CONTRACT BRIDGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 70, 23 March 1934, Page 6

CONTRACT BRIDGE.

THE PSEUDO-SQUEEZE.

(®y ELY OULBERTSON.)

The pseudo-squeeze is a ruse by no means uncommon among experts, but, as Mr. John W. Jacobson, of Toronto, points out, it is only the occasional hand that presents an opportunity to deceive the enemy by a pseudo stripplay, a stratagem most difficult to fathom. The ifollowfing example occurred in a duplicate game at the Toronto Wilist Club and resulted in the making or an apparently impossible slam contract:

South dealer. Both sides vulnerable,

The Heart C was opened, won by the Acc, and the Heart 4 ruffed in dummy. West's play of tho 5 showed that East held seven Hearts originally, and Mr. Anderson decided that his only chance was to disguise the location of the deuce and play East for the Ace of Clubs and not more than two Diamonds, which seemed a reasonably safe assumption from the bidding. He therefore returned to his hand with the Spade Ace, reassured by tho drop of the 9 by East. Then he laid down the Ace and Kiiijr of Diamonds, followed by the singleton Club, on which ho played the 9 from dummy. East won with the Knave, ard was confronted by the following situation:

Of course, a Heart lead would defeat the contract, but who had the deuce? If "West had It, and South'a remaining cards were five Spades, one Diamond and one Club, what then ? So East guessed wrongly, led the Club Acc, and Mr. Anderson's strategy was rewarded.

If you were playing the South hand below at a contract of four Spades, against which a Diamond had been opened and returned, thus forcing you to ruff, how would you plan the play from this point to mako most probable the* fulfilment of your contract?

The solution will be given in next week's article.

TIMOR.

Ther© seems to be some' authority for the statement that the British Government will acquire the island of Timor in the Malayan Archipelago. It is true, the report has been officially denied, but that need not alter the facts. Bismarck, one of the astutcst statesmen of his time, once declared that lie never believed a rumour until he saw it officially contradicted—and there is a grain of truth in his cynical pronouncement. One-half of the island belongs to the Dutch, and the other half to Portugal—the last remnant of her once vast possessions in Malaysia. The Dutch half of Timor was once also in the possession of the British; that was only for a short time —it was restored at the peace of 1814. j The island has other historic associations. It was at Kupang, the capital of the Dutch portion of Timor, that Captain Bligh, the victim of the mutiny of the Bounty, landed after his adventurous voyage of some .'SOOO miles in an open boat. Had he but known it, ho might have saved himself this long and perilous journey, for Botany Bay (Australia) is only about half the distance from Tofua, in the neighbourhood of which island he was cast adrift by the mutineers. There he would have been among his own countrymen. But there were no electric telegraphs in those days, and the settlement of Botany Bay, made only a few months previously, had not yet come to his knowledge, though he was destined at a later date to becomo the governor of the nascent Australian colony. It was also for Kupang that Count Felix von Luckncr was said to be heading when he made his dramatic escape from his island prison in New Zealand in 1917; it was the nearest neutral port. But being short of provisions for so long a voyage, he touched at tlic Kcrmaclees, where he had planned to raid the food depot established on the islands for the benefit of shipwrecked mariners. On his arrival, however, he found a New Zealand Government steamer awaiting him, and was carried back into captivity. Timor owes its importance to its proximity to Australia, from which it is distant only j some 400 miles, which could easily be covered by an aeroplane in a single flight, Great Britain is not the only country which is seeking to acquire new territory in the Malayan archipelago. Not long ago it was reported that Japan was negotiating with Holland for the purchase of Dutch New Guinea, which lies due south of Yokohama, and would prove a most valuable acquisition, as it is admirably adapted to the growth of rubber and cocoa, for neither of which the present. Japanese colonies, are suitable. Th-'s would bring Japanese territory in immediate contact with the eastern part of New Guinea, which now belongs to Australia. It i* true, this report also has been "officially denied." j | —J. D. LECKIE. 1