SECRET WEAPON

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 172, 23 July 1941, Page 11

SECRET WEAPON

RADIO IN BRITAIN I . i AMERICANS OFFER HELP j SAN FRANCISCO. June 25. ; Aside from being greatly fascin-' ated by the discovery by Britain of ' a secret radio weapon for spotting attacking bombing planes, thousands j of young Americans have responded to the call for help in Britain to handle these new innovations to' cope with night bombers. Appli-; cants for non-combatant paid jobs as 1 radio technicians and other tvpes of ] mechanics, to operate England's secret weapon for detecting invading aircraft, continued to storm the re-' cruiting office of the British Civilian Technical Corps at the New York headquarters of the British Consulate. In one half-day. 502 applications were received, bringing the total I number of applicants in New York: City to 1565 in two and a half days after the opening of the special officeof registration of volunteers. In that i short space of time, 569 applications j had been received by mail, 40 per-1 sons had telephoned the office to apply, and 103 persons had pre-j sented themselves on the premises. : The number of letters received on | the Saturday was more than three! times the number reaching the Consulate on Friday. The C.T.C., which | will provide transportation across! the Atlantic and back for its members, also faced some knotty problems posed by applicants. A large number of the first batch of candidates went to the offices of the British Purchasing Commission on Broad Street in New York, and the first group who had qualified took a written technical ninety-minute examination, afterwards undergoing physical examinations. The letters came from far and wide, some coming from men serving with the United States Army and Navy, and increased the number of States heard from to thirtv-seven, compared with eighteen on "Fridav. From half a dozen Consulates in other cities came requests for more application forms, as in the previous two days. Husband and Wife Volunteer A letter from Robert England, 21-year-old radio technician, of Wilmington. North Carolina, who wrote that he had been married onlv three months to a 22-year-old girl with three years of experience as a telef)hone operator, said that "I hate to eave my wife as we are married only three months, and she wants to go and will volunteer also." The letter requested further particulars and enclosed references. President Roosevelt has given his approval of the voluntary enlistment of American boys in the British Army and England's appeal for 15,000 to 30.000 Americans for the British Civilian Technical Corps. Mr. Roosevelt stated that American boys were at perfect liberty to join the British Army and could proceed to Canada for enlistment. They would not lose their American citizenship unless they swore their l allegiance to Canada.