WAR TOPICS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 247, 9 December 1940, Page 2

WAR TOPICS

by The Beacon Watchman

A DARING DESTROYER COMMANDER Simultaneously with the report of a brisk engagement in the.* Straits of Dover between British and Ger-i man destroyers, in which the British flotilla leader Javelin, under the •command of Lord Louis Mountbatten., was damaged by a German torpedo,- the latest newspaper exchanges from England mention the reputation which Lord Louis is earning by his daring as a commander of destroyers. The Daily Express heads a reference to Lord Louis' exploits, "His Name "Rings Round the Fleet," and mentions that although it is impossible to describe Lord Louis' adventures in detail, it is possible to say that during the last few months Lord Mountbatten has been at the head of more than one daring naval "show," Lord Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, younger son of the Marquis of Milford Haven, has had a most varied naval career. Although' he is directly related to the Royal House and is a cousin of the King, he has sought the hard path to naval distinction, serving in destroj r ers and- submarines on active service. He was commissioned as a midshipman in H>M.S. Lion in 1916 and in 1917 saw service in submarines, remaining in this hazardous service until the end of the Great War. During the post-war years he -accompanied his cousin the Prince of Wales, on his tours of Australia and New Zealand,, India and Japan. Incidentally, Lord Louis was Prince Louis of Battenberg until 1917, Avhen his fathpr changed his name to Milford Haven and he has been awarded both Japanese and Rumanian courtesy decorations. He has more tangible claims to reccgnition, ihoweve-, for he is known as one of the most daring destroyer officers in the present ■war and, in addition to a thorough naval education, is- also a chartered electrical engineer and in peace time is a keen racing motorist and owner of fast motor boats.

AN ELEMENT OF BLUFF That there is more than an clement of bluff in. the Tokio talk i:? plain.. It is not many days ago that dispatches from the Far East quoted Japan's Foreign Minister as saying that Japan would light if the United States insisted on the status quo in the Far East; now Tokio is issuing denials, explaining that what Mr Matsuoka really said was that Japan would have to light if the United States entered the. war on Britain's side —a point which was unnecessary to stress since the very purpose of the Axis-Tokio pact was to emphasise it. And Mr Matsuoka is how quoted as saying that such an eventuality is something "I shudder even to think of." Possibly the rephrasing of earlier dispatches is due to the attitude with which both Britain and the United States received news of the Axis'-Tokio alliance. Certainly that pact could not have been intended by the Axis to bring the United States nearer to intervention in what is now a world war. Yet that has been its effect. And that the United States is going to do more rather than less to cooperate with Britain against predatory cliques everywhere is a fact inspiring evident new caution in Tokio. •

PEACE" OF TOMB UPSET BY BOMB A soldier suffering from influenza and bomb-shock was sent to a country military hospital. During the first night there, he was awakened by a violent explosion and saw a tombstone propped drunkenly amid thfci broken glass at the foot of his bed. Shakily examining it, he found it bore the words, "Peace, Perfect Peace."

LITTLE THINGS THAT MATTER "Every time the air raid warning sounds (writes a warden) the same thing happens in the bit of road that is in my particular care. About ten minutes after the sirens sound a door opens and an old lady c.ome« out. "-'Go inside.' I say soothingly. 'Just go inside and keep your door I shut. It is ever so much safer.' " 'Yes,' she says, going on witli her mysterious movements —and finally. re-treating and shutting her door; After two or three attempts like this I determined to find out what she was about. , "'What is it brings you out?' I asked. 'Is it anything 1 can do for you, because 1 g'aclly will?' "'Oh, no,' she said, 'it is my door mat. I like l to get it in—it is nearly new 7 .' " NEW FIGHTING SHIPS . Seafaring men all over the world are watching with interest for the appearance of Canada's "corvettes.'" soon to join in the chase of enemy submarines. Sixteen Canadian shipyards are now vigorously at work upon her 50,000,000 dollar naval shipbuilding programme. One hundred jpralt are being built over a period of two years and Lhey incluue 26 mineswecipers and Gl patrol vessels. For some of the latter, of the submarine chaser type, the old naval classification "corvette" has been revived. The term was first used by the* French for the 20-gun ships known as sloops to the British. During the Napoleonic wars the name was adopted by the British for a vessel without quarterdeck or poop which carried her guns on one flush deck: It was revived when ironclads were introduced in 1 SCO'. All but a f*w of the largest of tiie new cru"sin£ ships were called "corvettes," a name which lias long since disappeared in favour of "cruiser.'" The latest "corvettes" a-e being built with record rapidity. In one Montreal yard, where 900 men are working at top speed, they arei constructing four boats at a time on a slip where formerly the laying of two keels side by side was considered a remarkable perfo v mance. These four ships will probably be place will be taken by lour more, launched -simultaneously and their tlio essential parts for the four new keels being already manufactured.

FREE FRENCHMEN POSSIBLE CHOICE OF CHIEF TO LEA]) OFFENSIVE AGAINST GERMANY It is something more than a shrewd guess that General de Gaulle and his forces of Free Frenchmen are one of the keys in the: cam-' paigns of 1941 and 1942 about which the Prime Minister spoke recently (writes Peterborough in the London Daily Telegraph) . Support in France is gathering every day. Now "De Gaulle's France and the Key to the Coming Invasion of Germany," boldly links the name of de Gaulle with ideals and plans of an offensive. The general is acknowledged as one of the world's three greatest experts on tanks. If tanks and armoured forces, co-operating with a poAverl'ul air armada, are lo be our strategy, then General de Gaulle, who Ims the distinction of having defeated German forces in the field, is one of the best men to help carry it out. In such an event de Gaulle may not only be France's Man of Destiny: he may also become one of the most powerful figures in this war.

SPOILS FOR THE FUEHRER! SUPPLIES FOR NAZI OCCUPIED EUROPE DIRECT OR INDIRECT ASSETS "Any supplies reaching Nazi occupicd Europe are a direct or indirect asset to Hitler, who will have no scruple about turning them to his own uses," says an English paper. "Nor should Ave under-esti-mate the probable effect of reiterated Nazi propaganda on popula-; tions exposed to privation and cut olf by barriers as impassable as the invader can make them, from independent sources of information and opinion. Germany, thej r Avill be told, is not only willing, but eager to help. Nothing but the British blockade stands in the way- It is easy to see how simply and plausi'biy this story can be told by Dr. Goebbels and his machine to the suffering peoples under the Nazi yoke. No doubt should be left—if .any doubt exists—that Great BriI tain cannot agree to relax the stringency of her wartime blockade of ' any country where Hitler rules. But cannot some message of hope for the future be given, through such channels as are open to us,, to these unhappy lands?"

THE BRIGHT SIDE manufacturer FORGETS HIS TROUBLE BY WRITING VERSE • * "Pack up your troubles in some lines of verse" might well be the motto of a Wellington manufacturer who does not believe in letting the . shortages of staff and materials -get the better of him. A Rotorua business man received the following verse recently in response to an inquiry about the late of some goods . ordered many weeks previously. .Keep'your temper, gentle sir, With the manufacturer, Though your goods are overdue By a month or maybe two, We can't help it, please don't swear. _ Looms are scarce, goods are rare, .M Can't get yarns, can't get dyes, These are that tell no lies,. We're so's the mill, All our work is now uphill. So your order, we're afraid May be still a bit delayed. Keefp on hoping, don't get vexed; Maybe this month, maybe next;, Keep on hoping, don't say die We"ll fill order bye and bye« ..