Tuesday,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
May 7,
1940.
Jury, Shoremna Conics,
3.
MAGAZINE
GRIN AND BEAR IT
By Lichty
WANTED
"It's an insult, the wages they offer-what do they think we are, college fellas!"
The gang's
all here!
By P. L. MANNOCK
NE night in May, 1917, I
ONE nights Bubbly, one
of the best revues of the war, at the Comedy Theatre. As I opened the programme a printed slip fluttered out, nor- mal foreboding that 40me principal was "off."
Sure enough, "owing to the ab- sence of Mr. Jack Hulbert, his part will be played by---" who cared? Hulbert had joined the Army, and we had to make the best of an understudy.
Within ten minutes of the under- study's appearance, people were groping for the slips they had thrown away. "This fellow's durn-
ed good. What's his name? Mr. Jack Buchanan never. heard of him.
Within two months Jack was big star. The other night I watch- ed him delighting a huge Army audience. Like others who shot to fame during the last wur, he is as good as ever.
IT is renirkable how many who delighted us then are still doing so, their powers undimmed. There is, for example, Leslie Henson. It is hard to believe that 24 years have flown since la sudden arrival at the Galety in "To-night's the Night," succeeding the late Teddy Payne.
For years Henson has held an annual reunion party of those who were with him in the remarkable entertainments behind the lines in 1010, which culminuted in full- dress productions at a theatre In
Lille.
He intends to repent his good work this time, and I cannot think of anyone who will be more wel-
come.
IN
X
*
a terrific spectacular revue of 1015, "Watch Your Step," a lend- Ing part was in the hands of Lupino Lane, then lately, graduated from the halls as a boy tumbling come- dian.
this jolly, For many monthe cherubie, agite 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 chatter, was also in "Watch Your Steps," and lately re-. tired from the Victoria Palace cast."
MASTER showman and im-
presario C. B. Cochran intro- duced us in 1914 to delectable Alice Delysia in the first British intimate revue, "Odds and Ends."
+
This glamorous, fascinating crea ture became a star overnight. For- mer midinette and wife of the Anglo-French comedian Harry Fragson, sho epitomised Parisian allure and grace.
I shall never forget her on the Pavilion stage on the hysterical Armistice Night of 1918, draped in Tricolour flag and weeping with happiness. To-day you may see this delightful nriist as leading lady now Criterion comerly, of the "French for Love," first of London's now wartime, plays.
JACK HULBERT is so sprightly
and young in his current plece "Under Your Hat" that his star status before the last war is hard to believe. His wife, Cicely Court- neidge, was a soubrette heroine then, and did not become a come- dienne unul Inter.
This week Tom Walls reappears th a new force, "His Majesty's Guest," at the Shaftesbury. In the Jast war this popular comedian Conce Londen policeman, and since trainer and owner of a Derby winner, April the Fifth) was busy at Daly's, the Galety and Adelphi. His partner in so many Aldwych. furces, Ralph Lynn, was at that time equally in demand in musical comedy..
WE
*
*
WE also had Harry Tate, Gene Gerrard, Billy Merson- and above all, George Robey. Prime Minister of Mirth, who to-day quite rightly refuses to be his age. a The Bing Boys Are
at the Alhambra, which be- came a recognised venue for men in khaki, from field-marshals to privates.
His tremendous efforts for war charitles raised
and £100,000, earned him the C.BE.
After the Arst few months of war, people locked back to the theatre. Old favourites were play- Ing and
new
nelors and netresses made reputations. Fay Compton was one: Gladys Cooper, Owens Nures and Gerald du Maurier were already established.
Fine ew playa come along: a period of record long runs set in. The music-hull was still flourishing: you could see Marie Lloyd, Little Tich, R. G. Kriowles, 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 1013 who remain to regule us in the second war against those of musical Germany are
look forward cometty and revue. to a fresh tease of life for intimate revde especially wonderful nur- sery of now 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 Afteen
feet long,
und niong is Lull length runs a fre-
HOT
step. Its surface is nearly two feel above the trench and duck boards, about four feet be-
low the parupet.
The post is a som-
bre, brooding little
work in the hours
PAGE
WHILE IT
just before dawn-a still world held in the velvet grip of the lift- ing blackness.
The soldier, standing on the dre step and leaning heavily against the parapet in the centre of the -post, stares with strained intensty
front. to his
Suddenly, there is a falot thakle out there. The soldier stillins.
