1938-03-08 — Page 3

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. TUESDAY: MARCH

1988.

MUSSOLINI IS BLUFFING IN LIBYA Italian Troops There Are Half-Drilled Recruits Sent To

Mrs. Sidney Webb At 80

Is "Auntie" To 170

"ONE hundred and seventy nephews and nieces are a bit too much of a family gathering," sald Mrs. Sidney Webb, the writer on social problems, and so she celebrated her.80th birthday quietly at her Liphook home recently.

"Please don't call me Lady Passfield," she asked.

"That is my husband's title, but I prefer to be known. nk Mrs. Sidney Webb.

"My husband and I are staying quietly at home for my birthday. I mustn't have too much excitement!

"Besides think of 170 nephews, and pieces under one roof! There are three generations of us now, and I have seven sisters, all married."

Wonder Paris Air Raid "Lab'

WH

Vienna. WHEN Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd, Under-Secretary, Home Office, flies back to England next Thursday, after an inspection of air-raid precautions in Berlin and Paris, he will, - I understand, emphasise the greater efficiency of the German system over the British or French, says a correspondent.

To-day he had a talk with thefsit on the seats and by pedalling French Air Minister. M. La, Cham-work the ventilation system direct.

GAS DETECTOR bre, and descended into an under- ground laboratory

Each of the three exits to signed by Profesor Kling, of the laboratory is barred by a 6in, steel Paris Municipal Police.

in Puris de-

The laboratory is the G.H.Q. of passive detenee in the elly, and is the most up-to-dute establishment of its kind in Europe,

It is buried 58ft. In the ground, and the roof tins concrete above it and all round 11, 40ft. thick to with- stand the inost terrife aerial bombardment.

The object is that in the event of a gas attack on Paris the laboratory could continue to function and serve as a "nerve centre."

door,

the

Mr. Lloyd Was particularly instrument which interested in an

aures the amount of poison gas in the air and enuses a bell to ring warning.

21

This mechanism can be carried about in a box. One of Professor Kling's pupils invented It two months ago, and it has been accepted

by the War Office.

the

Mr. Lloyd was impressed by evidence in Berlin that Germany is more "air-raid conscious" than tic other countries.

The Berlin shelters house many Ventilation is effected electrically, and in the event of the ordinary more people than those in Paris, and are France has no special Government supply being cut off there generators worked by Diesel engines, department devoted to air-tuid pre- Both Great Britain and There is also an apparatus resembling cautions.. two bleycles with pedals. Men cai Germany have,

Africa "On

Vacation

From A Correspondent

HERE are the facts about Signor Mussolini's greatest bluff on the Mediterranean since the Abyssinian war. His powerful war- machine in Libya, the Italian colony bordering Egypt from the West, the perpetual potential threat to British interests, is merely a myth.

The famous St. Bernard hosplee recently isolated from the world by in the Swiss Alps avalanche. The picture shows two monks from the hospice with their

dogs

.

According to official stories two army corps, or 40,000 to 50,000 troops, are stationed there --The- troops are said to be well equipped, well trained, strengthened by motorised formations and a power- ful air force.

The garrison is being constantly increased despite the fact that Italy does not need such a huge army in Libya except as a military reservoir to provide troops for operations on a large scale.

Shipments of new troops are officially admitted by Rome, where nobody seems to bother about keeping these troop-move- menta secret, but there is a definito reason why these secrets are lopen to the whole world.

The Place

Libya, Italian calony taken from the Turks in 1912, is 11 barren land sandwiched between Egypt and French colonial Africa. It has a native population of 522,016, nearly all Moslems.

Mussolini has spent millions of pounds there building strategic roads

railways and

to the frontiers. Tripoll, the capital, is a growing city of 85,000 people. and has a dally air service to Rome,

Jim And Amy Meet

-First Time For Year

Jim and Amy Mollison, still legally man and wife (divorce suit pending), have met for the first time for twelve months-to hear that the income-tax authorities had waived their claims on £4,200 given to the Mollisons in air prizes.

The contention of Jim and Amy-which was upheld-was that the money represented private gifts and was therefore not liable for tax, saya a Correspon dent.

- Recently Jim, just back from a tax commissioners say now that they Swiss holiday, where he 1105 also have decided this money is not asses- bed training for a new Australia sable for tax. record flight, said to me: "The income!

"This ruling affects hundreds of sportsmen, besides flyers. For in- stance, it affects motor racers and cyclists who get money prizes far racing."

How would you

describe

the FLAVOUR of GOOD Whisky?

