstone in the churchyard of Kirkcudbright, appropriately blazoned with ram's horns and horn spoons, marks the resting- ¡place of Billy Marshall, King of the Galloway Tinkers, who died in. 1702 at the age of one hundred and twenty: Billy had been married soventeen times, and had been posted as an army deserter on at Toast saven occasions.

After exhaustive Inquiries, Sir Walter Scott - summed up -bis. Sestimate of the patriarch In the auggestive sentence:-"It cannot be said that this unusually long Tosse of existenco was noted by any peculiar excellence of conduct or habits of Me"

J. McW.