Hi eyes, and his mind, strive to pierce reach the faint noire.
LASTED
the
breaks
of
of
A number of the men fire rupidly into the grey mass, now breaking. up Into swiftly moving forms.
valce The corporal's through the grey-dark to
through
pandemonium shells, crashing
rat-a-tnt machine-guns, and crack of rifles.
"Go easy. Get ready to give them a dose of bombs when they're within distance."
For perhaps a minute his brain, eyes und body strain, yeurn, tu- wards the spot from where Far Imagines the sound to have came. Then, decisively, he cuddles his rifle stock to his shoulder, and the sharp, whip-like cracks of rifles shots stab through the still colduess of the early dawn.
The effect of the rifle shots is like that of a pre-arranged signat. Far to the East, aniles behind the enemy's known front line, briel yellow flashes stab their way to- wards the sky, Seconds Inter Hell breaks loose behind and to right and left of the small post.
THE canvas cloth of the thrust violently dugout is
aside, and the men of the post stumble uncertainly out to the duckboards, then on the post fire-step.
Behind and to right and left of the post the crash of shells pune- ture the dawning day with livi flashes of light.
From the main trench skirting the forest, Verey lights shoot into
into the air, and burst
coloured multiples, screaming a desperate SOS. to the artillery far behind.
the post, lining its length of In
stare grimly fire-stop, nine men
front. grey in into the misty
efficiently, hand-grenades Silently along from hand to hand ared at each man's feet..
and
The bursting of shells behind and to right and left tell them a plain story,They are the _objective_of_ an enemy raiding party.
no
The box barrage hems them in on three sides. They can expect assistance from their main trench; retreat is impossible.
The sentry who gave die first afarm Arst sighted the enemy,
He points towards a moving grey mass seen vaguely some forty yards beyond the barbed wire of the posi. There they are," he shouts, "Just over, by those fallen trees!"
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 through again. "Give it to 'em," he yells. "Give 'em all you've
breaks
As he speaks he tears out the pin of his bomb and flings the Mills into the advancing mass,
The others followed the corporal's action. Crash, crash, crush, rlp ot the grenades, and a number grey forms fling up despairing arms as they collapse, their cries of pain cutting through the welter of mad sound.
Other grey forms come on. With grim, desperate courage, they ig
comrades and nore their fallen bear down relentlessly on the post. shoot From among them arms up holding canister grenades, and these come hurtling towards the post. Most of them burst near the fury of melal wire, senttering and earth over the defenders.
One of the men of the post makes a gurgling noise, his mouth opens,
Hasp. then, with a surprised topples over and crushes to the duckboards.
lic
The grey forms are now up agalust the wire.
One of them, hulking man Jp the thirties, breathing heavily through an opened mouth, crashes forward before the others.
He trips on an out-wire, strives frenziedly to regola his balance, then sprawls awkwardly at full length across the wire.
For a moment his pain-wracked eyes glare at the defenders of the post. His eyes hold fear, hatred,
nd appeal, then they fin and his body sags loosely
Britain Needs
German experience in Foland, and our Own briefer practice against German airfields in Nor- way and Denmark points to low dive-bombing as the only reliable target.
The German JU87 and Henschel 119123 dive bombers massacred the grounded Polls air force on the day war broke out. Afterwards they amanhed up the Warsaw aircraft factory, Lvov railway station, and heavily damaged Modlin fortress.
110-CENT FARE TO HEAVEN
"PEOPLE give to God what they
I would Blush to give a porter for a tip."
This remark was made a short while ago by a Purley vicar com- menting on the fact that people who went to church expected to And bright, well-kept place Awaiting them and smiling par son at the door to greet them, without thinking where thie money for such things was coming from.
The last monthly returns of the offertories made
the great St. In Paul's Cathedral in London, would indicate that the "perny" church- goer is niili much in evidence,
tion
On a recent Sunday, the collec- for the expenses of the service in the Cathedral amounted to the inglorious total of £4 78. D.
It is just a fraction
amount required.
of the
What is the average contribution to the plate or collection bag by
the ordinary churchgoor?
the
A special commission of Chuch Assembly which set out to investigate the problem reported rather ambitiously that the average mon's contribution was 1s. 14. a week. This was calculated on the basis that the average income of Including churchgoing people, children, was £50 a year.
