1940-12-06 — Page 24

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490

Friday,

BUG HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

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The

IIOTEL GARAGE Stubbs Rd.

Thongkong Telegraph.

Friday, December 6, 1940. Wyndham St, Hongkong

Telephone: 26015

THE profix "pecial to the Telegraph" i used by the "Hongkong Telegraph" to indiante nowe which is strictly copyright under the previstons of the Telecommuni estions Ordinance, 1916, Buch news as bears the Indication" "Up" is received in Hongkong on the date of publication by the United Press Associations, who re servo all rights and forbid republications. either wholly or in part without previous ‚arrangement.

A SPLENDID WORK

HONGKONG probably has more, certainly as many social problems to the square mile as any heavily populated city in

December 6, 1940.

H. V. MORTON takes you along

GRAZIANI'S ROAD

INTO

is said that an English soldier of the last war. described Mesopotamia as "miles and miles and miles of damn-all.”

The same eloquent-des- cription might be applied to the "Libyan Desert, along whose northern fringe the Italian armies are advancing towards-Egypt.

It is a terrible wilderness, much of it still unexplored, terrifying in extent, and presided over, according to Arab tradition, by the devil himself.

But the Italians evidently haye no desire to repeat the dia- aster which befell a Persinn army of 50,000 strong which set off to march into the heart of this desert many centuries ago, and was never seen or heard of again.

LIBYA

HAIFA

EGYPT

STRIPOLL

KIRKUK

ALEXANDRIAGE

STRUM SUEZ

COMBI CAIRO

EGYPT

SUDAN KASSALA KHARTOUM

ITALIAN TERRITORY

0 100 200 440

MILES

IRAN

SAUDI ARABIA

MASSAV

ADEN:

ADDIS ZABABA

EAFRICA

MOYALE LUGH

KENYA

TIR SOMAL

THREE ITALIAN ARSUES are said to be forming for an attack on Egypt. one along the roast to Alexandela, and the bikers from Libya and Hasan East Africa planned to meet at Wadi

Ilalia on the Nile at the south of Egypt,

About every ten or fifteen It is said that "the spirit miles there is a bleak little rail- wind" arose, and that some way station standing forlorn on where in the trackless wastes the flat sand and, not far away, the 50,000 still lie in their ar- houses are made mostly of old a poverty-stricken village whose

mour as they died.

petrol tins.

There are no trees. The only stone buildings in these squalid villages are the mosque and the

Along The Coast The Italians are advancing, not into the dangerous interior, police station.

1

but along the coast road to The extraordinary thing Alexandria. This road is never about this coastal strip is that, far from the sea. At some although it is so blenk and de- places it is ten miles distant, solate to-day, there is evidence but generally it is not more than that a flourishing civilisation two or three miles away from a existed there in Roman times,

the world. The root causes glimpse of the blue Mediter- Roman Ruins

the

ranean..waves.

race, probably the descendants of the varied people who inha bited the coast-line in Roman days.

They wear a voluminous, and generally spotlessly white, gar ment called a jurd, which is slung over the shoulder and is, I have no doubt, a memory of the Roman toga.

stricken than the last, and then,. about thirty milca from Alexan- dria, one comes suddenly upon. a little walled town with an om- battled Arab gateway; and this is Burg-cl-Arab.

Desert Culture

This little town, which looks Ho old and Saracenic, was built by an Englishman after the last war, Major Jennings-Bramly, who has explored the Western Desert and possesses a deep of- fection for the strange, back- ward people who inhabit it.

When he retired from Government service, he decided to settle down in the desert and to build a town which might serve as a focus for the dis- persed life of the desert folk.

Burg-cl-Arab was to be the market of the Western Desert, a centre of culture, healing and munufacture, a place where the Arabs could bring their meagre produce and learn new methods of agriculture.

Excellent work has been done there and is still being done. Manufactures have been started, and the desert round about has

been planted with olives, vines, carobs, and other trees with n commercial value.

