THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1988.6
A BREATH OF ENGLAND
Oastheniet ni Whitbrand's Uop Færm. By Algerman Talmage, R.A abdited at the Rapat Academy, zyd
WHITBREAD'S PALE ALE
BREWED FROM FINEST KENTISH
MALT AND HOPS
Sole Agents:A. S. WATSON & CO., LTD.
GET THE BEST
OUT OF YOUR RECORDS BY USING
THE FINEST NEEDLES
MUSCLES
LARGE MUSOLES are GREAT on stevedores or carabao drivers.
BUT..
Here are little-known facts about the
FORTIFIED
FRONTIERS
NIGNOR MUSSOLINI'S announcement that he is engaged in hermetically sealing the last Alpine passes negotiable by an enemy focuses attention They're no longer necessary when on the truly extraordinary state of affairs that has come about on the Continent in regard to frontier fortifica- tions.
waxing your automobile
... Thanks
to WHIZ LONDON COACH WAX.
Don't spend HOURS and ENERGY. URD WHIZ LONDON COACH WAX and attain that LONG-LASTING ... SUNPROOF WATERPROOF
DRY WAX
... HARD
FINISII FOR YOUR CAR,
In feudal times barons would ring themselves in and defy assault. In 1988 whole nations are doing so, digging them- selves in, as it were.
The implication of this intensive self-fortification would Your dealer or garage man recom- appear to fall into two spheres. First, we have certain of the small nations, those in the line of fire, determined to ring them- selves in, in safety, keeping out of the threatened holocaust.
mends it.
The
Sold Here HONGKONG
HOTEL
GARAGE Stubba Rd.
The second implication would scem to be that those of the Powers apparently bellicosely confronting
another are banking on mainly an air, not a | land, war.
They are surround- ***ing themselves by theoretically
one
impenetrable land barriers over which the real war would be
carried on in the air.
Hongkong Telegraph. Cost £50,000,000
FRIDAY, Angust 5, 1838
BAD BOYS OF
ASIA
"GOLDEN, PYRAMID" "Yesterday's despatches reach-
AND
"EMBASSY"
A PRODUCT OF REDDITCH, ENGLAND WHERE FINE NEEDLES ARE MADE
OBTAINABLE ONLY
AT
S. Moutrie & Co., Ltd.
York Building
Chater Road.
ing this newspaper added to the impression that the Japanese are behaving in a fashion which will earn them the reputation
ever
STUDY the
BRITISH ISLES
LONDON
Paris WRENCH
FRANCE
map of
Europe and you will
encounter a dozen or so greater
or lesser systems of defence, of a power and permanence dreamt of until
un-
SPAIN
MADRID
the advent of the Maginot Line, and extend-
ing over thousands of miles. The German Defences
It all started just ten years
ago, when engineering advisers
The point of chief importance the has been the merging of forts and strong points in the surrounding topography, 50 that they are as good as invisi- ble.
GERMANY'S
answer consists of three lines
By-
Ferdinand Tuohy
who describes the great modern defences-the underground fortresses, concrete and steel pill-boxes, the mines and batteries which extend for thousands of miles across Continent to-day.
$1209
RUSSIA
LITHUAN
Vina
Bestia
Dresden
Breslau
Warsaw POLAND
RMAN
MICHO
TA
Rome
SLOVAKIA
HUNGARY
JDOOSLAVIA
Demolition Plan
Otynowy Cz
RUMANIA
BULGARIA
RUSSIA
the
Nuremberg. The main blow would probably come down the Qder through the. Moravian gateway. Here, south of Glatz and Neisse, Sile- sla, is the most vulnerable land route into
Czecho-Slovakia. The rest of the long frontier
with
Germany
(and with Po-
land) is moun- tainous and thickly forested, presenting 1 strong natural barrier.
All along the German border are concrete and steel pill-boxes, THEN comes the line of topped by cupola-shaped steel the Albert Canal. But turrets, shelterling machine- (The of the French War Minister, the of forts and strong points, Belgians perhaps have most guns and anti-tank guns. of being the bad boys of Asia. late Andre Maginot, proposed known jointly as "Michel." The faith in their plan of demolition, army has one Bren for every 20
mon, highest ratio in Európe.) principal line includes the Eifel, calculated to bar any inrush. In spite of the sincerest assur-
Confronting the Czech line, the eastern frontier protective the adjacent mountainous region
the Holland stunds by her dykes the Germans have erected a pre- naces from the Foreign Office system that has since become of the Moselle known as
which as- that there is no intention what-historic. The original line ran Hunsruck, and so on through and waterways, interspersed bo- cautionary system
which are many new sumes concentrated form at Odenwald to the western tween to undermine British or from Luxembourg to the Rhine the
batteries and frontier garrison points where danger of invasion regiments.
might lic. other foreign interests in the and cost £50,000,000; its under- slopes of the Black Forest.
