1940-05-23 — Page 23

Thursday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

May 23, 1940.

MAGAZINE PAGE A

Leaves from a

Correspondent's

NoteBook

By BARBARA STUART

Here is a letter from a London woman to a friend abroad. It gives a vivid picture of life in war-time Britain-as seen through a wo- man's eyes.

London, May 1. My dear Conchita-Te every- ono's great delight, "daylight saving" has begun a good many weeks earlier than usual this year, in order to shorten the "black-out" perlod as much as possible,

Daylight saving" means, as you doubtless know, that we put our clocks forward one hour so as to give ourselves an extra hour of daylight in the evening.

Always of great beneft to workers during the period of sum- mer, you can perhaps imagine what this arrangement means to all of us now? For nearly four months we have crept home in the even- ings through dark streets, have closed up our houses like prisons from five o'clock in the afternoon until the next moming, and hustled through our shopping so as to reach - home before the darkness folla,

Now all that is over! It is light now until seven o'clock, and with every week that passes, "black-out" time will come later still. Prople can get home from their work in daylight now: some even have n diance to walk for a while in one of the Parks after their day's work and before it grows dark. No more will the leaving of one's torch. at hame appear in the light of a major disaster, nor shall we worry if the shops declare that their stock of torch batteries is exhausted!

Quite apart from its convenience and pleasantness, this new measure will be of the greatest assistance to shop-keepers everywhere, giving them an extra hour in which to sell their goods. unhampered-by-light- ing restrictions, at a time when most people are free to buy.

.

I took advantage_of_the_first_ex- tra hour of daylight to prolong a walk over Hampstend Heath, place which I find beautiful at any ime of the year and where the alr is so fresh and clear that one can hardly believe oneself to be still on the northern outskirts of London.

I was amazed to find how many clusters of "nilotments" had been the started in various parts of Heath.

to

"Allotment" is the nome given to a small plot of land which is leased a private individual by the owners, (in this case the London County Council), on which he can own smoll garden for make his vegetables and flowers.

At the present time theso allot- Imagine, be devoted ments will, entirely to vegetables and, perhaps, frult bushes, since the Govern ment's idea is that, wherever possi- ble, everyone shall grow food of this kind for the use of himself and his family.

་་

Most of the workers appeared to be middle-aged or elderly men, and these laboured slowly, solemnly with great concentration, And speaking seldom, but wearing an nir of absorbed content,

I believe that, quite apart from their original purpose of produc- ing more food, these allotments" will have a great effect for good upon the health and happiness of their owners,

After my walk, I went to a cine- ma to see one of the many excellent French films which are becoming increasingly popular in London

now.

I also saw a very good news-reel of the march through London of the crews of the British warships Ajax and Exeter on their way to bo entertained at the Guildhall Banquet was given to "where a

honour their glorious victory, with the Achillos, over the German bat- Uleship "Admiral Graf Spee."

You, of course, will have seen this news-reol also, and will ro member how at and happy they all looked and what a tremendous welcome they received from the enormous and wildly enthusiastic crowd lining the routel

I have just read an account of how, the officers and crews of both ships have experienced the amusing and thrilling experience of becom ing genuine film starsl

A British company is making a flm of the whole story of the River Plate battle, and the men of the Ajax and Exeter acted all over aguin in front of the cameras, the actually played in pare they had

fused point blank to allow this un- less exactly the same amount of flim should be shot on board the Exeter as well. This condition was cepted and filming arranged accord-. ingly.

ac-

How the sailors must have en- Joyed themselves, and apparently they all put up a most excellent per- formancel I hope we shall all have the pleasure of seeing this fla shortly.

•

•

With love to you and your family from

Your affectionate

Tran

GRIN AND BEAR IT

By Lichty DID YOU

11-30

"Another plan? I've given you five military secrets already,

Nadya--what in the world do you do with thom?"

ANY WOMAN

CAN SEW

By Rajeane Reynolds Olmstead

THIS may sound like a sweeping statement but It's a true one: any woman can sew. And that means you. My own experience proves It. I didn't know what the word "basting" meant when I started out to

make my first dress. Yet that dress was a success and all the clothes I've made since-pa- Jamus for my husband, more dresses, a suit and a coat for my- sek-have turned out equally well.

The way I begun was sudden and unexpected. You see from child- lond my mother had always made my clothes. Then after I married, there came a time when the future caught up with my wardrobe and 10 left it far behind. What was I

TES da? There

1:0

to mother remedy the situation and I couldn't afford to buy the fabrics and styles I was accustomed to in ready-made dresses.

Before I realised what had hap pened I found

nim myself with a beginner's sew- ing book to serve as a kind of dic- tionary whenever I ran across a sewing term I didn't know.

