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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1942-01-08, Page 2THE EXETER TIMESrAPVQCATE Page 2.Tfrur Ay* January 8th, 1942 by LESLIE CARGILL CHAPTER XXI Canadian Editors Were Bombed and Understand British Sentiment! This is the sixth of a series of (dominoes. The parachute Uught^ artieles about1 conditions in Great en a wire across the street and the! great land mine swung in the breeze! rill the demolition squad took it carefully down. ‘ [ Then there was the woman who sold, parses to Majqr Christie and! me in Liberty's. Somehow the talk drifted around to bombing, “I went home one night and the roof was off my house. The con* Stable says to me that I can’t go in there. I say, I am going in; I live here and my sister lives here and we’re going to keep on living here. And we’re there yet, though it’s inconvenient in winter, not hav*. ing a roof on your house,” The amazing understatement of all these people was what impress­ ed me. I found it, high and low. One night, a Canadian editor sug­ gested to Col. Astor that we would like to see a bit Of borfibing. Said the Colonel: “I would not advise it, We have found it a slightly uncongenial experience.” On a Train in an Air Raid, We left London on a Southern Railway train bomb burst, thoroughness tlie British Council had, reserved __ _ Five editors took one-of them: Ma­ jor Christie, Grattan O’Leary and Times-Advocato Established j.873 and 1387 at Exeter, Ontario Published evory Thursday morning SUBSCRIPTION—-$2,010 per yea? la advamm RATES—-Farm or Real Estate for said 60c, each Insertion fpjr first four ipsertions. 25c, ea<?h subse­ quent insertion. Miscellaneous ar­ ticles, To Rent, Wanted, Lost, ■<» Found 10c, per line of six word®, Reading notices JLOc. per JJne. Cgrd of Thanks 50p. , Legal ad­ vertising 12 and 8c. per line. la Memoriam, with one verse 60e. extra versea 35c. edeft. Member of The Canadian Weefcly Newspaper Association ers seemed nervous either, In dess than a second, there was another 'blast. That made it cer­ tain. I /thought of the words of the King: “We’re al? In the rimnt line now. We are really into it at last.” I wondered what the driver of a car (did In a blitz. The. driver seem* to wonder too. An A.R.P* warden on- the corner shouted; “But out that light.” He might have been Shouting at pur driver (who didn’t pay any attention) or at ,g boy with a white lamp on his bicycle. A Warm Welcome to BommernQuth Water seemed to pour down out of the sky ahead, It was incom­ prehensible, but the gutters were full on the' sides of the road. For the first time somebody spoke; “He must have smashed a water main.” It wasn’t until next morning I heard about that, One bomb had burst. in the sea and sent wa.ter into the sky for a quarter of a mile inland, They were not bombs, either, it seemed, but two of the dreaded land mines that had floated down on great white parachutes and exploded on the beach, one in the water and the other on the side of the cliff, Next morning, I picked up a pocketful of splinters and part of the .parachute cord, The cord was over an inch in diameter, The mines must have weighed 1500 pounds each. The .station wagon drew UP at £he Royal Bath Hotel and we stepped out on broken glass and entered. Inside there was chaos. The Bish­ op and Mr. Rpgers had been knock­ ed over by the blast thein, feet again.. Two trying to calm little door leading to the been, .blown loose from the . archway, frame and all. There was no light except little the' penlights, which we always carried. I walked to the arch where the I article^ aboutconditions in Great Britain awl other countries vis­ ited recently by a group of twelve Canadian editors, It was written for th® weekly newspapers Of Canada by their own represen­ tative on the tour, Hugh Templin, of the Fergus News-Record As the days passed in London and no German bomber ever came near the city, the Canadian editors grew restive and impatient. They did not every way, If there was anything we admit that they had neyer heard a bomb burst in anger. Our hosts were most obliging in every way. If here was anything we wanted, we had only to ask the British Council, and it was arranged. We wanted to see the Canadian Corps in action1 and we saw it tra­ velling over the countryside on large- scale manoeuvres, We desired to meet prime Minister Churchill, face- to-face; in two days came word that we would not only meet him but would hear him speak in the House of Commons. We wanted, to see a blitz—but it seemed that the British Council wasn’t for us. One night, I Mr. Robertson, Express. A “The yellow means that crossed the happens nearly every night, few minutes -later there was more- The purple light had That indicated that the headed to- was one man who could really be of assistance. “That’s him’.” said the shameless deuble-crosser, raising an accusing finger, “We didn’t want no telling, eeth­ er!” snapped one of the newcomers, For once Jerry Clitheroe fully lost his temper. In a bound he was facing the newsgatherer, fist clenched. Before the blow was struck pandemonium bfoke loose. A tidal wave of humanity heaved itself upon the unfortunate Eng­ lishman, and he went under, strugg­ ling gamely to the last. One straw at which he clutched was a luxur­ ious mustachio; another was an already tight collar band. But none of them were Sufficient to save a drowning man. Bill Gl'andon had managed to worm his way to the door, where he stood for a few moments radiat­ ing approval. “Boy, oh boy; —ph boy;—oh boy!” lie chanted glee­ fully. We ain’t gbt type.big enough to do it justice.” Jerry went absolutely berserk. ‘ Tearing himself away from the milling mass he kicked away the last encumbrance. The door slam­ med in his face almost as vengeance, was within reach, and then the fight was on again—.a ruthless sort of business without any sense of fair Piay. How