Tuesday,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
May 7, 1940.
[MAGAZINE PAGE
GRIN AND BEAR IT
By Lichty
WANTED
"It's an insult, the wages they offor-what do they think we are, college follas!"
The gang's
all here!
By P. L. MANNOCK
NE night in May. 1917, I
ON
went to see "Bubbly," one
of the best revues of the war,
at the Comedy. Theatre.
AN
I opened the programme a printed slip fluttered out, nor- mal foreboding that principal was "off."
some
Sure enough, "owing to the ab- sence of Mr. Jack Hullået, his part will be played by--" who cared? Hulbert had jaljet the Army, and we had to like, the best of an understudy.
"Within ten mijitys of the under- study's appearated, people were groping for the dips they had thrown away, "This fellow's damn- ed good. What's his name? Mr. Jack Buchanan
him..
JACK HULBENT is so sprightly ✔ and young in his current piece "Under Your Hat" that his stor status before the last war is hard to believe. Its wife, Cicely Court- neidge, was a soubrette heroine then, and did not become a cone- dienne until later.
This week Tom Walls reappears a new farce, "His Majesty's Guest," at the Shaftesbury, In the Inst war this popular comedian (once a London policeman, and since trainer and owner of a Derby winner, April the Fifth) was busy nt Daly's, the Gaiety and Adelphi. Iis partner in so many Aldwych farces, Ralph Lynn, was at that time equally in demand in musical comedy.
WE
never heard of We also had Harry Tate, Gene Gerrard.__Billy___ Merson -- and above all. George Robey, Prime Minister of Mirth, who to-tlay quite age. rightly refuses to be his
had "The Ring Boys Are Robey Here" at the Alhambra, which be- came a recognised venue for men in khaki, from fleld-marshals to privates.
Within two months Jack was a big star. The other night 1 watch- ed him delighting a huge Army Rudience, Like others who shot to fame during the last war, he is as
good as ever.
1 is remarkable how many who delighted us then are still doing so, their powers undimmed. There
is, for example, Leslie Heaton.
It
Is hard to believe that 24 years have flown since his sudden arrival at the Calety in to-night's the Night," succeeding the Teddy Payne,
For years Henson has held annual reunion party of those who were with him in the remarkable entertainments behind the ines in 1918, which culminated in full- dress productions at a theatre in
Lille.
He intends to repeat his good work this time, and I cannot think of anyone who will be more wel-
come.
IN
a terriffic spectacular revue of 1915, "Watch Your Step," a lead- ing part was in the hands of Lupina Lang, then lately graduated from the hulls as a boy tumbling come- dlun.
For many monthe this jolly,. cherubic, agile little man has been" exploiting "The Lambeth Walk" in the Victoria Palace show "Me and My Girl," and his free shows to soldiers have included a complete transportation of the production to Windsor, and back.
George Graves, veteran dispenser of fruity chaiter, was also in "Watch Your Steps," and Intely re- lired from the Victoria Palace cast.
MASTER showman and in-
His tremendous efforts for war charities raised £100,000, and earned him the C.R.E.
After the Arst few months of war, people flocked back to the theatre. Old favourites were play- ing, and new. actors and actresses made reputations, Fay Compton was one Gladys Cooper, Owens Nares and Gerald du Maurier were already established.
Fine new plays coine along a period of record long runs set in. The music-ball was still flourishing; you could see Marie Lloyd, Little Tich, R. G. Knowles, Mark Sheri- dan, T. E. Dunville, Grock, the Two Bobs, Alfred Lester, Chirgwin and Harry Welldon.
✩
BUT the variety comedians have
nearly all gone. The star per- sonalities of 1918 who remain to regale in the second wor against Germany are those of musical comedy and revue. I look forward to a fresh lense of life for Jaflmute revur especially-o wonderful nur- sary of new star talent,
"All quiet during the night, We repelled a number of enemy raiding parties," -Official War Communique.
THE advance listening. post lies about eighty yards from the edge of the forest.
From it runs a shallow, zig-zag communicating trench to the main front-line trench. skirting the forest to north and south.
The post
is is strip of deep trench about fifteen feet long. and along is
full Jength
HOT
runs a fire- step. Its surface is nearly two feet nbové the french duck boards, final about four feet be- low. the parapet.
WHILE IT
The post is a 50m- bre, brooding little world in the hours Just before dawn at
world
held in the velvet grip of the ill- ing blackness.
The soldier, standing on the the. step and lerning heavily against the parapet in the centre of th post, stares with strained Intensity to his front.
Suddenly, there is a faint tinkle out there. The soldier sting.
His eyes, and his mind, strive to
through
pierce thr the
reach the faint noise.
from
LASTED
of
A number of the men fire rapidly into the grey mass, now breaking up Into swiftly moving forma.
voice breaks The corporal's grey-dark to
through the pandemonium
.ruit-a-tut sheils, crashing machine-gus, and crack of rifles.
Get ready to give "Go Casy. them a dose of bombs when they're within distance."
