POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 99, 28 April 1945, Page 6

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

Did you know that Gloucester Cathedral, not York, has the largest window in England, being 2736 square feet as. against the Minster's 2400. .». # '•.*.'■ ''Hitler and his gangsters have a deliberate' and diabolical plan to destroy all Europe by their own collapse."—Lord Templewood. ..,' * * * ' There are in France* today 7,000,000 refugees and bombed-out persdns; of these 1,000,000 have lost everything; they possessed! - . •X- * •» CorporabTW. Gibson, of Hull,, left his washing behind in his Arras billet when the Germans arrived in 1940. He has now returned to the same house to find his clothes awaiting fyim, washed'and neatly packed. •» * * VERSE. The world was sad, The garden was wild} And man the hermit sighed j Till women smiled> CAMPBELL. •»■ *- * * . JAPANESE WAR DOGS. The Japanese are using war dogs ia the Burma fighting. These dogs, of the Alsatian type, foi* " low bayonet charges and attack ferociously. When the Japanese were forced ta^ withdraw east of Mandalay jThey turned flame-throwers on their dead, probably as a security measure. i . .* ' « « URGED TO FIGHT. A movement has been started in the Swedish Press for Swedish armed intervention in Norway if the Germans, try to make a last'stand there. Three papers which are leading the campaign assert that the Allies will be unable J;o land in Norway in time to prevent the Germans scorching the' earth and mass-executing patriots. They recall recent statements by the Swedish Premier and Foreign Minister that Sweden could not remain indifferent if the Germans repeated the scorched: earth tactics of northern Norway in the more southern parts of the country, i * #'■".#. i „ "MR." TO "ESQ." There may be those (suggests a correspondent) who will disagree with' the decision that to omit the "Mr." from a name in a newspaper report is not defamatory; they may .argue that .. "Mr." or some form of address is in all cases absolutely necessary. To such sticklers a headline that appeared ia a now defunct Manchester newspaper, under date July 26, 1851, should most beautifully appeal: TRIAL OF WM. B. SMYTH, ESQ., FOR CONSPIRING TO MURDER HIS MOTHER. Not quite so long ago, in a journal published at Burnham, a holiday resort in Somersetshire,. the. following note appeared at the head of its "List of Visitors": The word "Esq." charged threepence prepaid. . It may be assumed that the threepences rolled in merrily. BLOWN OUT OF WATER.One of the most remarkable stories of the war—how an American captain had his ship sunk by a United States submarine —was told by the youthful skipper, Lieutenant Horace Babcock. ; His ship, the salvage vessel Extrac- ', tor, was sunk several hundred miles ; west of Guam, on January 24. "All I knew was that we were steaming along, and, bingo! we were blown • right out of the water," said Bab's cock. He explained that it was an early morning attack in a rough sea—-pro-bably one reason why the submarine failed to identify the victim. - About 20 minutes after the --vessel . was hit, "the submarine surfaced and picked up all but six of the crew of 72 men and seven officers. Babcock said the submarine captain was deeply mortified by his' mistake, but just*.said, "There's nothing*l can say to you." , Travelling on the surface, the submarine took the survivors ashore at full speed. * * * WAR. "Let us out into the wind and rain," she said, Remembering a young lover, bravely dead Beneath the heavens flashing into hells Above mad citadels. So we went steadfastly into the dark, Where the trees threshed, raising a sleepy lark, - . : Dreaming of. many wings in flight against th£ high v Blue ceiling of the sky. Our thoughts were words unsaid; we turned from Death To where Truth stood like a beacon, and the breath Of Beauty, caught when the first star was borri In a lone world and lorn; And Peace, by the still waters, ancl slow, quiet grasses ... '■"■: We knew no more then of the Great Beast that passes, Shaking the earth; and heard far silver turrets ring Of songs in a golden Spring. "Let not," she- said, at last, "the ravaging thunder Possess us wholly, driving our soul deep under; Hold to the strength and loveliness that will not fail, However wild the gale." —F.P. This poem was asked for by E.L.O& (Dunedin). * * # V.C. IN PRISON CAMP. How Lance-Corporal Harry Nicholls, of the Grenadier Guards, was informed in a German prison camp that he had been awarded the Victoria Cross is told in the "Evening Standard" by a fellow-prisoner. One day in 1940 a German staff car. drove up to the camp. Highranking German officers 'ordered the guards to bring Nicholls forward. To Nicholls's surprise the officers shook his hand and told him he had been awarded the Victoria Cross. They congratulated him, and presented him with cuttings from a British news- ' paper quoting his citation. Nicholls was given new clothes and told he could choose which prison camp he would like to be held in. It was with a shock that Nicholls read he had been reported as killed in action, and that the King had given the Victoria Cross to his wife. When Nicholls comes home he is entitled to ask for another investiture. * • ♦ * SECRET OF £6,000,000. , British salvage firms have scouts watching for the release from a German prison camp of two men who can tell how £6,000,000 in gold can be saved from the bottom of the Atlanticpcean. . - In relating the. story, - a correspondent of the "Daily jExpress" goes on to tell how a..small vessel which sneaked out of-Toulon in 1940 with' ' gold aboard destined for safe keeping in. America was sunk in the. Atlantic by bombers. Four members pf the crew survived, but two have' since- died, * and the remaining couple, who are known to, be prisoners, are the only men who can guide the fortunehunters. . The - chief of a London salvage firm said: "Gold in a ship is a big brisk, but it is'worth it. We would want a clear contract paying us in sterling for the work, and we might get 60 per cent, of what we ' salvaged." Gold is not the only salvage induce- ' ment. Thirty or more British firms are at present engaged salvaging wrecks.-Some ship casualties are worth months of salvage work for their hulls alone, and Lloyd's underwriters are willing to make attractive contracts if ships can be recovered in fair condition. ' '■■. . k -

Among the British liners which may be salvaged is the 42,000-tonner Empress of Britain.