EXPEDITING WARSHIPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1939, Page 2

EXPEDITING WARSHIPS

SECRET EXPERIMENTS. Experiments designed to improve the speed and design of warships are being carried out in great secrecy at one of the seven homes of Sir John Ellerman, 28-year-old millionaire shipowner, says the "Sunday Chronicle.” A great marble swimming pool in which Sir John's guests used to while I away the summer hours is now an experimental tank for miniature submarines and battleships. Novel designs are tested here and the speed and performance of the vessels carefully noted before the blueprints find their way to the shipyards. Mechanics working on the designs have been sworn to secrecy. High officers of the three fightingservices are everywhere. Their uniforms give the stucco-fronted house the appearance of a staff college. Part of the 40 acre walled garden has been closed to strangers and even to members of the household. Here advanced experiments are taking place with new guns. Laboratories have been built on the close-cropped lawns in which whiteovcralled designers and draughtsmen pore over blueprints far into the night: Sir John is supervising and financing the entire scheme. He rises every morning at 7.30. rides for half-an-hour, and then “goes to work." He is a fervent anti-Nazi and has recently published a book against Hitlerism called "How to Hit Hitler. lie has an unusual taste in animal pets. A short lime ago he had an ole-1 phant which roamed round the estate, and would thrust its trunk through the window when the family were at meals.