1936-07-20 — Page 18

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAFII, MONDAY, JULY 20, 1936.

Watson's

Lavender Talcum

A TOILET NECESSITY FOR SUMMER COMFORT.

Combining the Fragrance of Old English Lavender with Mild Antiseptic and Absorbent Qualities in Improved Form.

In Large Size

Refills

Containers

80 cts.

60 cts.

"Whiz" Britain Has Paid

AUTOMOTIVE

OF THE

PRODUCTS

HIGHEST QUALITY

For the proper servicing which your car deserves!

The following are available at all our Garages and Service Stations:

LONDON COACH, PRE-WAX

CLEANER

LONDON COACH WAX POLISH

AND CLEANER METAL POLISH

RADIATOR CLEANER

WHITE TYRE FINISH

AUTO TOP & TYRE DRESSING KHARI DRESSING

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THE HONGKONG DISPENSARY.

THE SMALL OUTLAY OF

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WILL FURNISH YOUR HOME WITH A

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HONG KONG HOTEL GARAGE

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Tel. 27778/9

The

Stubbs Road

Hongkong Telegraph.

MOSDAY, JULY, 20, 1936.

MOUTRIE PIANO NOT A SOULLESS

Balance of the purchase price payable by small monthly instalments.

Moutric Pianos are backed by over fifty years reputation for fine craftmanship They are built to last a lifetime and cannot be excelled for tone, touch and finish.

Ask for catalogues and full particulars of our terms.

S. MOUTRIE & Co.,

-YORK-BUILDING..

Ltd.

CHATER ROAD,

LANE, CRAWFORD'S

• GREAT

SUMMER SALE

NOW COMMENCED

GENERAL DISCOUNT

OF

25%

ON ALL FURNISHING FABRICS

FURNISHING DEPT.

WE REMAIN OPEN TILL 5.30 p.m. DURING THE SALE.

some

Dis

INDIA

for

World's Greatest

Sea Fort

IRMA

den

To Africa

Europa

Colombo

Capetousn

SINGAPOREO

INDIAN OCEAN

FACTS

When

Singapore

7008

offered as a gift to Scots- man Alerander Hamilton in 1703 he declined.

Wiser Sir Thomas Raffles made British Government, 1824, buy it, price £13,500,

Under

Quern distant Victoria became a pleasant rendezvous for pirates,

Later recognised as the cross-roads of the world, but had no dry dock till 1928. Chinese

out-number Europeains by 5 to 1.

women

dividual cases is vested in dis- NOTES OF THE DAY

shillings, mak- ing six in all.

Twin

AUSTRALIA

Perth

And with six shillings you can do quite a lot.

Richmond

By

Philip Jordan

OSYDNEY

=AUCKLANDI

TASMANIA -

NEW ZEALAND

Strategic Paint

Major Bases

Defended Points

Just only

It may well be, however, that those who call upon us to spend this further three shillings of have hard-earned money nlready decided that a great naval base at Capetown would, jungle into u after all, be preferable to one at naval base with-

Dur

At Selntar, in the north part

peur in the

her when jungle stood there and

a year.

Long slipways go down from the northern edge of this field into the sea, and from its translucent waters are hauled. and lowered the great flying boats with which Imperial Britain de- fends her Eastern lands.

The entrances to this hornets' nest are well and truly guarded. At Changi, on the extreme N.E. point of Singapore Island, a gar- rison town has been built to house the immense reserve of troops and mechanics whom it is considered necessary to keep there.

THE hills are full of guns How much con- Prete has been imported to make beds for them it is impossible to discover; but it is known that a

have been at work there for years,

viders.

To this there can only be one answer.

Because of the Japanese.

NEXT time you get your Singapore; and that something out

hair cut in Singapore like £14,000,000 will now be world.

