1940-04-30 — Page 13

Tuesday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

April 30, 1940.

Library Supreme Court

MAGAZINE

BLACK SEA

Rumania, controlling Danubian

outlet to Black Sea, and disturbed - by rumours of revived Russian claims, to Bessarabla, watches Sovitt Turkish manoauvres fearfully.

HUNGARY

nsylvania

PAGE.

How BRITAIN is MEETING

the MENAGE of the MINES

IT was pitch dark on the wharf the minesweeping trawlers were moored.

Tho wharf was slippery with ice and still smelt of fish. But instead of barrels of cod- liver oil, all the paraphernalia of minesweeping, and buoys and sinkers and coils of wire, wore heaped up under the sheds,

Looking eastward from the deck of one of these trawlers, I saw the cobweb st dawn coming through shrouds and ratlines that glistened with boar frost. The trawlers were packed together in the basin like sheep in a pen, and the smoke from their funnels, rolled away in Sooty block clouds, What sounds

came from below- shovels scraping on the stokehold plates, and the clang of a furnace door. Presently an unfamiliar ob-

there

NEWS

Odessa: Russia's Black Sea naval air base and most important port for export of petroleum to Far Eastern-Soviet army-

RUMANA

SLAVIA

GREE

WIAN SEA

were

REEL

Turkey resists Russian pressure to close Dardanelles(already refortified by Turks) to foreign warships, wishes for |treaty-securing relations with Russia yet

Compatible with Anglo-French commutarents;

ຍ.

S

5.

V KR

Tiraspol

Odessa

Roster R DOT

Bucharest

BULGARIA:

Yarna)

BLACK

Gallipo

MEDITERRANEAN.

italy works to form neutral Balkan bloc under Italian influence, withdraws troops from Greek-Albanian frontier to reassure Greece.

No longer can Turkey be dis-

missed lightly as "The Slek Man of Europe." To-day,

powerful and as united as nay Power in Europe, she holds a key position in the fateful game power politics,

uf

But this key position has dan- gers as well as advantages, and certain of the dangers are seen in the delays in the negotiations now taking place in Moscow between M. Saralelu, the Turkish Forçlen Minister, and M. Molotov, the. Soviet Prime Minister..

Why is the Black Sea (over 700 miles long and nearly 400 miles wide) so important to Russia? The map above shows the factors which help to keep this inland sca one of. the most important strategical points in Europe.

.Krasnodar

Stavropol

Tiflis

Transcautasi

Batum

,Ankara

Trebizond

Smyrna

Adaila

SYRIA

IRAQ

Dodecanese Islands, ceded to italy. by Turkey by Treaty of Lausanne, 1923, form naval-air base for potential operations in Near East, but are vulnerable to Turkish attack.

First, Russia must guard those vital lines of communication be tween her two pots, Odessa and Batum, and the Mediterranean, the Danube and the Far East. Once loose in the Black Sen, for- eign submarines could do untold. damage, to Russian shipping, and warships with the ald of aircraft could possibly destroy the Baku oil fickla behind Batum.

But such ships could only pass into, the Black Sea through"the" narrow, 10-mile channel of the Dardanelles, which joins the Mediterranean and the Black Sen.

And the guns of Turkey do minate the Dardanelles,

But Turkey, watching and countering the southward drive of the German-Italian arls, needs Anglo-French backding, and the price of that backing is the open- ing of the Black Sen to the Anglo- French fleets in. time, of war.. That is Turkey's dilemma,

Dotted line across Black Sea. shows quickest route for Soviet oil from Batum to Germany- vla Danube. Hence Soviet anxiety. to keep Black Sea neutral.

ROOKIES, 'SHUN!

by Will Shebbeare

a

SPO-MORROW I go to join the Army. And in the nick of time there arrives for review shilling booklet "full of advice and hints for young soldiers."

I say "In the nick of Ume" be- cause I understand from this book- let that my fellow-soldiers will talk langunge of their own. And how without this booklet I could have understood a word of what they will be saying I connet for the life of me tell.