For perhaps a minute his brain, eyes and body strain, yearn, to-
where spot
Te wards the Imagines the sound to have cons Then, decisively, he cuddles his rife stock to his shoulder, and the sharp, whip-like cracks of ville shots stab through the still coldness of the early dayni.
The effect of the rifle shots is like that of a pre-arranged signal. Far to the East, miles behind the enemy's known front line, brief yellow flashes stob their way to- wards the sky. Seconds later Hell breaks loose behind and to right and left of the small post.
THE canvas cloth of the dugout is thrust violently aside, and the men of the post stumble uncertainly out to the duckboards, then on the post fire-step.
the
Behind and to right and left of the post the crash of shells pune- with livkl ture the dawning day flashes of light.
From the main french skirting forest, Verey lights shoot into the air, and burst into coloured multiples, screaming a desperate SOS to the artillery for behind,
In the post, lining its length of stare grimly Are-step, ulne men
front. into the misty grey in Silently, efficiently, hand-grenades are passed along from hand to hand and placed at cach mati's feet.
The bursting of shells behind and to right and left tell them a pla story. They are the objective of an enemy raiding party,
The box barrage hems them in on three sides. They can expect
from their no assistance trench; retreat is impossible.
The sentry who gave the first alarm first sighted the enemy.
He points towards a moving grey' mass seen vaguely some forty yards beyond the barbed wire of the post. "There they are," he shouts, "Just over by those fallen trees!"
ان
EVEN as he spoke the front rank of the grey mass resolved into distinct forms, looming threateningly up about twenty yards from the wire.
The
corporal's voice breaks through again, "Give it to 'cm," he yells, "Give 'em all you've Bol!!!
As he speaks he tears out the pin of his bomb'and flings the Mills into the advancing mass,
a
บ
The others followed the corporal's netion. Crash, crush, crash, rip
and
number of the grenades,
despairing grey forms fin arms as they collapse, their cries of pain cutting throug
through the welter of mad abund.
Other grey forms come on. With grim, desperate courage, they ig nore their failen
and comrades bear down relentlessly on the post, From among them arms shoo! up holding canister grenades, and these come hurtling towards the post. Most of them burst near the wire, scattering a fury of metal and earth over the defenders,
One of the men of the post multes gurgling noise, his mouth opens, then, with a surprised gasp, he to the topples over and crashes duckboards,
The grey forms are now up, 'dialist the" wtre;
One of them, a bulking man in the thirties, breathing heavily through an opened mouth, crashes forward before the others.
He trips on an out-wire, strives frenziedly to regain his balance, then sprawls awkwardly at full tength across the wire.
For a moment his pain-wracked eyes glare at the defenders of the His eyes hold fear, hatred. post. and appeal, then they film over and his body sags loosely
7
'ncross the wire.
And now comes a new.con- tribution to the ear-splitting orchestration of sound, Shells begin to crash in No-man's land behind the attackers.
The defenders' artillery is responding in answer to the Verey Bght SOS fron the main trench. The post Is completely boxed-in by vicious, livid bursts of high explosive.
In the post men use rifles and Bing hand-grenades in
that the knowledge
they
are playing out the last few seconds of the drama of dawn.
Victory and defeat are in the balance.. Seconds will deelde whether the venture against death will be recorded as
a successful raid or a repulsed ruk,
And in that knowledge, edged with its implications, they strive like
men possessed, in blind, sullen desperation.
►
The attackers wade through the mire; some try to cut at the wire with cutters, while here and there
grey man haromers blindly nt the wire with a rifle-butt, hoping to flatten its erlap and prickling curli- ness with blunt violence.
Some of the attackers keep lob- bing over hand-grenades; others
And Are blindly with their rifles, the defenders keep firing stubborn-
ly.
THE conflict ends suddenly. One moment the attackers are there, struggling against the wire; the next they have melted away.
They could be
running through the dawn mist towards their own lines. Some half-carry, half-drag wounded comraden.
seen
For about a minute they remain in sight, then disappear behind the loose curtain of shell bursts from the defending artlilery.
As they disappear the terrifying crash of shells begins to die down, The barrage dags to spasmodic bursts, then to occasional crashes, and finally all noise censes and quiet holds the dawn in thrall.
In the post the corporal'ls com- pleting an inventory.
The right-side-of-his-unshaven- face is elotted with blood, and he limps
ns he moves zeross
the squelch duckboards.
For a moment he stares bleakly towards the East. Then, speaking as if to himself, ho comments in a
flat
voice:
dry, three injured. Ten Ferries a'on the wire and others, maybe, further out. It was short, but, God, it was hot while it last- cd"
5. A.
Britain Needs Low-Dive Bombers
OWN
German experience in Poland, and our
briefer practice against German airfields in Nor- way and Denmark points to low dive-bombing as the only reliable target.
*
The German JU87 and caschel HS123 dive bombers massacred the grounded Polish air force on the day war broke out. Afterwards they rumashed up the Warsaw aircraft factory, Lvov raliway station; and heavily damaged Modlin fortress.
110-CENT FARE TO HEAVEN
PEOPLE give to God what they
would blush to give a porter.
for a tip."
ها.