The work is so recent that large number of big gun experts take a look at the barber. spent in South Africa, of which He may well be a Japanese the Union Government will con- children still at school can remem superintending the labours of

So tribute half. admiral or general.

not a secret dockyard surrounded thousands of "coolies"; and that SYSTEM

may the man who sells you

with barbed wire and Sikhs with the big and little islands of Pulm ends of their Tekong and the island of Pulau The Board is not a juggernauta roll of film for your O that reported plan bayonets on the

Ubin, which guard the entrance it is at present im- rifles. rolling mechanically over the lives camera.

Dock IX., as it is known, is to the hornets' nest, are full of This secret emplacements where there" millions of human! For the hairdressing possible to obtain any confirma

anti-aircraft unnumbered tion, for the grey walls of the Singapore's masterpiece. beings." So declares Lord Rush-parlours and the camera British Admiralty hold secrets as £700,000 floating dock, tower

the largest cliffe, the Chairman of the Un-shops of Singapore are full efficiently smoke-screen from Newcastle by Dutch tugs Ks and some

Nor is this a At Berlok employment Assistance Board, in'

a million pounds, (more than presenting the yearly report of its of Japanese all keeping an thrown out by one of their own at a cost of nearly a quarter of calibre guns in the world!. activities. This, in brief, is the eye on Britain's white ele, destroyers,

But whatever the fate of £10,000 of which was paid in Point, in the cust, on the small reply to those who are constantly phant; the great naval base, Singapore, more than £7,000,000 Suez Canal dues); a 900ft. grav- islands to the south of Singapore criticising the activities of the towards whose cost to date has already been spent in building dock, nearly half a mile of town, in the coconut groves and system which the Board operates and who appear to delight in you, and I and all our fellow ing un arsenal on this island, the quay, long fuelling wharves, giant rubber plantations to the west. and exact position and size of whose cranes, pumpa, power stations and in the hills of Johore to the representing it as harsh, inhuman, countrymen, and bureaucratic - one which children have contributed guns will only be disclosed when and machine shops go to form as north of the Straits, batteries of modernly equipped a hospital for artillery with a long range are they first roar in battle. ruthlessly deals with the needs of three shillings each.

What facts are known beyond sick and damaged ships as the ready at any moment to repel in-

Officially noth- world has ever seen. the poor and the unfortunate. You can't do a great deal dispute are few.

And, as they say, for why? A few miles to their imme- Actually, there is no country in: the world which shows greater with three shillings; but when ing is admitted; but long and care for those who, through. no arly 50,000,000 people club sometimes dangerous research has diate south is the voice with without together and each contributes dragged small particles of in- which Singapore daily speaks' fault of their own, are work. The Board has, from the that amount they can transform formation into the light of day, to London-one of the Empire's

On the great and opulent city start of its existence two years a peaceful island into an impregn- and as those particles, like the most powerfully equipped wire- ago, recognised that it has to deal able fortress; and then discover pieces of a highly complicated jig- less stations. That, too, is a of Singapore, capital of the world's richest area, 70,000,000 More secret still are the fuel pairs of Japanese eyes are focuss- with an infinite variety of circum-that it is not likely to lie of much say puzzle, have been fitted to- guarded aml secret place,

gether, a picture has emerged;

around the

ed. Those who used to see it in stances and with a vast number of use in an emergency. men and women whose human By the time the Singapore and the beholder finds himself depots senttered needs called for help and sym-base is completed we shall auch examining a titan rooted to the island. Stored in underground reality may-no-longer-do-so, for pathy. Elasticity is essential to have contributed another three ground, at whom, so long as they vaults and in high circular dames Japanese are no longer allowed keep out of his limited range, are said to be over a million and to own land on the hills of Johore. meet these varying needs.