The founder of Burg-ci-Arab lives with his wife and family in a beautiful house which he designed himself, and, if he has not been able to make the de- sert blossom quite like the rose, ho has at least the satisfaction of knowing that he has made. the only attempt since Roman times to civilise that desolate

Instead of the keffiyeh of the Bedouin, or the tarbush of the Egyptian, these people wear & little red skull cap from which const. hangs a bright blue tassel.

vance.

"

It is not known at what point The only Europeans who in-

arc Greek upon the 200-mile road to Ale- habit this const truders. The general store in xandria the British forces will every little village is invariably call a habit to the Italian. ad- owned by some dark diven, quick-minded little merchant vary but slightly, with

"I Shall economic

Like everything in this part from Alexandria, or, perhaps by aspect dominating. It is not a metalled road, of the world, such civilisation some emigrant from the Greek This is the factor which does so neither is it a straight one.

Remember. depended upon fresh water. islands. much to thwart and retard the

Along the whole 200-mile It would not, perhaps, be rash public-spirited work

It is now sandy and soft, and The ruins of Roman towns ly- of the

ing on the bare sand, the re-stretch of coast road from Mer to expect the defenders of several voluntary organisations now hard and full of pot holes; mains of olive terraces and even sa Matruh to 'Alexandria there Egypt to allow the enemy to seeking to bring amelioration to

and it is accompanied, from of vineyards, prove that cen- is absolutely nothing to claim expect the defenders of Egypt the Colony's social sore-spots Mersa

Matruh eastwards to turies ago the Romans tapped the attention until one reaches to allow the enemy to over-run this bleak and unprofitable Hongkong's "victims of circum- Alexandria, by a single-track water supplies which have since a place called Burg-el-Arab.

Fuka, Galal, El Dab'a, Ghazal stretch of country for many stances" number-tens-of-thou- railway line that is generally either dried up or become lost. sands; they exist at near-star. washed away in long stretches The people who-live-along-the-are-some of the names of the miles, drawing him farther and

coast road are not Egyptians, villages on the way, each one farther away from his bases. vation point, on

during the rainy season.

neither are they Arabs. They exactly like the other, cach one and permitting him to lengthen desolnte and poverty- his lines of communication. wage, as the current report.of

The rain falls only along the are North Africans of mixed more

which are singularly vulnerable the Society for the Protection coastal belt. The interior often;

to attack both by air and sea. of Children points out, of $1.80 | secs no rain at all for periods of

When in the next few days I per head monthly, and their pro-six, ten and fifteen years; even

read that such and such blem appears to defy solution.

"town" has been entered by the Italians, or that such and such "town" has been bombed, I shall remember that dreary road to Alexandria, on which there are no towns, and where there into their precarious petrol sup- or bombing, except the English- exists nothing worth entering

an

average

That the problem is tackled

longer.

season

to

SOW

their meagre crops of barley, staying just long enough to harvest them be- fore slipping away again into the mysterious interior.

And it is to the coastal belt at all is cause for commendation that the nomads come in the wet and satisfaction, for the magni- tude of the task is sufficient to bring despair to the most en- thusiastic social worker; when it is revealed that the S.P.C., alone handled 3,880 cases dur- ing the past twelve months, providing care and attention for

destitute Chinese mothers and

babies, it is possible to gain an appreciation of the fine work being accomplished by the fighters of Hongkong's social diseases.

In addition, over 75,000 visita were made to the Society's branches and centres, while its inspectors mado over 8,000 visits to the homes (if they may be

ing

drought kill off their horses and In bad years the heat and the

cattle and reduce them to fa-

Why

our

By Lt.-Col..

we

C. B. Costin-Nian

hold

hand

man's

#

ply,

dream, Burg-el-Arab, As they wind along the coast which, I hope, will remain safe- road they have suffered heavy ly behind the lines. casualties, since their forma- tions are excellent targets for mine, and it is necessary for the E

VERY yard the Italians jour 25-pounders, machine guns Frontiera Administration of the advance into the Libyan and bombers. They cannot find Egyptian Government to make Desert the more exposed and targets to fire back on.