Quite a large port of this booklet is taken up with a dictionary of this language. There are entries in it like:

Flying trapeze Cheese. Corp.......

D.A.

Dekko Caspirator P.B.I.

Sugar....

"

.Formi of familiar

address to friendly corporni. Damn all. Self-

explanatory.

Look,

Gas mask. .The Infantry's name for itself. .Money.

manner of advice for the timld recruit la crammed into these 90 pages. It will take some living up to:

"The army hates a slacker or a slommock."

"Do not choose a bed next to the N.C.O. or the stove-both” these positions · sometimes source of jealousy".

become

t

"Trust your officer and any trouble should arise and you have

a reasonable explanation by all means give it. If you have anne. own up like a man."

"A fatigue lusts but for a day but at any ente provides a change from the monotony of parade duties,"

"Certainly in ordinary elvilian life you would not be able to de- vote us much time and attention to such games and athletles in general as you can now."

"Wear two pales of socks.” "Leave sick parade alone as for as possible."

THERE

PHERE is some extremely helpful advice about how to recognise an officer in the blackout:-

"You must be guided by his hearing, for it is fact that the possession of the King's Commis- alon gives a certain air or swagger readily distinguishable by the army man.

S

"There may be two brothers, one a gorgeous Sergeant-Major and the other humble Second-Lleutenant, but there is still some subtle differ. ence. Shall we say one has the 'spit' and the other the "polish"?

CERIOUSLY, this book, Soldiers in Training, by Soldierman (Frederick Warne and Co.), s really very helpful. I feel re- assured by having read it, and the thousands of other young soldiers who will be called up this week with me will find it worth buying.

All the same, I shall burn it be- fore I set oft for the barracks.. - If I were seen there with such a book I should he ragged unmercifully.

Ject in the stern, caught my eye and in a minute or two when the light grew stronger. I saw what it was. Right aft, where normally the ensign staff stepped, was a Christmas tree.

I felt that it was symbolle of something, apart from being a re- minder of recent festivity, and while I was ruuminating about it the siren tooted three times and we began to elbow our way stern first out of the jam. We were the first out and as we glided clear the skipper of the adjoining trawler a few feet away grinned at us. We were going to spend the day to- gether, his le chip and yoked together by £ magnetle sweep in a fairway where mag- netle mines were suspected to be lying.

☆

Ours,

GERMAN mines are roughly of two types. The mngnetle mine which lies on the bottom, and the moored impact inline

The mag- netic mine doesn't require to be struck to detonate. It explodes when a ship passes into its ming- netle deld. Counter measures against this type of mine consist in substituting a magnet for a ship and trailing it over the mine be- tween two trawlers, both of which are hoping rather fervently that the magnet, rather than they, will do the detonating. The

import mine is moored to the bottom by o sinker and length of wire. It is detonated by a ship striking one of the horns projecting from it. I will describe presently the counter measures employed against these mines.

It was daylight when we reached the open sea. A grey day with a wind out of the north-east as sharp and cruel as broken glass, The ttle trawlers lifted their heels to the swell und threw the spray over their shouklers. Occasionally a wave flopped inboard and sluiced cross the deck. Everybody wrig Ried Into life-belts and tied the lapes very carefully, without com- ment,

The skipper had spent the last war minesweeping. Thirty- Ave years he had spent in trawlers; fishing and ninesweeping, He wus મા bald, clean-shaven man, husky as a crow, and had a secret contempt for Adiniralty, charis. He confided to me that the sound- ings were mostly wrong inside the 10-fathom line. He was

was the type that I imagine finds his way about the fishing bonks by smelling

sixth

leno, sense. He confided many things to me on our way to the sweeping grounds: amongst others that he had eaten an entire boitle of cough Jozenges during the night. They falled to cure his huskiness, he _said,__and_made___blm ____feel very

queer.

*

WELL, we reached the channel at length and slowed down.

Our companion sweeper came plunging up on our quarter and we veered a grass line to her which she plek- ed up, and shackled a wire to It, This we hauled inbo

Inboard, connected

it to our sweep wire and paid i out matern agala. As the wire was paid out, various

ous contraptions were shackled to it at intervals and finally the two trawlers started off abeam of each other, the submerg-

sweep

towing between then. It all sounds

very simple and straight-forward as I have describ- ed it. Actually it was a magnif- cent bit of co-ordinate team work.

