1937-01-08 — Page 6

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, Friday, JanUARY 8, 1937.

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The

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1937.

NAVAL RESERVE

STRENGTH

In the defence discussions which have been taking place at Home recently, attention has been drawn to the necessity of❘ further regard being paid to the Royal Naval Reserve and to the manning of the Merchant Navy, Figures show that the Reserve,

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In the Steps of ST. PAUL

W

THIS FINE DRAWING FORMS THE COVER DESIGN OF H. V. MORTON'S NEW BOOK.

HILE Boadicea was giving the

young Imperial colony of Britain the scare of Its life; an ageing missionary was preaching a new and revo- 'Jutionary belief to a few fervent

followers in the cellars Rome.

of

For over thirty years he had tramped and sometimes ridden the highways of what we now call the Near East, taking ship now and again, journeying al- ways farther and further afield, suffering wreck and imprison- ment and mockery and sickness for the faith that was in him.

had never ceased to exhort the A fiercely enduring figure, he brethren and to carry a startling and perplexing sense of sin to an indifferent world. And now, having fought a good night, he was finishing his course. Saul of Tarsus, to be known thereafter as St. Paul,

some 12,000 compared with the

He knew, as the first world- strength in 1914. It is pointed found the Nazarenes with a historian has said, that he had out that in the event of any spirit and a hope, and that he future hostilities at sea, hundreds was leaving them Christians of auxiliary vessels from the with the beginning of a creed. Merchant Navy and the fishing 1. But he could not know that fleets would still be required the religion which owed its or- for naval purposes. These would than-to-any-other-man-would- ganising genius to him more include armed merchant cruisers, persist for century after cen- escort ships, armed boarding tury, permeating the world, in- steamers, mine-sweepers, traw-spiring love and hate, devation lers for patrol purposes, drifters, and intolerance, persecution tugs. yachts, motor craft, and

·To-day's Thought.................. many others. Obviously the Navy could not-hope to man this

I'LL put a pirdle round, concourse of vessels with its own resources, nor could the R.N.R. with its present slender establish- ment. A naval correspondent slates that the R.N.V.R. might lend a hand; but the 14,500 men of the Royal Fleet Reserve, sea- men or stokers who have served

in the Navy on short or special engagements, would probably be

заправачений

D

earth.

the

--PUCK

·

a review by

ROGER PIPPETT

and martyrdom, beauty and ugliness, life and death, peace and war.

Some eighteen. hundred and seventy years later an English- man stood in the office of a Turkish frontler station and answered the questions of a highly suspicious police offcial who wanted to know what he was doing there.

"I have come to see Tarsus,” he said. The official wanted to know why. "Because I am writing a book about St. Paul," he answered, shattering the Turk's morale. The book which he wrote is published to-day- In the Steps of St. Paul, by H. V. Morton (Rich and Cowan, 7. Od.).

"H. V. M." is the first author who has followed the great mis- sionary through all his recorded journeyings. It took him two years, and he covered over ten thousand milles, so that he might evoke in imagination the world of The Acts of the Apostics and contrast the cities of St. Paul's time with their state to-day.

His story appears as a com- panion volume to In the Steps of the Master, the wideness of whose appeal, incidentally, may be measured by the fact that

Learn Another

URING the past few weeks I

the

over

a quarter of a million coples have been sold within two years.

From the very first para- graphs of the book you are made pleasantly aware of that talent for creating atmosphere which. makes "H. V. M." such friendly guide.

B

"I went on deck before sunrise. The storm had backed to the north-west, the sky was clear and the ship rolled in a long, sullen swell. I hoped to see the pin-prick of the lighthouse on Mount Carmel, but we were still too far from land.

"St. Paul must have known this moment: the grey light, the last star, the cold wind, the fusty enrgo, the smell of beasts and tar, the smooth pressing forward and the rhythmic hiss of water run- ning back along the sides of the ship. It was good to stand on deck, thinking that this might be the Castor and Polluz.

"After all, the Mediterranean coaster has not changed much since Roman times. These ships still carry corn from Egypt and leave Cyprus in summer, heavy with pomegranates. the fruit of Aphrodite..

As they pass slowly south from Alexandretta, which is now the port of Antioch, they stir old memories, and the ghosts of Tyre and Sidon beckon vainly as they pass."

Jerusalem... Damascus

Language

the

is quite impossible

to

correct pro-

Q

long

Mity-

Antioch... Iconium lene... Philippl... Athens Corinth... Ephesus.. Malta ... Rome. The traveller's sen- sitive and sympathetic eye selects the significant feature in the passing landscape- lizard-haunted ruins, thriving capitals, vast, weed-covered quays, busy bazaars, forgotten temples and remembered plains.

Although the motor-car and the railway Inevitably facili- tated H. V M.'s" pilgrimage. the Apostle had two great ad- vantages over a twentieth-cen- tury wayfarer in the Near East. Ho journeyed always by an Imperial route-and he could be understood in one tongue, Greek, everywhere,

"What was to St. Paul a pro- gress along the best-known roads of the Roman Empire, be- comes, to the modern travel- ler, a series of explorations from the beaten track. The har- bour of Antioch in desolate, and Ephesus 13 a nesting-place for the stork."

But the author's perseverance brought him-and his readers- a rich harvest not only in un- usual, and occasionally trying, experiences, but in provoking and cautionary glimpses-of-the- "glories" of the past.

Antioch, for example: When St. Paul visited it the city was the third largest in the world.. "The main street was four and a. half miles long, with a contral passage for horse traffic and charlots and two covered colon- nades for pedestrians..