-said Johnnie Walker

Because good whisky, such as Johnnie Walker, is really a blend of flavours, it is very difficult to find one word to describe it. The blenders have various names for the special characteristica of the separate whiskies used in the blend- "robust,”

‚” “delicate,” "malty," and so on. Some are chosen for a faint peati- ness, some for their "full" flavour-but all combine in perfect harmony or "roundness." The result can only be described as the distinctive flavour of Johnnie Walker-one that you will appreciate as the flavour of Scotch Whisky at its very best. Always ask for Johnnie Walker by name.

JOHNNIE WALKER

Born 1820–still going strong

Sold Aemix for China: CALDHECK, MACOREGOR & CO., LTD.

CAMERASLANGÍKÁLÁ÷JUDAGRONOVEM TIENTAIN .

Connie "Sits Pretty

"You are not here as a film star, but only another common or garden witness. Just sit still and look beautiful."

So sald Judge Burnell to Miss Constance Bennett when she ap- peared in the Los Angeles courts to press her claim against the Gaumont-British Picture Corpora-

tion.

"I'll try," said Constance, in reply to the judge's advice,

And thereafter she sat demurely silent, but lovely, in ⚫ mink coat and a veil half-shading her face.

£13,000 CLAIM

It is to create the impression of Italy's power while there is none.

This is the position:---

Italy's army in Libya consists of only about 25,000 troops.

They are neither well drilled nor well equipped, and not prepared for warfare in East Africa.

They are merely sent down for "vacation."

They are mostly young recruits of the 1916 and 1917 classes.

betur They arc constantly shipped there and back. There is barely space for them in the narrow stretches of land in the barren country where they stationed along the new strategic automobile road.

PLAYING CARDS

are

Borracks are being buift, but.con- struction proceeds so slowly that it will be years before the soldiers find suitable quarters.

erected

on

Troops are compelled to live in old tents, left over from the Abyssinian campaign, and quite a few of these shabby tent-cilies are grounds not fitted for that purpose.

Here the young saldiers fil their time playing cards, having a nap or singing Italian songs while their neglected rifles te around covered with desert dust.

exercise. There is, never drill or Officers are mostly as young and in-: experienced.

Soldiers and officers are much lower scale of military train- inc than the French Foreign Legion, their neighbours in the West.

оп д

There is no discipline in the tent- cities. Nobody seems to care. Everybody is left to himself to All the days of leisure.

Most of the "dirty work" of paci- fying tribes and policing the vast empty regions is being done by effl- cient black colonial troops number. ing six battalions.

The 25,000 troops enjoy an idle life in camps waiting for orders to be replaced and go home.

This is done approximately every three months.

How did Mussolini fool the world? It was done simply by revealing untrue secrets and keeping the true

Dr.C9.

When war transports leave from Naples or any other Italian pori for Libya, the greatest publielty, is attached to their departure.

Newspapers carry the news and everybody is permitted to watch the departure.

Military bands are at the pier to give them a send-off.

NO ONE KNOWS

But seldom is there a line in the popers on those who return from

Libya, Often news about their arri- after the troops have left their ship. val home reaches the public long

More often this news never reaches

She is claiming £13,000 for alleged breach of contract in connection with a contract with Gaumont-British in 1935 to make two films in England, the public at all. "Everything is Thunder" and "The Howk!"

Transports arrive at night unho- Miss Bennett said, she was to re- tion is kept strictly secret.

ticed by anybody and the debarka

There is celve £11,000 for ench picture, with no sign of the soldiers at the port a percentage on the grass taking in when morning downs. the United States.

News may be allowed to leak out she said, "was £7,000 shortly about more new shipments for Everything is Thunder. I didn't, and the Increase of the

"All T

army

仍

mind the loss on that pleture, but I Libya from two army corps to three. feel

calitied to the £13,000 which This won't be anything more than would hav

have received It The Hawk the continuation of the same game. had been filmed."

A foreign visitor to famous Mor- Goumont-British replied that Misa shul Balbo, Governor of Libya, gave Bennett went to work for Twentieth me all these startling facts. Century-Fox In Hollywood, and During a recent visit, after coming argued that they and not Miss down to Tripoli by air, he was shown Bennett were the injured party. too much and left alone for a period

The hearing was adjourned,

a little too long.

The Man Who Can Think in Code

London.

In a small office near the Bank of England I talked yesterday to Britain's greatest code maker, says a Correspondent, '

He can compress a 16 to 20-word sentence involving intricate details of a large industrial order into one word of five letters, thus saving firms thousands of pounds a year in cable charges.

The mari. is. Mr.' Charles Sundor-i

16 HOURS A DAY

:

land, 47-year-old Yorkihire-born "I almost think in code nowa- statistician, Bgma of his rodes, days Mr. Sunderland told me "I consisting of nearly half a million spend. months translating, a tabula) worda, také ten de twelve méthx to Ink, and complling, working. 13 hou

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