1938-03-29 — Page 3

Head

Biggest Rail

Tragedy Revealed

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. TUESDAY, MARCH

1998.

Of U.S. Navy Discloses Hitherto

FULL DRESS ON Unknown Plans For War

Grenoble, France, Mar. 15. For the first time in twenty years the French Government has permitted publication of facts concerning what is claimed! to be the world's greatest rail-]

total road tragedy, in which a of one thousand casualties were) registered and six hundred and sixty crack soldiers died.

The accident occurred during the World War, on December 12, 1017. and caused more casualties than many an important engagement on the battlefelds. Fear of public in- dignation und demoralisation behind. the lines caused the censors order! which suppressed news of the wreck and held the censorship light until this-year.

+

COING HOME ON LEAVE

On the day of the accident a train. bringing 1,100 men home on leave from the Italian front reached the Franco Italian fronter town of Mondane, high in the French Alps. The

the

men were in a hurry to get: home and another train was hastily assembled, made up of old Italian wooden railway carriages which were not considered safe for muni- tions shipments

the nearer

front. More than one thousand soldiers plied into carriages shouting 10 engineer to hurry their departure.

Railway workers, and particularly the chief mechanic Girard, refused to take the train out of the station. protesting that the brakes were in dangerous condition and the train absolutely overloaded. To the ilvely protests of the soldiers, officers finally added their imperative military orders for the railway men to take The train to Grenoble,

HIGH PASS ON ALPS Mondlane is situated at one of the highest railrond passes in the Alps and the run down from the moun- tain peaks to Grenoble is one of the sicepest France. Twisting and the line spirals down pre- turning. cipitous heights, along deep gorges to the Isere, less than five hundred feet above sea level. The steepest part of the route is that from Mon- dane to the little mountain hamlet of Suint-Michael.

Seeing that he could not prevent the train from leaving, the engineer pleaded to the men to wait until a second locomotive could be found and placed at the rear of the train

to bruke for the steep points on the line. The Colonel in charge refused

to allow any delay and the heavy train pulled at 11.15 pan. faulty

PARADE

WELLINGTON BARRACKS.-Air raid precautious wore recently re- hearsed. The sentry is muffled in anti-gas clothing; the piece of paper stuck on hit bayonet is a chemical detector, which reveals the presence of poison gas.

lights leaving the train in absolute NEW-STYLE CURES

darkness.

were

ཟ ་ ་ ་ ་ ap- The engineer and firenten

Arst proached the

steep grade, sweating as they tried to maintain control of the topheavy train. Snow covered the mountains and the tracks covered with a trencherous sheet of ice. Suddenly the brakes refused to function and the loaded train gathering momentum swept along at 30, 20, 100, and finally 120 miles an hour. Sweeping around a curve the engine broke off from the wagons and sped safely down the hit. The cars left the tracks and! smashed into a sustaining wall on the mountainside.

FIRE ADDED TO HORROR All night long the villagers of Saint-Martin worked, but all the old that could be mobilized failed to Save 600 soldiers from a horrible death. The cars smashed to splinters

SCIENCE HEALS

WITH HAMMER

AND NAIL NOW!

OUR GO-AHEAD SURGEONS, ALWAYS READY TO TRY NEW WAYS OF MENDING MEN, ARE NOW PER- FECTING WHAT IS PROBABLY THE MOST ASTOUND- ING OF ALL SURGICAL PRACTICES THE HAMMER AND NAIL OPERATION.

They have not scrupled to borrow from the humble carpenter

20 PER CENT. BIGGER FLEET IS NEEDED

By Carroll Kenworthy

United Press Staff Correspondent

WASHINGTON.

BASIC FACTORS IN THE UNITED STATES WAR PLANS WERE DISCLOSED TO THE PUBLIC THIS YEAR FOR THE FIRST TIME WHEN ADMIRAL WILLIAM D. LEAHY, CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATION, TOLD CONGRESSMEN WHY A 20 PER CENT. BIGGER FLEET IS NEEDED.

Leahy testified daily for more than a week before the naval committee of the House of Representatives on questions of technique and policy. As chief of naval operations, Leahy is the highest ranking officer of the navy on land or sea.

The sessions were public and consequently brought to light many aspects of the national defence programme which were not widely known. Leahy was called to testify in connection with President Roosevelt's request that Congress authorise a 20 per cent, increase in all categories of naval strength above the limit of the old London Treaty which was the standard until this year.