This remark was made a short while ago by a Purley vlear com- Inenting on the fact that people. who went to church expected
a bright, well-kept place awaiting them and a smiling par- son at the door to greet thein, -without thinking where
the
find presarlo C. B. Cochrap Intro- duced us in 1914 to delectable Alice Delysla In the frat British Intimate revue, "Odds and Ends,"
This glamorous, fascinating crea- ture became a star overnight. For- mer nudinette and wife of the Anglo-French comedian Harry Fragson, she epitomised Parising allure and grace.
I shall never forget her on the Pavilion alage on the hysterical Armistice Night of 1010, draped in a Tricolour flag and weeping with hoppiness, To-day you may neo this delightful artist as leading lady of the new Criterion comedy,
"French for Love,” first of London's now wartime plays.
money for such things was coming from.
The last monthly returns of the offertorica made in the great St. Paul's Cathedral in London, would indicate that the "penny" church- goer is still much in evidence.
On a recent Sunday, the collce- tion for the expenses of the service In the Cathedral amounted to the inglorious total of £4 7. Dd.
It la just a fraction of the amount required.
What is the average contribution to the plate or collection: bag by the ordinary churchgoer?
A special commission of the Chuch Assembly which set out to Investigate the problem reported rather ambitiously that the average man's contribution was 18. 1d. week. This was calculated on the basis that the average income of churchgoing people, including children, was £50 a year.
One of the commissioners re- parted that in his district the squire pul half a crown in the plate every Sunday morning, his wife a chilling, and his family sums vary- ing from 3d to ød.,
The lawyer's largess wAS Q5- timated at 2s, with correspondingly decreasing amounts for his wife tradesman and dependants. The and farmer were forthcoming with n weekly dd, Artisans gave ld, and even a halfpenny.
In
year the total sun collected
at Westminster Abbey in the offer- tury was £3,354 13x 50.
(By
A Military Correspondent) German decoy tricks are endless. Five ralding aircraft flew high over Norweglan anil-aircraft batteries. Suddenly two (the dive bombers) broke
formation and dived. The A.A. gunners, believing these two airplanes hit, Bred steadily at the tiree planes lying at high lovel The dive bombers swooped down, obliterated a battery, and zig- zagged away at low altitude,
Our Falrey. "battle" monoplants and Westland Lysander Army, co- operation' machines can be used for dive-bombing. But since they are. not filled with diving brakes to steady themselves, their aim Iacks procision.
The only real dive bombere in Britain's Air Forces are the Black- burn "Skuas" of the Fleet Air Arm. Their diving' brakes, check diving spred to 250 mph. Two hundred Douglas naval dive bombers are on order from the United States,
The Nazi dive bombers, being short range machines, havo hither- to been unable to attack targets such as British coastal defences. But (1) The new Nazi Norway Балса аге A good deal neater. Longer rango dive bombera
certainly will
bullt. The bo Italians already have them. () The French targets are within easy reach of the Germans,
The wise French have forencen this. They have built underground aircraft factorles, The Nails aro reported to have many more.
•
•
Franco In training companies of parachute
troops, intended to
harass convoys and trains and to destroy or seize bridges, railway stations
Tho harbours. and Kusalans, who first developed this did not succeed very technique, well with their parachute troops in Finland. The Nazis claimed Im- portant tactical successes in Poland, and to-day are fully exploiting the practice in Norway. What are we doing about it?
IDEAL DIET FOR
DIGESTIVE DISTURBANCES
The big problem with sufferers from gastritis or other digestive disturbances is how to avoid pain and discomfort when eating. The inflamed stomach walls are so sensitive that solid foods can not be retained. Even liquid foods are oflen vomited.
Yet the patient must get quick new strength into his body. Doctors and nurses have found that Horlicks is retained in the #tomach when other foods are
The reason rejected.
is that fforlicks is so easy to digest. At the same time it rebuilds the exhausted body, and restores strength and stamina.
Keep Horlicks ready at hand. It is delicious to taste. Your -store sclls Horlicks.
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HIS MASTER'S VOICE.. VOCAL GEMS AND SELECTIONS
OF
POPULAR LIGHT OPERAS
C3110-Student Prince
Bitter sweGL C2585-Merry Widow C2603 Waltz"dream" 01401-The Mikado €2063-ld of the MLS. €2360 Chu Chin Chow €2220-White Horse Inn €3097-Dancing years C1703-Belle of New York The Gulsha -01727-Bilfer sweet C2873-Lilac Time C2713-One night of love C2724-Toad of Toad Hall
.Selection. .Selection.
Vocal gems.
¿Potpurr.*** -
Vocal gems. Vocal gems. .Vocal gems. Vocal gems. .Selection.
.Selection.
.Selection.
.Selection.
.Selection.
Vocal pens, .Selection.
London Palladium Orch.
Light Opera Company. Marek Weber's Orch;- Light Opera Company. Light Opera Company. Light Opera Company.. 1 Light Opern Company.. Drury Lane Theatre Orch. Coldstream Guard's Band.
Jack Hylton's Orch. Marek Weber's Orch. Soprano with Orch New Mayfair Orch.
TSANG FOOK PIANO COMPANY
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Middle of May
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