POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 104, 4 May 1943, Page 4

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FIAGE

It is»May, or may-not, time for Hitlef on the Eastern Front. "# * • Then there was the girl who thought the Beveridge Report was when the waiter opened a bottle of champagne. «• * * Extract from a political review: "Men are moved by ideals. They will die to make a world safe for democracy even twice in a lifetime." Nice work! «• « ♦ REVIVAL. ; As a punishment for war scandalmongers the revival of the duckingstool is suggested by Dr. Charlotte Whitton of the Canadian Welfare Council. She thinks it should be applied to gossips of either sex who "spread unverified reports detracting from the dignity and prestige of women on active service." * # » ' • •■ INFORMATION. Dear Percy Flage,—Would you please tell "Kathy" that Conrad Veidt was born in Berlin on January 22, 1894. Height, Sft 2in, dark hair and eyes. I quote from the "Picture Show Annual, 1931." Best wishes to Col. B.—Yours sincerely ' DIANA. Several other Postscripters tell us that Veidt was naturalised when he went to England, and that he has been married more than once. *•• I . LANGUAGE. Dear Mr. Flage,—Many years ago this story of the Rev. Dr. Norman Macleod used to be told: When he was travelling one day by rail the carriage was filled with a very rough and uncouth crowd whose language left much to be desired. A remonstrance by the Rev. Doctor called forth the retort: "Oh, that be damned. I calls a spade a spade." "Well, you surprise me," said the doctor. %'I should have thought you would have called it a by shovel." Yours, etc., J.H.D. , * *. *' ALAS! Not wilfully, by foolish speech, ■ Would we one soul offend. We choose with care our every word So that we please a friend, Yet 'tis a sorry truth that we Oft list to gossip's din That crucifies, unmindful, now. That we commit a sin. F.E.M.—S, Lower Hutt. * -* # CLUB-FEET. Captured Germans of the Nazi Afrika Korps, Hitler's elite army, have been examined by British doctors. Their reports provide a striking proof of the Fuhrer's man-power shortage. Many of the men were below the normal physical standard; a number suffered from club-feet and other malformations; men of the lowest category, never before used, even for base duties, took part in fighting. Reich's army medical leader Surgeon • General Schmidt has a theory that modern technical war does not demand a 100 per cent, fit man: "A lame driver of a tank can be as efficient as his physically perfect comrades," he says.