4. I'd pin the puper paltern pieces together and try them on be fore I laid them on the material for cutting. This is for a perfect st and you'll find directions for any simple alterations you may have to, make in your Instruction.

3. I'd identify each pattern plece according to the diagram on the instruction sheet and write its name on the upper side. Then I'd check each plece to make sure that the perforations marking the straight of the goods are true. If they are not it is easy to draw a line through the perforations and mensure them to make the line straight.

A'

8. I'd press both the paper pieces and the material before cutting. wrinkle. saved here will mean a belter cut dress.

I'd write (more writingi) the name of carh plece on the wrong side of the material with chalk- before divorcing it from the issue paper. This is a great help in as sembling the dress.

7. myself wandering through de fabric scellon of one of London leading department stores. A state blue alpaca caught iny eye and 1 bought four yards. Guided by fate I selected a pat. tern, Not till I reached home did I realise these two appalling facts: I didn't know how to sew and I had no tools with which to begin.

Here again fate took a hand in my sartorial problem-this time via my husband. I exhibited my pur- chases to him-dublously. He stared in amazement. Then he dis- next morning a appeared. The sewing machine arrived. That was his way of showing that he ap- proved of my breaking out with a sowing gori.

Well, I made the dress and it was a proud day in our household when it was pronounced good job. I'm

not going to pretend, however, that

of

I didn't tear my hair in despair over it many times. I did. I aniled into a lot of difficulties. And most them, I realise now after eleven months experience, could have been avoided if only I had known a few simple rules. Here are the things I'd do to-day-if I were starting that first dress:

Good Rules for a First Dress

1. I'd get a beginner's pattern and got it first before I bought my material A pattern that's easy to put

together makes your first ways so much simpler. And it is always Important to get the pattern first because that gives you the key to the kind of material most suitable for the design; also the number of yards required.

8. I'd try on the dress after the pleees are posted together. Should any adjustment need to be made, now is the time.

9. I'd press each seam open after. It was sewn. Pressing all along the way is vitally important for at smooth fit.

10. I wouldn't economise on tools any more than I could help. If you are really serious about making your own clothes a well-equipped eving-room is half the battle in helping you achieve that profes slonal touch. And the cost is soon taken care of in the money you save over buying the same type of clothes ready-made.

Right now I'm setting onde a certain part of my budget for a number of tools that I cravo-all designed to make sewing at home na almple an ABC. I'd

like 'n dressmaker's dummy-it would make fitting so much more accurate. I want pinking shears to save time in-finishing the edges of seams.. And most particularly I want to add to my stock of sewing-machine attachments.

A Sewing Club is Fun

There's one good sewing rule" for beginners that I've left to the last. It is the Idea of a number of you getting together and taking your first steps in a group. I never thought of this until my friends be gan to ask how I did this and that and before we know it we had formed a club. We did not begin with dresses at first. Each

member brought a garment that needed. special attention. But soon

2. I'd choose a material with body, You'll find a firmly woven it's wool, rayon, fabric, whether, cotton or silk, much easier to handie than a filmsy one. Also I'd leave definite up-and-down patterns to the historie nefon zain the hint do dowody resonance prose began to

Boating upside down is an oddity, housedresses, and aprons Spes. It appears that the film

I learned this, the hard way. Need appear. And in the course of make director, armed with an Admiralty

wing these, caky things many-pro- permits first approached the cap-1 tay more? Rin of the Ajax for permission to, 3. I'd read da reread the direcblems were solved for the benefit boot the Olm scores aboard--histions in the pattern envelope bed of all. This is the advantage of The caplain, however, re- fore I took a single step. And I'd sowing togeher. And it's fun

TANNIA

SIERRA LEONE

THE arms of Blerra Leone were "nasigned by Royal Warrant in-1914.- They show the flag of the Union as It was before 1801with the crosses. of St. George and St. Andrew only. A-freed slave, bearing a spear, to a ship on the horizon. Wayes to green palm tree flourishes against

gold background.

A

A

Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa, is Crown Colony, council

pussessing A Iegislativo

partly elected and partly nominated by the Crown with full power to legislate for a Protectorate as well Bs the Colony.

The capital is Freetown, and the population (including that of the Protectorate) is estimated at 1,770,- 000.

WONDER?

How the Sun's Rays Reach Us Without Warming The Intervening Space?