1013

and seamanship. The trawlers pitched and rolld and the icy spray drifted over them. The man at the winch, with a bright-blue balaclava helmet on his head and cigarette in the corner of his mouth, controlled the wire miracu lously, checking it to a foot when it was necessary to

shackle on some appendage. He had the lives of everybody on that heaving deck in his hands, over and over again,. scores of times during the day. foste working on the slucides with a marlin-spike had bare hands scarred all over with old gashes and streaked with blood from new ones. Once the spike slipped or

The

ed match stalks above all forms of nourishinent.

*

On

WHEN we came to the end of our beat the lieutenant jerked the siren Innyard and the other trawler slowed down, ensed her helm over

came. and round we

She kept perfect station us all day. There was no signalling except the foot on the siren at the turn, The Group Leader Jerked his head at our sister trawler and made the remark cach time we steadied on the course, 'Yon's a good lad!' he said.

We passed the day yarning. The men slood huddled on the lee side of the upper deck smoking and watching the sea. They were all from Stornoway and fishermen Peterhead. Hartlepool, Shields, Grimsby, Lowestoft, They had no Illusions about their job. week before a a trawler had gone

The

up and there was one survivor. Of the rest and the ship not a trace was found. They saw it happen. Yet they were undismayed; "soft" spoken, gentie-mannered men, just carrying

with their job, supremely efficient. It is dimcult to put into words what England owes them.

Well, the light began to full so we hauled in our sweep and went bucketing home in the dusk. Our Christmas tree lifted against the akynt one moment and then showed up against the broken When we got in we water astern. reported the channel swept and apparently clear of mines."

AFC

the

was

Next morning I went off in a different trawler to the southward, where there was a known mine-. field-noored. Impact mines, horned variety, This feld

by fleet sweepers being cleared towing

what

known *oropeso' sweeps. This is a a cigar- shaped arrangement with a flag on it towed from the sweeper. A board called a kite attached to the wire keeps the oropesa out on the quarter of the towing ship and the wire is weighted so that its curve Intercepts the mooring wire of the mine and cuts it. The mine, re- leased from its sinker, then floats to the surface. Occasionally it ex- plodes in the weep. The sweepers stcam In .echiclon that is to Bay on each other's quarter-with the bows of the second ship following the leader's oropesa far, and so on down the line. They start the edge

of the minefield and sweep backwards and forwards on

In

each

the

of a bacon slicer, carv- time

slice of the min

minefield A

One drops dan buoys-buoys with flags secured to sinkers by wire to mark the edge of the swept section. The other sinks the mines as they appear on the surface, and picks up the buoys... when they are no longer required.

followed behind Ple of trawlers

us.

*

*

TH trawler I was in was com→ manded by a skipper whose father was the first mine-sweeper to put to sea in that area in the last war. The sun was the first in the pre- sent war. Our Job

WRS

primarily to drop buoys along the swept cdge of the ninefleid astern of the We started in the dawn. sweepers. and an hour or two later the mines began bobbing up ahead of A horned mine awash is not a pretty object. They drifted away astern of us and presently we head our opposite number banging off at them with her Lewis gun. sky cleared and the

sun shone. The cook brought round tea at intervals. At intervals we dropped a buoy, and the deck wan alive with writhing wires for a moment. Then heave and *1 the splash, and overboard went 150 lb, sinker and everybody took a long breath,

The

on

Count

All day we went to and fro,

the dodging

harvest of the sweepers, laying and mooring

sank buoys. The sun

over the land, and as the sweepers altered course for the base, the signal lamp of the leader blinked at us through their smoke. Two mings bouring so and so, sink and return to hur bout Well we

when we were three of got there that was jerked from his

the beastly things, and the sun was numb fingers and went overboard.

setting. Everybody grabbed a rifle. Somebody, handed hin another; he

Lewis gunner, who had been put out his hand for it automatical

a confectionery delivery ly, in silence. There were scarce-

van four months ago, opened fre ly any orders except in the cus-

Provided tomary undertones. Nobody got in

the nearest mine. you puncture it with: sufficient rifle anybody's

was at a loss way

bullets and don't happen to hit In any emergency.