Main points in the navy's

war policy which thus became

public included the following: Clark Gable

Is Best

1. The navy plans to meet any approaching attack by another sca power "hundreds of miles" at sca and to defeat it there if possible;

2. The present

In- Geet is adequate to protect both coasts at once and a much greater navy would be necessary to do that;

3. The navy would never divide

Dressed Man

Clark Gable, hairy-chested

the fleet oven in case of simultane-he-man of the films, has been ous attack in two oceans by one named the nation's best-dressed or more powers;

man by the men who cut clothes Instead it would attempt to and sew them together-and defeat the attacking force in one

4.

ocean and then cruise as rapidly ought to know. Gable, accord- as possible to the other ocean toing to the Merchant Tailors'

Designers Association, defeat ifte sceoud; 5. The fleet

fleet cannot rely with drape coats better than any certainty on the use of the Panama other man in America. Canal in war time:

G.

All naval war plans are

on

wears

Here are the other nine of the

based the pticory that the "10 Best Dressed" selected by United States will have to fight its the association, in order!

enemies without assistance from

other navy;

The Havy at ร present

Is inadequate lo Atrength offensive action against any other] naval power:

8. fleet 60 per cent. stronger than the present one would be necessary to attempt an offensive! Japan.

2 A. S. Kirkeby, Chicago, hotel

Lake

3 Gene Markey, Hollywood,

writer.

•

Alfred Rogers, Toronto, multi-

lilionaire.

5

G

7

veit.

A

Ky., sportamzn.

action againtly requested 201

9. The

I.. Montflore Stein, New York, stock exchange.

Frank Gordon McGrough, Milwaukee, rellred financier. President Franklin D. Roose-

Warren Wright,

Lexington,

Kelly,

Hollywood,

9 Mayor Edward J. .........Chicago, politician.

Benny, radio comedian.

10 Jack

per cent, increase in fleet strengthi is not intended to attain strength sufficient for offensive action bul is only to counter-balance in part the Increases made by other navali powers in recent years: ----

10. The greatest immediate need of the navy is for a bigger and faster train fleet of auxiliary

Fred Astaire, nimble-footed movie capable of travelling with vessels

slar, who, with President Roosevelt the fighting ships to supply them

topped the list last year. failed to fuel and goods and provide Other elements in the war get place in the 1938 selections. "It isn't that either Astaire navy high command which were indicated but not con- President Roosevelt has slumped, cisely stated by Leahy were that W. J. Fitzgerald, association ofli- eint, explained. "It's just that

tions

of the

some disturbances in Latin American countries at the instigation

European powers must be considered in defence plans and that Japan, Germany and Italy are tied together "In some kind of agreement" which the navy must consider In its view of the world situation.

Navy commilleemen in Congress questioned Leahy at great length not

onl

or

American men as a group are be- and more clothes- coming more conscious.

"Fred Astaire still is a well-dressed gentleman."

Gable, tailors explained, represents their ideal in wearing, loose fitting on foreign policy because some of of nonchulance. and blazing was added to the horror a wrinkle or two in joinery, with the result that, nowadays, the only on technical problems but also coats with just the proper amount

proposal for and cartridges fractured bones of certain patients are being literally nailed them had the impression that the

together!

linked with cust

throughout the

The catastrophe

of exploding gremained an ab-

to

IL

ding..

#

navy WRS

to

Kirkeby is a specialist in trousers of just the right width, hang and foreign balance. His trousera have a 19-inch solute secret until the end of the war So satisfactory is this new method of human healing that one Joke in policy. They sought

what agreement or under- If any

Markey was said to be connoiseur the United States when familles of the dead men were the medical profession is "De nailed up or you must be nailed down."

simple truth to say that the lives of many persons-especially permitted discuss the subject|

or in a rainbow of colours. Rogers was World" freely. The affair was never allowed elderly people are being saved because their surgeon has had the courage had with any other navul power re- of slack suits, and to own 85 of them other nations. Lealy tops in cutaway coals and morning to drive a mail, two and a half inches long, clean into the centre of a frac-garding "policing the

quarantining tured hip-bone.

It takes three months or longer of bones is pierced. Then they cover denied there was an understanding clothes and Stein was best in double train wreck near Paris in the Christ-lying in pluster of Paris for a trac-in the guide-wire with a hollow nail. with any other nation. He was sub-breasted business and sports clothes.

Secretary of State Cordell Hull and dresser, owning some do suits. tured hip to get right; and this Others do not trouble with the wire sequently supported in his denial by McGeough was an all-around func

Не

swimming even orders bis #1 all.

