1940-05-16 — Page 23

Thursday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

May 16, 1940.

Court

MAGAZINE

PAGE

GERMANY'S BACK DOOR IS STILL OPEN

G

ERMANY'S front door has been shut and locked by our blockade of the North Sea. Her back door to the Balkan States stands wide open. The Block Sea and Danube now free from lee, Germany has plans for transport- ing' Balkin goods by water. Ger- has commissioned anything mony and everything that can be used on the river: But the Danube route ts very slow. All perishable goods reach Germany by rail.

Ruman he two main lines, one going north vin Cernauti, the other going west via Arad, to take goods Into Germany, Three hundred truckloads of various goods passed uver.

the Cernaut fine each

at the beginning of this year. Rumania supplies. wheat, maize, Ints

and pork apart from her petrol and heavy oil quota. The Rumanian exports 10 Germany. jumped from 480 million el for the whole of 1039 to 750 million lei for the first quarter of 1940.

Rumanian exports to Great Bri- tain amount to 484 million lei for 1930, and 710 milion lei for the first quarter of 1940, Germany is Using every means to frighten the Rumanians to increasing their export figure.

Bulgarit's position is far more rutely affected by German de- mands. of the total Bulgarian exports for 1939 over two-thirds went to Germany. In return for heavy machinery and ears, he sends to the Nazls all her surpius

tobieco, eggs, gapes and pork. The goods travel olther via the Danube or overland through Yugo- Slavia, Britain's share of Bul- Karlan export trade in 1939 was 3.1 per cent, of the total, compared with 13.8 per cent. of the total for 1037.

facklstufts.

・of

past

Yugo-Slavia offers minerals and livestock and takes and dyestuffs, lier trade with payment in machinery, chemicals Germany has trebled in the two years. Much

Yugo- Slav material pauses up the Adriatic coast and reaches Ger- many via Italy. Tho deposits of copper and bauxite now being ex- ploited In Yugo-Slavia make her un object of

the German lar attention in

drive.

Greece has a surplus of olive oil, tobucco, currants Arid raisiris. These products can reach Germany. either via the sen routes of the Adriatic and thence overland through Yugo-Slavin, Greek cx- ports to Germany Iri 1939 amount- ed to £4,000,000. To Great Bri- tain she supplied about £2,000,000 of goods. Somehow thais

o supply will have to be

checked if the blockade in going to be of any real effectiveness.

We must buy first, before the Germans gel chance. Mean- while, the blockade will have to be extended to the Black Sea. Ercan and Mediterranean ports if the Germans are to be made to feel that they are going to lose the struggle.

GRIN AND BEAR IT

156

By Lichty

"I can only concentrate on one thing at a time, Elmer! Can't

you propose after 1 finish this chicken?"

Europeans must unite

NUROPË MUST UNITE.--

Thus writes Count Cou- denhove-Kalergi, and his book cannot be too strongly re- commended...

It is a challenge to all who realise that the war will mark the breakdown or the resurrection of Europe. The author's argument is that the unification of Europe is

the only way to ensure lasting peace.

He is prepared for criticism of every kind and his answers, cer- ̈ tainly seem adequate. Switzerland. is his mala example of how pooples of diferent, tongue and origin can Ilvo side by side in peace, and prosperity if only the good will is there as a beginning.

peans,

He ends its very impressive argument for a Federation, of Euro- pean States with the plea Euro- Save Europe. Tharilis Becker and Wirburg, Bs. 'd)

THE FOUNDATION OF LAN- GUAGE E. Shrewsbury, MA.. has written . remarkable, lue book on the origin of language. Examples from our daily speech

taken to show its evolution from earliest days when, as he anys, "Babylon, Egipt and Chins were growing children."

It should be particularly useful to students of foreign languages. (The Epworth Press, In 003)

be

JJ. The method here employed of writing "backwards" can very irritating, but in this instance it is a complete success.

We first meet Caley Thatcher as an old man awaiting death. Then we get brief but telling scenes down the years until his portrait is complete,

It is exceptionally well done. On quite another plane is J. E. Pile's THE SEA AVIFE'S

SON (Heinemann, 81. - 24.), a masterly fale of the roof coffin-ships and the trials of Insurance brokers.