One of the commissioners re- ported that in his district the squire put half a crown in the plate every Sunday morning, his wife a snilling, and his family sums vary- ing from 3d to Od.
CS-
The lawyer's largess was timated at 25, with correspondingly decreasing amounts for his wife tradesinan atul dependants. The and former were forthcoming with Artisans gave. Id, a weekly Bd.
and even a halfpenny.
In a year the total sum collected
at Westminster Abbey in the offer-
tory was £3,354 13 d.
over
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 lund behind the attackers.
The defenders' artillery is responding in answer to the Vercy light SOS from the main trench. The post is completely boxed-in by vicious, livid bursts of high explosive.
In the post men use rifles. and fling hand-grenades in the knowledge That they
are playing out the last few seconds of the drama of dawn.
Victory and defeat are in the balance. Seconds will decide whether the ventur against death will be recorded a successful raid or a repulsed raid..
And in that knowledge, edged with Its implications, they strive blind. like men possessed, in Hullen desperation.
The attackers wude through the mire; some try to cut at the wire with cutters, while here and there a grey man hammers blindly at the wire with a rifle-butt, hoping to flatten its crisp and prickling curli- ness with blunt violence.
Some of the attackers keep lob- bing over hand-grenades; others
And fre 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 seen running through the dawn misi fowards their own lines. Some hall-carry, half-drag wounded comrades.
For about a minute they remain in sight, then disappear behind the loose curtain of shell bursts from the defending arillery.
As they
disappear the terrifying crash of shells begins to die down. The
spasmodic barrage flags to bursts, then to occasional crashes, noise ceases and and finally all quict holds the dawn in thrall.
In the post the corporal is com- pleting an inventory.
The right side of his unshaven face is clotted with blood, and he, limps slightly as he moves across the squelching duckboards.
For a moment he stores bienitly towards the East. Then, speaking as if to himself, he comments in a dry, flat volce:
Two dead, three injured. Ten Jerries on the wire and others, maybe, further out. It was short, but, God, it was hot while it last- €ti!"
S. A.
Low-Dive Bombers
(By A Military Correspondent)
German decoy tricks are endless. Five raiding aircraft flew high over Norwegian anti-aircraft batteries. Suddenly two (the dive bombers) broke formation and dived. Tho A.A. gunners, belloving these two airplanes hit, fired steadily at the three planes flying at high level. The dive bombers swooped down, obliterated
a battery, and zig- ragged away at low altitude.
Our Fairey "battle" monoplanes and Westland Lysander Army co- operation machines can be used for dive-bombing. But since they are not lifed with diving brakes to steady themselves, their aim lacks precision.
•
*
The only real dive bombers in Britain's Air Forces are the Black- barn "Skuas" of the Ficet Air Arm, Their diving brakes check diving speed to 250 m.p.b. Two hundred Douglas naval dive bombers are on. order from the United States,
дго
1
The Naal dive bombers, being short range machines, have hliber- to been unable to attack largels such as British coastal defences. But (1) The new Naz! Norway bases
good deal nearer. (i) Longer range dive bombers tvill certainly be built. The Italians already have them. (ill) The French targets are within easy reach of the Germans.
·
The whe French have foreseen this. They have built underground aircraft factories. The Nazis aro reported to hayo many more.
•
France is training companies of parachute iroops, Intendeil to
harass convoys and trains and to destroy or selze bridges, railway Tho harbours. stations and Russians, who first developed this technique, did not succeed very 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 117
IDEAL DIET FOR DIGESTIVE DISTURBANCES
The big problem with sufferers from gastritis or other digestive disturbances is how to avold pain and discomfort when eating. The inflamed atomach walls are so sensitive that solid foods can not be retained. Even liquid foods are often vomited.
Yet the patient must get quick new strength into his body. Doctors and nurses have found that Horlicks is retained in the stomach when other foods ára The reason is that rejected. Horlicks is so easy to digest, At the same time it rebuilds the exhausted body, and restores strength and stamina.
Keep Horlicks ready at hand.
Your It is delicious to taste, store sells Horlicks.
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HIS MASTER'S VOICE
VOCAL GEMS AND SELECTIONS
OF
POPULAR LIGHT OPERAS
03110-Student Prince
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.Selection. .Selection.
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Light Opern Company.
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.Selection.
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Jack Hylton's Orch. Marck Weber's Orch. Soprano with Orch New Mayfair Orch.
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