POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 28, 1 August 1942, Page 4

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY" PERCY FLAGE

" Napoleon: This is a bad business. I ■-.... beat the Russians every time, but that doesn't get me anywhere. : / ■'■ ■■- * ■ *: ; ■■*•''. Its-hard to figure Hitler restoring / those generals .of his unless he's had an intuition about his intuitions. * * , .'■ •♦ .. ■ Some of the greatest things in life have been done by men when they have been alone. If ,this doesn't apply to golf, nothing; does! . ■ * * "■••' i" ■■■■'■ To avoid needless recrimination! says 'Camott, any bet that the war will be over by Christmas- will specify which Christmas; also, which war. * * :■'■ * GERMAN WOMEN. "Kinder, Kuecfie. Kirche"—children,: kitchen, church—the original Nazi slogan for worn.en—is what is called "out." Nearly 10,000,000 women have been put to work to offset the terrific man-power shortage. They run\rail« ways, deliver mail, work at war factories, do nearly half the farm work, and. besides, must stand in line for hours to do their marketing. Nevertheless, many families have already had their third war baby. • . ■' ■ ♦ "■• * *' . .' NO TITLE. A Duke without a-title and without a ducal estate came into existence a month or two ago when the eighth Duke of Atholl died in his Perthshire home. But—the new Duke will take none of'the eighteen titles because he cannot afford to sit in the House of Lords, and because he does not inherit the estates. If he chose he cpuld adopt any of the 17 other titles which are embodied in the dukedom. They include two marquessates, four earldoms, three viscounties, and a number of baronies. ' , . , As things are, the new Duke had better stay put, the more especially as the estates belong to a brother. * ♦ ♦ LIMERICK. There was an excited young Jappy, Who was sneaking around in Taihappy, When a bloke with an axe .: Started but on his traxe . Minnie's last line— ■ . ' And carved a big V on his cappy. Wharfie's— Now that Jap has a gap in his nappy. O.K.'s— And slogged the Jap clean -off the mappy. A.H.A.'s—- ■ A And wiped the Jap clean off . the mappy. » Betty Silverwood's— . And made that wee Jappy daihappy, * * * NEW LIFE. Strange, once-forgotten places In Britain itself, hitherto deserted and spooky, have been restored to newlife Does anyone remember Atlantic Park, in Hampshire? It became Britain's Ellis Island in the hectic twenties when America began her immigration quota and caused consternation to thousands of emigrants in transit. For eight years, as the quota tightened, Poles, Russians, Czechs, Rumanians, and Slavs lived there side by side. As many as 19,000 passed through in 1928. Then, gradually, the homeless ones were drafted, away. Atlantic Park grew deserted till only the weather-beaten notice-boards in a diversity of languages told of the former Babylon. Today, put to war use, it is thriving again. * * # • HEARD THIS ONE? The village nurse was trying to persuade old Mary to take some liquid. "Will you take some beef tea, Marx?" "Na," replied Mary. "I couldna tak* it." "Would you like some hot" milk?" "Na. I couldna tak'it." -• " . "Perhaps you would cajre for a cup of cocoa?" " . - ' : - "Na. I couldna tak' that either." "Well, what about a glass of toddy?" "Aye," responded the old , invalid.' "Mak^ it strong and mak' me tak' it." * ' * ♦- RIVALS. ". Munich had its biggest theatre scandal when beautiful strip-tease dancer Dorothy yOn Bruck slapped her colleague . Mimi Freier Schuetz in the presence of a large crowd besieging the stage door, Temperamental Dorothy, formerly a second-rate Berlin chorus girL sprang into fame when she'became the star attraction of Hitler's favourite opera "The Merry Widow." As Hitler himself had recommended her to the manager of the Gartnerplatz Theatre in Munich, her supremacy was undisputed until blonde little. Mimi turned up with a letter of recommendation from Gestapo boss Henrich Himmler. Bitter enmity between the two. nudist dancers" came to a climax when Dorothy purloined a big bouquet of flowers ■ which Himmler had sent to her rival. There was a violent scene by the stage door and some Billinsgate. Then Dorothy forgot herself so completely that she slapped Mimi's face. Manager Eritz Fischer, who tried to reconcile his two stars, got a black eye. He will probably land in a concentration camp when Himmler has completed his investigation into the affair. Contributed by "Cavalcade." * * * DUCE IS NERVOUS! Not for nothing does Mussolini decree military control for the entire Italian civil service. Something must be radically wrong with the ranks of . . the civil service, from Benito's standpoint, to cause him to take this step, says the "San Francisco Chronicle." For the significant point in it is that the order makes the civil service amenable 'to military discipline—sunrise, a wall, and a firing squad, for instance. The larger significance of this is in the fact that Italy's civil service is more numerous, in proportion to population. than that of any other country in the world. Every other Italian is a civil servant. Into this great group the Sawdust Caesar finds it necessary to throw the fear of God and man. * * * FLIGHT. Like small grey flecks of smoke Seagulls forgather at height— ■ -' Diving from jostle of cloud To the water's malachite. Waves beat and press on the rocks While together they huddle and i cry ... Feasting, quarrelling,- mating, Storm-driven out of the sky. Till, like a volley of shot Heard from a sonorous gun, The great clear breakers rear And crash to a rhythmic run. . *..% Instantly taking alarm ' ■ And startled, as one they emerge From an arch of spray, interwoven. Flail of their flying a dirge. Then stealing the sunflower-gold . From the autumn noon, for the snow Of their gliding breasts . . . they poise Inert for a breath, then go. ELSA MARY BOSWORTH. Takapuna. * * * THOSE DUTCH! Nazi sentries patrolling Dutch canals by night disappear to turn up floating in the morning. A Dutchman walks up to a Nazi soldier at night and asks for a light. As the match shines on the soldier a sniper picks him off. Dutchmen still cheer British pilots shot down over the Netherlands, and carve on trees "Reserved for ... (name of a prominent Nazi). Mollen cocktails (poison) are still served. Normal types of sabotage abound, trains are derailed, and munitions dumps go up in smoke. The Nazis have yet to tame the Dutch. Recently a memo was^sent to Dutch newspapers: "Severe action will be taken unless the practice stops of publishing a whole page of pictures of dogs,on the main news pages when Hitler meets' Mussolini or Horthy, or when the German army has made sen- ; sational advances on the; Eastern front. We are just as tired of this as of 1 articles ventilating * public 'complaints about food shortages and; coffee that k does not taste like coffee." .'- *