The sun is a globular mass of glowing gases whose surface grea is 12,000 times that of the earth. The sun's surface has an estimated temperature...

of about 10,008*- Fahrenheit,

It takes about eight minutes for a radiation pulsa or wave, traveling at 106,000 miles per second, to reach the earth from the sur

However, high mountain peaks, while nearer the sun, are notori- ously cold, and stratosphere bal- Ioonistu tell us that the tempera- ture several miles above the earth is still colder,

Before we attempt to see why, If the sun warms the earth, It does not ako warm the upper-atmos-

phere and interstellar space, let us first note that there are three ways in which heat may travel. The three ways are: (1) by conduction, the hent being transmitted from warmer to colder parts of an ob- ject or from a warm object to a colder object in contact with it; (2) by convection, the heat being trans- ferred by actual movement of a gas or liquid in convection currents; and (3) by radiation, pulses or waves, similar to waves of light, which travel in straight lines and at the speed of light-about 188,000 miles a second,

The sun's heat reaches us only by radiation. It cannot reach us by conduction, for-there-is-no-solid- substance between the earth and the sun along which the heat can be conducted. And there are no sun-to-earth movements of any gas. or liquid to bring us the sun's heat by convection.

Radiation waves are not them- selves hot, but have the capacity of raising the temperature of ob- jects which absorb them and of passing- -through substances trang-

parent to them without raising their lemperature. Atmospheric air ab- sorbs but less than 1-10 of 1 per cent of the radiation that passes through it coming from the sun, and is consequently very little warmed by the sun's rays.

With little or nothing to absorb heal and be warmed, the sun's rays do not raisa the temperature of the intervening space between the Bun and the earth to any extent.

GERMAN PLAN OF 1917

TO INVADE SWITZERLAND

20

MILES

Geneve

Belfort

Nendidiel

ITZERLAN

Lake of Geneva

TT-i-reported that the Swiss. High Command have obtained plans showing that Hitler intends to invade Switzerland Such a plan is certainly ready for use, if

Sky, serves a

Germans prepared a cam-

1917. In

Two paign of this kind columns were to provide the strik ing force. The norther column, advancing from Baalo, was to nove down the river valley of the Doubi, carving in to the roar of Belfort By this.means

Sho French ting would, be turned.

The southerná 'march from near the shore of Lake Constance, along the river valley of the Aar and behind the

öolumn' "ormato,

By Lake Nemchatel this foren want to divide. The first part would then crom the past to Pontarllen;; and, Ion'ving, a. antrison to" - flank the northern-expedition, -world

Rhins

ITALY

drive southward towards Lyons. The second park was lỡ burst” acro the French frontier at Genova, and advance down the Bhone valley towards Marseilles.

IN 1917 Italy was the Aily of France. The plan of ibowo days was designed to sever, common.l-` cations between these two: COUN» irles, To-day the Italiana main- tain a state of malevolent neutra- Hly towards the French. The German Plan of 1940 is designed lo join German and Xialian forces. At the very worst Hitler counts on having a friendly Kaly on the flank of his favading army.

It must be remembered that in

LS

50,000 there are 2,000,000 German-speaking Bwiss. It would De merprising if no Nazi sympa» ilkisers were, among them.

Ready for your selection NEW CONSIGNMENT OF

Ferguson Fabrics

38′′ VOILES

$1.95 and $2.50 per yd.

Lovely new designs and colourings, including navy and white.

FERGUSON'S.

CARLSHAN

(Linen Finish)

NEW PIN, STRIPES in two shades Powder Blue and Navy Blue,

$2.50 per yd.

FLAIR

FABRICS

FLORAL, CREASE-RESISTING

$1.75 yd.

GAY COTTONS

$1.50 yd.

Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co., Ltd.

C2100

HIS MASTER'S VOICE

A VARIETY PROGRAMME.

Baschinka. Potpourri of Russian songs...Marek Weber & Orch.

„Andre Köstälänetz and Orch."

Chant of the Weed

Numba Fantasy..

New Moon. Vocal gems

I'm falling in love with someone. Sweethearts...Waliz.

02790

02808

18999

B8992

Comes love

My heart keeps crying.

38901

Wartime March Medley

C2874

Poet and Peasant...Overture

C2708

€2835

C2814

Bongs that everyone should know. Gertrude Lawrence...Medley. Neapoliton Nights.

C2791 Kipling's Barrack-room. Ballads C2868-7 Rhapsody in Blue....... DA1559

Will you remeber. "Mayilme" Farewell to dreams

..Light Opera Company, ..Allen Jones.

Dorothy Lamour.

.Coldstream. Guards Band, .Boston Promenade Orch. .....Stuart Robertson, Gertrude Lawrence. Lights Opera Company. ..Peter Dawson. Boston Orchestra. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy,

TSANG FOOK PIANO COMPANY Marina House

19, Queen's Road C.

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