HERE AND THERE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 8, 11 January 1939, Page 14

HERE AND THERE

Trayeller Returns.

Mrs. L. Norman, of Hawera, who returned from a world tour by the Otranto on Monday, stated that she had enjoyed a most interesting and thrilling time. She was in London at the time of the world crisis and spoke of the extraordinary preparations made in and around the metropolis in readiness for possible raids. She said the work of the A.R.P. (Air Raid Precautions) companies was quite wonderful and the admiration of all who were privileged to be in tbe London area in those fateful days. Mrs. Norman, who had previously lived for some years in, the Far East, in Malaya, toured the China Seas and en route came through Singapore. "Naturally," she said, "none of us were allowed to see the wonderful defences of that great fortress, but one thing I noted was that the whole city was teeming with military; officers of air, artillery, and infantry." While there she heard, too, of the powerful fortifications to be constructed at Trincomalee, Ceylon, as a second string in British defence of the East.

Music in the Dark,

"No' matter what conditions are in their country, the Germans will always be a music-loving race," said Mrs. Harold Owers, who returned to Auckland on Monday by the Niagara after a year's visit abroad, states the "New Zealand Herald." Mrs. Owers, who is a well-known soprano singer and was convener of the music circle of the Lyceum Club prior to her departure abroad, went to many operas during her trip and also had the opportunity of singing, for ah Empire broadcast herself. Mrs. Owers said her most enjoyable experience from a musical point of view was a concert which she attended in Leipzig. The audience sat out in the open air in complete darkness and listened for two hours to a magnificent string orchestra, the only lights being the miniature lights over each musician's stand.