Miles of marble-paved roads crossed it at right angles, after the fashion of Alexandria. And its citizens enjoyed the ameni- ties of swimming-pools, vast pleasure gardens, central heat-- ing, plumbing-and Blood-light- ing.

read language. And stretches aloud over and over again. "Something that we asso- Then I accumulate foreign cnta- clate with Venice in, the

Wireless Aid

Wis

required for the first-line fight- the good intentions I formed about acquire a reasonably

have been lamenting the fact that telon, it ing ships. Moreover, not all the this Ume last year were not carried nunciation from books. My advice logues and railway publications to eighteenth century, with Paris: 25,500 pensioners under the age provided myself with the neces-class at the Royal High School, and helps to correct the tendency to pro- with Hollywood to-day, with its out. I resolved then to learn Span- is to take the elementary language inform myself of current usage. This in the nineteenth century and of fifty-five and still available for sary elementary books, and might try to attend regularly. Not only ceed along purely literary lines. A service, would be suitable for have been heard on the deck of o

will you have a chance to master my comprehension of the language / deification of youth and beauty, Liberton cur any morning or evening pronunciation as illustrated by becomes more certain I tend to spe- distinguished Antloch then. It. seagoing vessels. It is clear that in August and September muttering expert teachers, but you will soon clalise. First I master the food and

learn enough grammar and vocabu-drink vocabularies, those essential for elegant and wicked, and its in the event of any

to date, up

amusing, strange sounds, Had I perseve future

pr-severed national emergency the Merchant wireless accounts

I should now be able to follow on the lary to read simple books and por-intelligent travelling by bus,

of the Spanish number of

tions of foreign newspapers, of the

trom, and steamer, sight-seeing, cur-

car, epigrams could go a long way Navy would be called upon to civil war.

which are on sale Edinburgh.

In rency, shopping, and any aspect of

to make or mar a reputation," provide

Thi a substantial quota of

year before I learned some

the foreign life in which I am par-

In these pages it is easy for us which, Improved by atten- Be Thorough

ticularly interested. men for naval service. The fact dance at the Continuation Classes

to imagine what St. Paul must have met in such a scene-the remains, however, that not even In the Royal High School and by Whatever you do, learn every

Hstening to the lessons

fury of the Pharisees, the zeal the R.N.R. could be called out from Rome, enabled me to get the as a careless habit, once formed, in beginner experiences is what I might tolerance of the sophisticated

broadcast word, phrase, and rule thoroughly.

Perhaps the first real dimculty the

of the now bellovers, the without immobilising many mer- gist of Italian news bulletins during hard to eradicate. Foreigners are call "getting the wave-length of the Greeks and Romans to whom chant ships. The Merchant Navy

the Abyssinian war.

much more polite than we are, but language.' The learning of a new language

they

Foreigners seem to speak literally has no men fo spare. for general reading and conversa- he must Inugh inwardly when they so much faster than we do. We catch he was merely the latest of

us talking like children of two.

"those wandering god-makers.”; The Dominions and some of the tonal purposes Is not nearly su Keep

word here and there, and become notebook of words and refer tongue-tied when a reply is expected ing virtue of this book-the Colonics, IIongkong

That, to me, is the outstand- difficult as most people suppose. to it often, and don't forget that Listen to the wireless and amongst Once one has, acquired the pronun- gender is important.

good the number, have Naval Re-felation and the elements of grammar,

gramophone records As I have said, I find the tramcar can, and don't worry if it all sounds which the writer calls up the as often as you apparently artless fashion in serves in one form or another, progress depends on regular, hard an excellent place in which to re- "double-Dutch." After a few weeks past and, by quiet suggestion,

work. but they could never be expected

hearse what I think I have learned the seeming agglomerate of words In my opinion, unless one happens at home. In my own case, I spend will disentangle themselves. You to supply more than a

small to be an expert linguist and phone- an average of five hours a week will begin to understand, and, what fraction of the seamen who

travelling to and from the offico is equally important, you will ne would be required in war,

enough time in itself, if employed quire correct intonation. So close down for lack of raw throughout the year, to learn the Make the acquaintance of foreign- far as the Merchant Navy is materials, and Britain would be fourth part of a langungo.

But, apart from that; there is ers resident in this country. There concerned, a correspondent em-nations of the Empire. With are studying. You will find it be-lighted to help you-in

Don't be afraid of dipping into a are many more of them then you the continual entertainment of a come isolated from the other novel written in the language you might suppose. They will be de-mind always ready to respond to phasises that it is a national these facts in mind, the need for yond your complete comprehension your English, Join the French and see the humorous side of an awk.. return for the unexpectedness of things, to- service as well as an industry, an immediate inquiry into the first, but with the aid of a die Spanish circles. Go to Leith docks ward situation and, above all, to its strength and efficiency strength both of the Royal enjoy a surprising number of pages not least, make up, your mind to women fruar Saul of Tarsus to tionary you will be able to read and and interview sailors. And last, but sense the character of men and is every bit as important as the Naval Reserve and the Merchant Be wary of assuming that because a spend your next year's holiday in the the Arab mother who handed strength of the Navy which pro-

Navy becomes a matter of ur-word is spelt like an English one country which speaks the language. tects it. Without it, the Mother this fact is fully realised by those chapter to your satisfaction, write lion give you zest for more advanced

goney. It is to be hoped that it carries the same meaning: When The anticipation

H. V. M" ber swaddled child to Country

you have translated a paragraph or through many dimculties, the reolisa-

will help you bold. would starve, its in charge of the nation's and Em-it down in English, close the book, study. essential industries be forced to 'piro's defences.

That is why we should all, what- and put your translation back into

ever our creed or faith, follow him. In the Steps of St. Paul.;

and

urges us to reflect on the signi- cance of those fallen civilisa-

tions to our own..