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Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 263, 4 October 1940, Page 6

Jewish New Year. The Jewish New Year was celebrated yesterday,when a service was held in Palmerston North. This was conducted by Mr A. Posen, and there was a good 'attendance from all parts of the district.

Superannuation Funds. In all, 28.457 persons were contributing to the Public Service Superanimation Fund at March 31 last.- Tins is shown in the annual report of the Public Service Superannuation Board tabled in the House of Representatives. The total contribution during the year amounted to £407,446 on an aggregate salary of £7,710,403, while in that time there were 3862 new contributors, pajing an annual sum of £33,024 on an aggregate salary of £631,146. Thei total investments of the fund are £3,o4j,t)Ub and the average rate of interest earned during the year was £4 Is 4d per cent. St. Francis of Assisi.

To-day is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order. He was born in Assisi m 1182, and began lifo as a soldier. He later devoted himself to a life of voluntary poverty, and, with- the approval of Pope Innocent 111, founded his famous order, which spread rapidly in and beyond Europe. St. T'rancis died in Assisi on October 4, 1226. The maritime city of San Francisco is named after him, as members of the Franciscan Order played a largo part in the pioneering in both North and South America, and Mexico. A Generous Gift.

Appreciation was expressed jesterday by the Minister of Supply (Hon. D. G. Sullivan) of the patriotic action of the New Zealand AVheatgrowers’ and the New Zealand Flourmillers’ Society in the giving of four motor-cars to the Army Department The Minister said that upon the outbreak of war the Wheat Committee’s four cars were withdrawn from service and officers travelling were instructed to use ordinary transport facilities. This was done in order to conserve petrol and assist the national war effort. At a recent meeting of the committee it was considered that a further contribution to the war effort could be made by banding these vehicles over for the use of the fighting services. Bibles For the Forces.

Deference was made bj ? Dev. D. Calder, Dominion Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, at a meeting of the Palmerston North branch" of the society, last evening, to the society’s special issues of Scriptures to the men in the King’s Forces. When the var started, he said, the society provided 100,000 Testaments for the French Army, and up to a lecent date its issues to British Forces exceeded 1,000,000 copies. These are bound in khaki, Air Force blue, and navy blue, with the. embossed initials of the King on the cover, and the special message from His Majesty is inserted just before the first page. Of this issue 18.000 copies have been supplied for the New Zealand men going overseas and further supplies will be in readiness when required. A.R.P. Warden Honoured.

The King lias approved the award for meritorious service of the British Empire Medal (Civil Division) to Warden Donald Louis Jones, Air Raid Precautions Service, Kent. During a recent raid on a Kentish town a number of people were buried under the debris of a house. At considerable risk Warden Jones crawled under some tons of wreckage and found two • persons pinned down by heavy joists which had fallen with the floor above. For four hours, during which heavy building material was likely to collapse, lie protected with liis body the heads and faces of the trapped people from debris which was dislodged during the rescue operations, and encouraged them while giving directions to the rescue party. It was mainly owing to his courage and endurance that the victims were eventually released. This is the first award of its kind to a warden.

Film of New Zealand. A valuable advertisement for New Zealand is soon to be given the Dominion in a film of this country, to be produced by the “March of Time” film organisation, according to an announcement by tlie Minister in Charge of the Tourist and Publicity Department (Hon. F. Langstone). Tlie Minister stated that arrangements have now been completed to have a film taken, the subject being New Zealand’s ivar effort. Speed In The Air.

“You in New Zealand may think you see some fast ‘kites,’ but I am afraid your views will have to be amended,” writes Sergeant.D. P. Trim, of the Royal Air Force in England, in a letter to his mother, Mrs P. Trim, at Hawera. “Over here,” he states, “a plane ‘hikes’ over the tarmac at 200 niilas an hour, normal is 250, you’re ‘moving’ at 300 miles an hour.” A speed of 4QO miles an hour was easily attained and ultimately 500 miles an hour. Former Scouts in Forces. Former New Zealand Scouts and Seouters now stationed with the Expeditionary Force in Egypt are continuing their peacetime interest, according to Mr H. J. L. Cooksey, New Zealand Boy Scouts’ Commissioner. “A small group of pre-war Scouts and Seouters have had a reunion dinner in Egypt,” he stated in an interview, “and after a discussion it was decided to form a rover crew of men interested in Scouting.” A Hot Corner in Britain. “You would not know the beach as it lias been well fortified with barbed wife and cement pill boxes, and our sky is combed by Hurricanes and Spitfires,” writes a resident of Britain to a friend in New Zealand. “Indeed, this corner is called ‘Death Valley” as no German raider ever returned to his home. Fear is not in our hearts, but a deadly loathing for all Hitler and his satellites. This country is united, and with our grand colonial backing has naught to fear.” Up-to-Date German Trickery.

The German -wireless told this revealing story recently: During a speech in German in a square in Paris the speaker asked those Frenchmen who did not understand German to put up their hands. Several Frenchmen then stretched up their 'hands and were photographed in so doing. The Petit Journal protested that the Germans were trying to depict Parisians giving the “Heil Hitler” salute. “How the paper always grumbles about anything German,” said the German announcer. “We would advise It to be somewhat more up-to-date.” Men Leave For Trentham.

The final draft of men to join the Fourth Reinforcements from Palmerston North left yesterday afternoon by special train for Trentuam. This was the largest number of local men to leave in this group, the total being about 144. Smaller parties left on AVednesday, 33 going to Burnham Camp in the afternoon and 20 to Papakura at night. Hundreds of citizens were present on the Palmerston North railway station yesterday, and there was scarcely room to move. No speeches were made, but appropriate selections were played by the City Band. Many hundreds' of men had already joined the train from other centres so that when it pulled out it was particularly lull.

Gestapo Agents in London. “I warn you not to broadcast again. You will see what will happen it you disobey.” This is one of several whispered telephone warnings by Gestapo agents In London to a German woman wild is now broadcasting the truth about the war to Germany through tile 8.8. C., says the Sunday Chronicle. She is Frau Irmgard Litten, the mother of a young lawyer who years ago accused Hitler of murder in a German Court, and was later thrown into the infamous Dachau concentration camp to die of “suicide.” Scotland Yard is hard at work trying to track down the spies who are threatening this frail woman, who in a few days will he 61 years old. But she is not worrying and she is unafraid.

A “Stick” of Bombs. Reference is often made in the cable news to a “stick” of bombs having been dropped by R.A.F. attackers on enemy military objectives. The term “stick” has nothing to do wit'll a piece of wood or some similar apparatus to which, it might be supposed, bombs are affixed before the aircraft lets them go. Nor does it mean a specific number of bombs.. It is a technical term relating to the way the bombs —two, three, four, or any chosen number — are intended to fall on the target. The number- selected bj’ the bomb aimer depends on the nature of the ta.rget, the calibre of t'he bombs on board the aircraft, its height over the objective, and so on. The “stick” comes into being when the aimer visualises his plan of attack, continues when the bombs are on their way down, and is completed when they strike the objective. The essence of a “stick” is that the bombs are distributed along the target (not dropped in a cluster) at rapid and regular intervals, sp that they are laid in a line—thud —thud— tim'd—thud —covering the building, bridge, or whatever it is, from end to end