For that

rapscallion Pedro Ven-- tura alone we should feel supreme- ly grateful but all the characters "live" in 'quite a remarkable way,

Gina Kour has taken Jealously

and what it brings in its train for the subject of her novel DEVIL IN GREEN(Nicholson and Watson, 8 d). The influence wielded by

middle-aged women young and weak character is not- a pretty thing to see. But there, are light moinents.....

over

SIMPLES

RAILWAYS SEA ROUTES padam FRONTIERS sermone RDANUBE -

u.

S.

R.

HUNGARY

POSTOV

AONANIA

PUE LIKE

URKEY

BETWEEN

IN

TN Rumania I had talks with M. Gafencu, King Carol's energetic, English-speaking Foreign Minister: Sir Re- ginald Hoare, the British Minister; the Rumanian Pro- paganda Minister and other influential people.

The Rumanians are by nature rather easy-going and optimistic. During centuries of Turkish op- pression they managed to secure for themselves privileges which were denied other Balkan States under Turkish rule and to retain certain measure of indepen- dence.

टेक

1

Compromise is the leitmotiv of Rumanian diplomacy, and

the Rumanians consider themselves clever enough to be able to steer a middle course between conflicting Nazi and Allied interests.

The people are, of course, over- whelmingly pro- Allied,

Ds in Yugo- Slavia, Greece- Turkey. They want

and

us to win the war

and think we shall

win. In the mean- ilme Bukarest re-

DEVIL

SYRIA

the

and

RUMANIA

BULGARIA

.U.S.S.R.

the BLACK SEA

tains its reputation as the "Paris of South-Eastern Europe."

The half-hearted black-out at- tempts made last autumn when Russia pushed the Red Army to the Rumunian frontier with for- mer Poland have been abandoned.

Bukarest la a blaze of lights. Fashion and food shops are well stocked. 'Tuxis, with ridiculously low tariffs, circulate with restricted frequency.

un-

KING CAROL has reduced the centre of the capital to architec- tural chaos while extensions are made

le to his und all palace, Bukarest-pretty women, officials in goy-coloured

uniforms, artists, Jews and stu- dents-flock be- tween the walls of boards which conceal the secrets of the new administra- tive bulidings now going up,

First of all, Germany has no com- mon frontier with Rumania.

German-troops couldt-enter- Rumanio only through Hungarian or Russian-controlled territory.

to

Hungary is too tied up with Italy terli the Germans to use her

for attacking Rumania. sily all, and there is a pro- large

has

Interests

In

fitable

between Italy and trade Rumania. Why should she lose all this by

by permitting

ting her ally. Hun- gary to give passage to German troops against Humania?

Secondly, Rumanians do lieve that Russians do not be- all anxious to have Germany

along her

fron- Southern tiers. Dld Stalin grab the Polish oll wells and the Polish Ruman- Lan frontier to have the Nazis in the Rumaniar

oil. felts

1905 and The along Dniester?

By

HARRY

GREGSON

Who recently returned from a tour of S.E. Europe's soro spots.

One should say, perhaps. nearly all Bukarest, for in the Ministries lights burn until Iste in the tight,

while some 1,200,000 men-pea- sants dragged from their fields and professional men from their deska have been mobilised for the past nine months to help in the con- struction of King Carol's moals at the frontlers.

talk

"WHAT

does Bukarest: about? The people smile when they hear that the Arst preoccupa- -Sution-of-the-Nazi-trado: emissarles when they arrive in Bukarest is to stroll round the food shops and send parcels of food to their folk, - in, the Fatherland, M Large eng

In AitARAT) by Zigin Gooseclose (Xarrup, Di (d), we read of the persecutions of the Armentans and the founding of a small community of homeless refugees beneath the shadow of that mountain. It is on amazing tale of

courage and' endurance, sotnewhat leisurely told but always interesting

AUNTIE DEARDIE. Joseph Shearing is based this "should- be exciting story on a legend of French Revolution days, but after an interesting start the book loses, its hold, for towards the end no- body neems quite real. (lutchin

THERE is a welcome freshness about two newly published books. Guy Pollock has winin achieved SUCCES INTHEN THEY PULLED DOWN THE BLINDA {DƏ, Bp.-.'sors, tu)

They wonder whether. Rumania will-sec ration cards, because Dr. Clodius is alleged to have said that af Rumaniana were to eat less

there would be more food for ex port to Germany. Coal of living.

a constant preoccupation, for prices are soaring. There are some

About grumbler

tha continued mobilisation, and Rumanians ask:

Is it necesinry?"!