small Japanese boys and admirals a quarter tons of fuel, enough to overlooking the naval base, and, cretionary power to deal with in-

may pull long noses with im- supply the ships and aeroplanes with the aid of field glasses and of Singapore for more than half telescopes, to bring it to their punity. trict officers, whose area officers

doorsteps. A new branch of the This much is known. With the great development in

The major fuel reserves Hé to Singapore C.1.D. has just been are in close touch with the actual circumstances of a family. The rand travel a significant change is Board now states that it is satisfi-taking place in the character of of Singapore Island, thousands the south-west of Selatar, not formed to deal exclusively with ed that this discretion is exercised the British inn. For generations of Chinese and Tamil labourers, far from the 600 acres flying spies. in a way which is both intelligent the wayside inn was one of the paid at the rate of 18. 6d. a day, field on which steep the wings of

main features of the picturesque have transformed 31 thick Britain's Eastern power. and humane. It is interesting to British countryside. These old recall that the Board was set up inns were small, comfortable and at a time when the whole insur-homely places. Each of them had ance system was in danger of its own individual characteristics. breakdown. The insurance fund The proprietors were until was incurring lebt at the rate of cently humble country-folk, and

customers mostly local! nearly a million sterling per week, the

and Jabourers, whose and the fund was paying, under farmers the name of insurance, what was beverage was almost exclusively beer. Spirits and wines were re in fact relief. Fears were ex-

served for special occasions. pressed when the Act was passed Now that there are hundreds of that a centralised system would thousands of motorists on the ronds prove soulless and bureaucratie in special its work; the course of events has have had to be made. In some proved that such fears were cases, in place of the old inns, groundless. Through its six thou-new modern hotels have sand officers, the Board has built; in others, even in the heart constantly kept before it the prin- of the country, the old-fashioned ciple that it is dealing, not with taverns have been renovated and names on a register, but with the brought more into the line with lives of human beings, whom its modern needs.

There

altogether about duty is to help through times of economie stress. But it also has reventy thousand inns in England to bear in mind that it is trustee and Wales, and within the past. year approximately one-third of for the taxpayer and for the them have been reconstructed and great and increasing body of remodelled. In London alone, of workpeople who are in employ- the five thousand inna, nearly half- The ment. That the activities of the have already been rebuilt. Board should meet with criticism work of replanning and remodell- is to be expected, but there is no ing continues unceasingly, the totni evidence that the system of which expenditure involved running into millions of pounds. In many parts it has charge is operated in mechanical manner. Through Its of the country, inns which, at the beginning of the present century,; direct contact with those who need were concerned only with serving | aid, the Board is able to adjust its alcoholic drinks, now provide ac help so that it will meet the commodation for parties of guests, particular needs of given cases, many of whom may not touch The old- It is thus that treatment, varies in liquor of any kind. different instances. But the broad fashioned drinking tavern mukes principle of giving assistance to practically no appeal. The modern those who need and deserve it is traveller, no matter of whatever always kept well in view, and it is class he may be, demands bright- this circumstance which invests nens, cleanliness and cheerful sur- roundings, and no doubt the the British system with the large attempt of the inn-keeper to meet measure of success registered in his requirements is largely reapon- handling an amazingly) complex sible for the surprising decline of and difficult problem.

drunkenness In recent years.

.catering

re-

arrangements

been

SIDE GLANCES

By George Clark

"We'll have to kill another liour some way, If we go home this early it will spoil the cook.":

A secret document is said to still exist which tells that Japan. was willing to put 1,000,000 men on the western front in the dark days of the war if she might have Own. As Singapore for her politely as that offer was made it was refused.

One day Japan may ask for Singapore at the point of the pistol; and when she does it will be seen if the naval base can jus- tify the vast expenditure we have all made on it.

་

Some experts think that it will not, and they say that it has a strategic value but no lactical possibilities. Unless Britain, they say, can detach from her lome and Mediterranean Floets capital ships big enough to engage those with which Japan. will blockade the naval base, it can serve no purpose other than to divert part of the Japanese battle fleet from fan attack on Australia.

JAPANESE

army,

they go on to say, landing on the coasts of Johore, and working in co-operation with the blockading fleet, could starve out Singapore in a few months. At present Britain has no capital ships to spare anul none capable of operating in that climate.

Australia does not belleve in Singapore: and never did. To show her contempt she is, it is said, about to build an air force. of 1,500 front line planes," and has already ordered from Bri- tain no fewer than 169 to act as jigs or patterns on which to build the rest in her own fac-

¡tories.