Our men thrust in here, there, a free distribution of barley in longer become their lines of

and are from dying like flies. order to prevent these people supply--and the shorter and adopted guerilla tactics, and are

more accessible become our elusive.

away. They have

The section of ground the.

Girls Tell Of Work Near Bomb

This distributiori takes place own. has been in the news lately, and at Mersa Matruh, a place that

We are letting them labour Italians are advancing along Girls at a Midlands munitions the next place along the Italian with the hundreds of miles of extends from Sollum castwards, works told recently what it is

then southwards, and forms alike to carry on with their jobs · line of march.

barron desert and allowing the land island fifty feet higher than 60 yards from an unexploded desert to fight for us.

bomb.

the sen.

I

oft."

called such) of the needy and Only 200 Miles

For this is our plan-to let It is a natural jumping-off Mr. Herbert Morrison, Minis- ailing. Cases are investigated From Mersa Matruh to Ale them advance just so far before plateau for an attack on Meran-tor of Supply, praiacd the where cruelty is reported or aus-xandria is a distance of only our blows fall, while in the Matruh.

heroism of these girls after visit- pected.

200 miles. It is possible for an meantime heavy toll is taken of In the sweltering heat, the ing their factory recently.

This is what the girls' said:- The self-appointed task of organis ordinary traveller to make this their land and ses flanks and Italians are now boasting that

Defeat for them under their navy will help them with Alim Maisie Batchelor, aged 24: 11. and running infant welfare journey in one day in a car rear. centres and homes calls for a spirit fitted with balloon' tyres. these conditions in the heart of water supplies and covering was a change to have a little excite- which rises far above any thought of Two years ago I set off from the desert will be all the more fire: If they try this a terrific ment. I don't think my typing was

any worse than usual.". decisive.

Man Gertrude Sanders, aged 20: At reception will await them off the self-uggrandisement; it demands Mersa Matruh at 5 s.m. and↑ burning sincerity and redoubtable reached Alexandria the same FOLLOWING the coast road, const, where our Fleet will get first as we typed we said to our faith. No praise can be too high for day at about 7 p.m. with every a mobile (semi-armoured) divi- the chance they have waited for selves, "It might go off; it might go those ladies who are fulfilling this bone in my body aching and my sion is now leading the way, so long.

Then we got so busy that we for.. task so efficiently and effectively, un- nose, eyes and throat full of a There are several of their small] WITH three divisions now ad- got all about it. marked by the blare of publicity.

Miks Doris Ager, aged 29: I am a The work of the S.P.C. like that brown dust as fine as talc two-mon tanks which can only vancing, Marshal Graziani is

powder.

fire straight ahead,

trying to bludgeon his way telephone operator. Miss Legge, our of Its contemporary, social organisa- toms, deserves the fullest support of It is not a pleasant journey,

Many, 4.7 anti-tank guns have through not on Biltzkrieg supervisor, said she would stay, and, We had our clothes bandy, so that asympathetic public and an appre- neither is it a picturesque one been pushed well forward, for methods, but by trying to build other clativo Government. It is a society

the Italians have recently had up camps and dumps of stores if anything happened we were ready- which should not be permilled to The desert peters out in low great cause to fear our tanks, and water as he slowly proto

dekogresses. carry a tleficit of $3,551 on the year's sand dunes, long stretches of working. Nothing should be allowed stony flatness, and, here and Tractors are dragging heavy Each stage offers us new tara telephone girl: It was just a job to binder its work; on the contrary there, in desolate marshes 768 and supply wagons, and the gets and detaches and disperses of worki

Miss Bocis: The

nged" everything possible should be done which run down to the lonely forward Infantry met so far afe our enemics, who have to pro- rent on,

in lorries. All this is eating tect this lengthening line." to encourage it.

Mediterranean waves.

:

́ ́Mlin Winifred Bibby, "nged '29, also,

shouldn't we at the phones???