The second line runs from the Far East, and the still stub-ground wonders have often been
Switzerland is very busy dig- Moscow's Threat
A "Maginot" bornly defended contention that described-perhaps too often in Taunus range, above Wiesbaden,
to the valley of the Neckar, be ging herself in. carlier years.
hind Heidelberg.
in miniature is coming into be- THESE fortifications are Japan has no territorial ambi-
ing along the frontier strip cun-
now being strengthen- tions in China, the bare, cold
The third section is inter- sidered most vulnerable--from ed in the light of Moscow's twined in the Black Forest from Bale to Lake Constance. But statement that it might be ne- facts are apt to be a little
Rastatt down to Lorrach, on the the Confederation is not for cessary to drive a way through chilling to goodwill. Last night's
Swiss frontier. This confronts getting other areas, notably the the 100 miles of Rumanian terri- frunt page rather illuminated
the French River Rhine forti- Jura, where there is a notorious tory separating the Soviet from the situation with respect to
fications, covered by the Vosges "hole" facing France.
her Czech ally. behind. Japanese policy towards British
The mountain passes. every- The Czech frontier is only 130 Here and there are located trade and the future of British
Belgium and Holland have where are, in the Duce's phrase, miles from Berlin, and the possi- subterranean junctions and interests which are so vitally store centres far bigger in area each undertaken extensive if being hermetically sealed, and bility, if remote, of sections of differing fortified systems. Bel- would be held by specialised the Red Army appearing almost affected by this widespread than sub-Piccadilly Circus; gium's covers about 80 miles, units living self-containedly at within sight. of Dresden is be-
ing taken into account. It was disclosed, these being linked together by from the France-Luxembourg immense altitudes. for instance,
although scores of miles of galleries. border up to north of Maestricht, Czecho-Slovakia is proud of
Passing to Russia herself, she and is a composite of four fac- her defensive system, which has an 800-miles western fron- DANI MOCANINETALCALDIAm the British authorities, in the
The main junctions, situated tors.
will now probably be extended tier running from the Gulf of shape of the Royal Navy's at points of highest tactical and
the densely, wooded and so as to counter the new forti Finland to Czernowitz, and a officers in the Yangtse, consider strategical consequence, possess
fications being begun by Ger- further 300 miles bordering hilly Ardennes a special corps it perfectly safe for British na- everything, from hospitals down, would operate. In the Eupen- Czech border to the south.
many along the late
Austro- Rumania to the Black Sea. A massive line of strong points is Malmedy area is a great slope tionals to return to their hold- to withstand a cut-off siege.
Prague might have to face under construction, whose mis- ings in Klukiang, the Japanese Defence Chief Daladier is now on which are fortifications com-
manding the
invasion German main simultaneous
from sion it will be to guard the sup- military is preventing them. extending the Maginot Line arteries half-way to Cologne. Breslau, Dresden, Munich, and posedly coveted Ukraine. Ostensibly the Japanese are from Luxembourg to Dunkirk, of the canals merely thinking of the security making full use of foreign lives when they for and mining areas of the North. bid the return of foreign businessmen to occupied areas. that great centre of commerce But in effect they are slowly and industry. Alrendy, strangling British commerce as cause of two devastating in- effectively, or more 80, than! vusions within five years, the
underpinning they have done in Manchuria economic
Music hath charms
Sunday Classical Concert
at Repulse Bay Hotel
Under leadership of
Cco. Pio-Ulski
Programme for Sunday. 7. August, 1938.
1.
Undine.
1 p.m. - 2.30 p.m.
PROGRAMME
Ouverture
2. Invano, Serenade
3. Valso-Fantasic
4.
2nd Hungarian Rhapsody
5. Moonlight Madonna
6. Magyar Puszta
7. Spanish Dance. No. 1
For Reservations
phone 27775.
REPULSE
BAY
HOTEL
.Lortzing.
..Amadei.
..Glinka.
Liszt, Fibich.
.De Maurizł. .....Moszkowski.
"incident."
that
be-
of
(now Manchukuo), But more Shanghai has been noticeably than anything else, the Japan-shaken. So B process of ese behaviour in the matter of "freezing out the foreigner" or the Whangpoo dredging shakes gradually supping his strength confidence in their promises so that he cannot meet Japan- to do nothing to injure foreign ese competition might not re- trade. The letter of Mr. Ed-quire many years to complete ward Mackay, former chairman effectively; particularly if the of the Shanghai Chamber of Yangtse Valley and those parts Commerce, published in the of China which trade through London Times, which points out Shanghai are permanently cat that the continued refusal of off from their port. It is time the Japanese to allow the that
Britain demanded, and Whangpoo to be dredged will with unmistakable firmness, eventually mean the closing of just what is the reason for the the port to heavy tonnage, is Japanese refusal to allow the highly algnificant. Every one Whangpoo to be dredged. The knows what vast investments silence of Japanese authority in are represented in the Inter- this matter is becoming more national Settlement. Every one than unsatisfactory. It is, sus. isolation pect. And a little more of it would mean to the future of will be offensive.
THE HONGKONG & SHANGHAI HOTELS, LTD. [knows what their
In
GRIN AND BEAR IT
EGISTRAR EPASS
COLLELL SECRETARIN. SCAM!
North and south of this, espc- cially north, the Soviet is rely- ing for protective purposes on a
By Lichty wide belt of prepared waste land.
and you'll find our training is, thorough-why, 60 per cent,
of last year's graduates have already
married their employers!"
This is believed to be 20 miles in depth in parta.
Rond and rail nodal points would be blown up in the event of invasion, while batteries. would have a clean sweep over the prepared (and heavily mined) defensive "no man's land."
The Finns have built a brief fortified system against the Bolsheviks.
Pyrenees Safeguard
THE French are rapidly
fortifying the sand. hills of the Tunis-Libya frontier, it being belleved in Paris that any Italian army coup against the Republic would first make itself felt in this quarter. A land war on the European Con- tinent is not thought to be in the Duce's reckoning.
A frontier that has for a cen- tury and a quartor gone uniforti- fled, the Pyrenees, is fully ex- pected to rovert to times gone by-indeed, the French are al- ready drawing up plans to de fend the five principal points of ingress. Spanish Nationalist long-range guns having been re- ported as dominating the Bayonne-Pau country."
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.