NAMES AND PLACES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 31, 26 January 1940, Page 2

NAMES AND PLACES

Holland’s Defence Rumours of a break through the Dutch border have not yet quietened down, and the people of the Netherlands are still taking precautions against invasion. Flooding the countryside is Holland’s principal means of defence, for some parts of the country are from 16 to 20 feet below the level of the sea. Holland is part of a great European Plain and sea encroachment is prevented by lines of dunes and artificial dykes. In the north the sea has broken through these dunes, leaving only the Frisian Islands and forming the great bay known as the Zuider Zee. A huge scheme to reclaim 820 square miles of this bay was started in 1924. On its 12,579 square miles of country, Holland carries a population of 8,183,392, which is mostly concerned with agricultural pursuits, for there are three million acres in pasture. Holland’s peace time army consists of 300,000 all ranks. Military training is compulsory. The Dutch sovereign is Queen Wilhelmina, who will be succeeded by her daughter. Countering Submarines Vice-Admiral C. V. Usborne, who resigned his office as Director of Censorship recently to take up an unidentified position with a shipping construction firm, is the man who invented the apparatus which led to introduction of paravane mine protection. He was Director of Naval Intelligence from 1930 to 1932 and is no doubt at present engaged on some special work to combat German. mines and submarines. While he was undergoing his naval training Admiral Usborne won five firsts and promotion marks, as well as several prizes and medals. In 1916 he commanded a mine-layer in the Eastern Mediterranean and was engaged in blockade work off Asia Minor and the Dardanelles. In 1918-19 he commanded a Naval Brigade on the River Danube and later he became vice-chairman of the Chemical Warfare Committee. Admiral Usborne has commanded many ships of the British Navy and has been stationed at Salonika and Corfu. He is the author of "Smoke on the Horizon," " Blast and Counterblast,’" and "The Conquest. of Morocco." The Spider in War Even the ordinary garden spider plays his part in this war. Strands of spider web are an essential part of the eyepieces of the telescopic sights on military and naval aircraft guns. These strands often remain in use for 30 years, without breaking. The reasons for use are these: Spider web has an even thickness and is elastic enough to withstand the shock of gunfire. Two strands are uséd for the telescopic sights mentioned above. When they cross at dead right angles, they merk the exact centre of the eyepieces of the sights. When the metal of the lens eyepieces expands or contracts with heat or cold, the web stretches and contracts with it, but does not snap,

Tipped from a piece of paper, the spider suspends. itself by a thread which is carefully detached and wound up on a small metal frame and put into stock. Sometimes the spider spins a double or treble thread, so a camel hair brush is used to split it. Threads have to be brushed before use, to remove dust which would make sighting faulty. No wonder the sighting of British naval and antiaircraft guns has been so accurate. Minister of Supply The Rt.: Hon. Leslie Burgin, Minister of Supply in the British Parliament, is a distinguished solicitor and a great student of foreign languages. After completing his schooling in England he

studied for some years at Lausanne and in Paris, winning many scholarships and honours, He served as an intelligence officer during the last .war, working principally with the Italian and French armies. In 1929 he won his first Parliamentary election. From 1932 to 1937 he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Board of Trade and he has been closely associated with ‘the League of Nations, to which he was a British delegate in 1935. Dr. Burgin stated recently that the present British Expeditionary Force in France was only an advance guard. He has a legal office in Paris as well as in London and his hobbies are

foreign languages and mountaineering. He is 53 years old-and has one son and four daughters. Luxembourg’s " Army " Luxembourg is in the news again, to the effect that she has a volunteer force of 180 men in a state of constant readiness, One of the world’s smallest countries, it is a pear-shaped wedge between France, Belgium and Germany, soon over-run by Germany during the last war. Luxembourg is a Grand Duchy, having been raised to that status by the Treaty of London in 1867 when it was declared neutral territory and separated from Germany. The country is so lovely that visitors have described it as something from a Hans Anderson fairy-tale. It has belonged at various times to Spain, to Austria, to France and to Germany. Luxembourg’s only soldier, a

veteran of former wars, died last year. The Grand Duchy is governed by a Grand Duke and has a population of 300,000. Last year 1,887,583 tons of iron and 1,844,838 tons of steel were produced from the mines which contribute its greatest wealth. Postage stamps are also a rich source of revenue, like most of the other small countries of Europe. On Active Service Air Marshal A. S. Barratt, C.B., C.M.G., M.C.,’who has been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Air Forces in France, was until recently

Commandant of the Royal Air Force staff college at Andover, which corresponds to the military staff college at Camberley. He was trained for the army but joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1914 and emerged from the last war with a distinguished record and a host of decorations, including two French ones and four mentions in despatches. After a term of service in England Air Marshal Barratt went to India in 1931 to command the No. 1 Group at Peshawar. From 1932 to 1934 he was senior staff officer on headquarters in India and the following year he was appointed Director of Staff Duties at the Air Ministry in London. The New Commander-in-Chief, like many other British officers of to-day, speaks fluent French. Nutrition His Forte Sir John Boyd Orr is one of the great nutrition authorities in Great Britain and the man whose advice will be demanded by the British Government if extreme war rationing must take place later on. He is director of the Rowett Research Institute at Aberdeen, director of the Imperial Bureau of Animal Nutrition, joint editor of Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews, University lecturer and author of a number of books on nutrition and research. Sir John, who was knighted in 1935, took his medical degrees at Glasgow and served with the Royal Medical Corps during 1914-18, when he was awarded the D.S.O. and the M.C. After the war he was a member of various commissions which studied milk, cattle, agriculture and nutrition, New Zealander Decorated The Distinguished Flying Cross, which has been awarded to Pilot Officer G. W. F. Carey, son of Mr. W. R, Carey, of Christchurch, is given only for outstanding work with the Royal Air Force in war time. It corresponds to the Military Cross, awarded to military officers in the field. Pilot Officer Carey’s decoration Was awarded for patrol work over the North Sea.