President Roosevelt.-United Press.

trunks tailor-made," said Fitzgerald. Each year, however, the families! Period of immobility is more than

Sometimes the pin is not driven

"And paid $40 for a pair of canary- splinter the

yellow trunks recently."

In print, however, until t Briefty mentioned in a news dispatch following the fatal holiday

mas season.

was

ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE

the average elderly person can and relatives of the men have made

she may die of straight in or It will pilgrimage to the little hamlet endure. He or where their sons died. A monument pneumonia, or some other disease, bune; and then it has to be extracted and hammered in again while the has been raised to their memory and during such a period.

patient is still happily unconscious.

The nail is of the finest polished

Purts.

Gem of Death

the spot is consecrated as if, it had But if the two pieces of broken

Police here to-night announced heen actual battleground. The Col-bone are nalled together the patient onel who ordered the train to leave can get up and hobble about on chromium: steel and as nails go, is that the £30,000 emeraid which was stolen last week-end from 97-years- on its fatal trip would have faced a crutches and so avoid the complica-expensive, costing more than £1. court-martial hnd he survived the tions which affect the elderly. Hence

Second operations are sometimes old Countess Helene de Merchoff has wreck, but in

subsequent enquiry the growing use of a nall Instead of performed to recover

the nail for been recovered, the engineer and brake man of the plaster for a broken hip-bone,

So far, the surgeons are not quite of

train were absolved of all blame.

The twentieth anniversary France's grentest railroad wreck, and agreed us to the best method of perhaps the world's greatest, was nalling their patients together. celebrated this year with full solem-

- GUIDE WIRE USED

nity. There were more than 1,500 members of 800 familles present at Some bore a hole and insert a thin the ceremony for the Polius who died guide-wire, thus ensuring that the on their way back from the front. absolute centre of the two broken

THE "FLYING CARPET” CROSSES THE PACIFIC

Washington. President Roosevelt, who receives more' gifts than any other person in the country, has a new one to add to his collection--n "dy- ing carpet."

The rug, brown, woollen and plaid, arrived after a seven-day fight from New Zealand aboard a Pan Americatt Aleways plane, the Ill-fated Saranan Clipper. It was the gift of Premier Michael J. Bavage--United Press;

future usc.

But this second operation might be dispensed with for even when the fracture has grown together natural ly, the nall should cause no cerious inconvenience.

of

President Roosevelt outshone all others in the matter of "executive" attire, with special mention going to his cutaways. Kelly was the best- dressed mayor in the U.S., specializ the best sports attire and Benny was ing in double-breasteds. Wright hand the "neatest" dresser, because Mary Livingston, his wife, buys his suita.—— United Press,

|FORTUNE FROM ZIP FASTENERS

The countess, who regarded the gem an her tallaman, collap- sed when she discovered her loss, and died soon afterwards, She had frequently told friends,

I lose this stone I shall die." Two people, Maurice le Mallier, There is no bone except the hip an artist, and Mine. Florine Franken, in the human body that is capable a goddaughter of the countess, have being nailed together. Even been arrested in connection with the

DEATH OF MAKER with the hip, the nall is not driven theft.

New York. clean through..

The emerald is alleged to have

Col. Lewis Walker, who made un Although this operation has just been found hidden behind a clock on

fortune from the Zip been admitted to some of the new the mantelpiece at Malller's home, enormous

with £87 and several fastener, died to-day at the age of 62 text-books of surgery, it is still re- together garded as being in the experimental thousands of francs, slated to be the at Meadville, Pennsylvania. He first proceeds from the sale in London of saw the hookless fastener, which was the 18 stones which surrounded the later to become an article of everyday emerald in its mounting.

use, at the 1803 World's Fale at Chicago, where the inventor was vainly seeking funds to market his device.

stage.

SYDNEY TO LOSE TRAMS

Sydney.

MILK BOTTLE PSYCHOLOGY Worcester, Mass. Because the housewhite wants to

It was not until 20 years later, how- sce the amount at eroam on top of

In 20 years this city will have no | ever, that Col. Welker Onally started each quart of milk, Prof. J. H.

Dairy In more street cars, according to Pre-manufacture in a tiny factory, em- Frandsen of the Siste Justry department believes it will mier Stevens Plans Just adopted playing fewer than 20 hands. To-day be many years before paper con- provide for their complety elimina-[the company has 4,000 employees with numerous factories in various alties. tainers replace the glass milk bottle.fion by trolley buses.

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