There are Ulmes

one of the horns, a wire can behave like

mine sinics When a mad pyllion and be rather more

without exploding. It was like dangerous. Every man on deck

shooting at a glass ball bobbing on, a jet of water at a fair. The had handled wires from childhood,

trawler rolled, the mine appeared knew exactly what to do without being told, and did it.

and

disappeared in the waves 200 yards away. The Volunteer Re- serve signalman and the gunner sank the first. Then the skipper got his eye in and did some pretty shooting. The sun'sank lower and disappeared. The mine" followed sult amid cheers. The Int wng..i raco bgainst the gathering darkness. But at length it bobbed more sluggishly. Then only one horn projected devilishly from a wave crest. The Lewis gun" fired": one burst and it vanished.

Then we settled down to sweep, I should describe the operation, from a spectator's point of view, as a rather blood-curdling bore- dem. Up and down the channel we went, with the wailing gulls for company. Every half-hour or so the cook staggered round with mugs of tea-hot sweat ton the colour of mahogany. He owned n small puppy which llyed confiding- ly among seaboqted feet and relish-

one

ANKLE SOCKS

FOR TENNIS, BEACH AND SUMMER WEAR

LARGE, COMPREHENSIVE RANGE

JUST RECEIVED FROM AMERICA.

ELASTIC GRIP TENNIS. SOCKS

In Powder Blue, Rose, Lemon.

Turquoise, Tomato & Peach,

Children's sizes 7-10

LISLE TURN-OVER

TOPS SOCKS

All cols. $1.50 pr.

LADIES' ANKLE SOCKS

(Elastic Grip)

In Greengage, Turquoise.. Copper, Clover, Mauve and. Shock-in-Pink,

$1.10 por Pair.

$1.10

pr.

PIQUE TENNIS SHADES-

In Pink, Powder Blue, Green and Lemon.

$1.50 each

Peter Pan. Suits

FOR WATER, BEACH & GYM, Figure, Fitted, Sports Suits by Libertyland.

$1050 each

In Lagoon, Goldfish & Sea Blue.

Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co., Ltd.

HIS MASTER'S VOICE TWO WORLD FAMOUS TENORS

PRESENT

A PROGRAMME OF POPULAR BALLADS

JOHN MCCORMACK

DB340Drink to me only with thine eyes

Ah Moon of my delight: "Persian Garden" DB1200Kathleen Mavourneen

Love's old sweet song DA1342-As I sit here. (Sanderson)

I know of two bright byes

DA1341-Love's roses

_My_moonlight Madonma,

(P֍m)

DA310-Come where my love les dreaming

Funiculi Funicula

RICHARD CROOKS

DB1798-Holy City

Star of Bethlehem DA1163-For you alone

Because. (d'Hardelot) DA999-Song of Songs

Ah vect mystery of life DA1536-Bird songs at oventide

Green hills of Ireland DA1304-1 tovo thee,

Parted.

(Greg)

(Tosti)

TSANG FOOK PIANO COMPANY

MARINA HOUSE

19 QUEEN'S ROAD C.

MAIDEN VOYAGE

*PHONE 24648.

FIVE DAY EXCURSION TO MANILA Leaving: Hongkong

EARLY MAY

Using the ship as your Hotel during Ovornight AT MANILA

ALSO: SECOND WEEK IN MAY THIS NEW VESSEL, TO: SAN FRANCISCO, LOS ANGELES,

via

SHANGHAI,

JAPAN,

and:

HONOLULU,

A few rosorvations still available for Shanghai only

NEXT VOYAGE THIRD WEEK IN JULY......

Complete Information From Your Agent or: NIPPON YUSEN KÄISYA

KING'S BUILDING

TELEPHONE 80291. General Pasioneer Agents in the Orient for Cunard Wilde Blar Ling