Itumaniata, do not think Ger- many will invade their country,,

In the third place, the Gor-. mons are get- ting, on paper. all they want from Rumanla without inva sion. Rumanian

peasants are planting huge areas of koya, beans and sunflower seeds, capital for, which is provided by Naźl cor- Borallona,

The Nazis can have' as much "oil as they can trimsport, whick, may mean 2,000,000 toris tlils year. But the Ruialitans learned the art of gulle der, the Turks, and there's many's slip between the Rumanlan of walls and Goering's storage tanks.****

ALLIED interests bava lensed and hid-up, hundreds of Danube lightera. Fok, the few which re- main the Nazis are paying fantas tie prices. King Carol builds "his - fortifications and taxes the toll companies to pay for them. Thle sends up the price of ell;"

...

France, Brital and laly, are making large purchases. The price soars again, until to-day Numilan oil folches twice the world-market price,

No wonder Dr. Clodius is press- ing for a more favourable raio of

exchange between the Reichsmark und the lei, Rumanian oil is cost- Ing the Nazis deur,

Rumaniana are 80 confident there will be no German aggres- sion that they have not even made arrangements to destroy the oil wells. Sixty square miles of all- fields will need a lot of explosives in an emergency, One hopes Rumanian optimism is justified.

If the Nazis took over Rumanian transport they might get all the oll they need for the war as it is being fought at present. But the chaos resulting from Nazi aggres- slon would take months to eliminate. Germany cannot act in Rumania without Moscow's 'con- sent. Hitler, at the moment, must dance to Une tune that Stalin pipes.

the

SINCE Finland's heroic stand the Rumanians are not afraid of. Russia. They think that Dniester and Carol's moat along the Dniester would keep the Rus- slans busy for a. long time. For- eign milltary experts are not so confident. One of them told me that die moat was on expensive Juxury.

Then there is the Allied guaran- tea. Rumaniana smile when the Briton talks to them of the guaran- tee. Nazi propagandista point out that the British troops in Palestine and Egypt..are much farther away than the Russian troops on the left bank of the Dniester, or German troops just bôyond the Pölláh oil- fields.

M. Gefencu told me that' Rumania valued the guarantee as an expression, of British Interest and friendship...

I would rather have heard him say that Rumania valued the guarantee for its promise of speedy and effective support.

It

If Rumania were invaded would take three days steaming to Rat from. the Near East to Rumanin, even if the Dardanelles were opened right away. But it will not be a simple question of steaming. There may be mines, submarines, and other complica- tions, involving lengthy prepara- tory operations, before the trans-. port of troops can be safely under- Laken.

new selection of

Summer Accessories

COOL

and DAINTY

GLOVES

In White, Navy,

Brown, Biscuit New Mustard.

and

With Lace Cuffs.

$3.50 pair

NEW DRESS ORNAMENTS

HANDBAGS

Latest delivery from America, Fashionable shapes and colours,

$7.95 & $8.50

IN PASTEL SHADES. NECKLACES, BROOCHES, ETC. Just the thing to complote a summer dress. Something dis- tinctively new to Hongkong,

from

$5.95

HEN

CORSAGES

Flowers and Posies, bright, fresh and gay, to keep you looking cool in summer.

from

$1.25

Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co., Ltd.

FAVOURITE DANCE ORCHESTRAS

ON

PARLOPHONE

Victor Sylvester (No Vocal)

F1670 It's a lovely day to-morrow

Good morning "Babes in arms" Fragrant flowers.

F1655

F1654

F1630

F1631

Love bells. Tango.

Tango.

The lady is a tramp..

There'll-never-be-another-you.

Liebestraum.

L'amour toujours l'amour.

Over the rainbow

Where or When,

F 985 Maria, my own.

Creen eyes.

"Wizard of Oz”.

Rumba.

Rumba.

Harry Roy and Orch.

F1625

Good morning.

Are you havin' any fun.

F1650

Rosita.

You never miss the old faces.

F1546

Man with the mandoline.

F1547 We're gonna hang out the washing.

F1548 We won't be long out there.

TSANG FOOK PIANO COMPANY

Marina House, 19 Queen's Road, C.

PRESIDENT LINER SAILINGS.

HONGKONG to SINGAPORE

First week in June

Phone 24648 ·

direct

HONGKONG to SAN FRANCISCO direct

Third Week In June

** AMERICAN

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"Podder" Street

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