it ended Jerry was never quite sure, except that the bump which he later discovered on back of his head persisted as a cognizable protuberance for best were reporters as well. One of these detached himself from a group of celebrity seekers and came across to Jerry, “Here’s fua,” he observed. “We got the wire you’d been penned over the other side of the pond. Guess they don’t hold you so tight as some of our boys imagine.” ‘Jerry groaned. Here he was again, with another ridiculous trap waiting to be sprung. “Whom do you take me for?” he asked des­ perately. The man cocked his head on one side. “You might,” he said with heavy irony, “be the Marx Broth­ ers, Shirley Temple or the man who broke the bank at Mopte Carlo, Only I ain’t never seen any of them knocking around Heinie’s pool room. Then again you might be Tony Montelli, whom •paged as languishing in a cell at Scotland Yard.” “They don’t jail people at the Yard,” Jerry corrected coldly. “That’s something you ishfcm’Id know better than me. Dartmoor, then, or wherever1 it is. “Unfortunately you wouldn’t be­ lieve me if 1 told you ’ my name wasn't “No wasn’t peering “Very well, down into my cabin and I’ll open First of all I take it to follow, and that you actually do know Tony i Montelli fairly intimately?” “Been in his company scores of ■times. Say, what is this? You’ve got me talking wasn’t him.” “Before- I’ve that’s the only No appendicitis on the arm, not my ear. Those thing to you?” The reporter passed a questing finger over Jer­ ry’s ear, and then nodded. “Come on," he exclaimed. “Let’s get out of this crowd before any of those darned newshawks get their claws info you. Boy, oh boy, this is good!” The spacious cabin which Jerry had shared with other people for J the crossing was : “Third class,” Grandon. “That < Tony, anyway, one for doing himself well/ “That’s nothing to go by,” Clith­ eroe explained. “If he’d been in •a similar position to the one I found myjsellf in theke wbuldn’t have been any alternative. I've already fixed up something better for the return voyage.” What he had to relate took up the best part of half an hour, he had an attentive listener, one who was accustomed to out the wheat from the chaff. At the end*of the reCitai Grandson drew a deep breath of Satisfaction. / “Front page stuff,” he announced ecstatically. “Banner heads. The whole works.” “Do you mean to1 say ing to print the story?” “Every word of it, and m Say, what’s the use if we don't use it name?” “M’mm! There’s that. But I’m going ful fathead.” “Bound to come later. Gosh, all it wants to round off is for you to be grilled over here.” “Grilled?.” “Taken down to headquarters and given the third degree.” ‘That strikes me as a very un­ pleasant finale/ “Maybe story!” . “Aren’t one you’ve “Oh, I ain’t greedy. Only- The door of the cabin was jerk­ ed unceremoniously open. A dis- oonc.^rtingly large number of people crammed themselves in, pro­ minent among them being .three or four Individuals who could not have been mistaken for ariything else than plain clothes officers on eith­ er side of the Atlantic. “Looking for Tony Montelli?” aske# Dili Grandon, genially. Jerry waited expectantly, Hevo plan He hopes of the decoy that Tony wa,s safe­ side it seemed suf* the* background in The Guilty Decoy Superintendent Clewther’s had the merit of simplicity, still had high system. Now ly set on one fieiently into the expectation that the Manuel gang would get into contact with him. Of course there were risks, both to the person of the decoy and the possibility of the gangsters not coming out into Clewthers enough, started in likely to crooks. As it happened the scheduled to make a the Atlantic when conditions were suitable. Suggestions that Tony Montell! intended to attempt to re­ turn to America were calculated to concentrate the Manuel -crowd in the West Coast port from which the ship was due to sail. That plan ought to have worked., reasonably well. It did so to the extent of bringing ' about the expected concentration, only Clewthers was so intent on gathering small and large fry in­ to tl^e net that he delayed action until the last minute. “Make your way to the boat as if you intended sailing. A last min­ ute dash will be more convincing. | your eyes, They’ll attempt then—” These were his Clewthers had hardly anticipated sueh a headlong rush as the one Jerry Clitheroe was forced to make through unexpectedly catching sight of no less a person than Lofty Mul­ lings. Fortunately that individual was not ideally placed for exercis­ ing his acknowledged talent for Wielding a length of lead piping, nor did Jerry intend to provide any more convenient opportunity. There was a taxi waiting for a passenger. Jerry was into it like a flash. . Looking back he realized that the redoubtable Lofty had also managed to acquire a suitable con­ veyance. Not being particular he had probably helped himself to the first available one parked vicinity., Undoubtedly there would er desperadoes with him, to deal out death and destruction without regard for anybody or anything. “There’s a car following,” Jer­ ry shouted to his own driver. “Can "you fnanage to give it the slip?” The man did his best, although it did not seem to be quite good enough. Would Clewthers have posted his men at the dock? If so it might be as well to lead the pursuers into the trap'. Orders to this effect were passed on and the 'taxi swung down to the, water­ front. When he had time to sort things out Jerry knew tendent had not him forth across least the were only. tercept the pursuers he 1—' through all the formalities, board­ ed the Doronia, and the next thing .that happened was the setting forth . of that vessel on her long voyage-. Somewhere in the programriie be­ fore this should have come the mat­ ter of collecting the pisoners. Evi- ■■-ctently j’tions, , astray, w An apologetic In a third-class was taken and •serrations had -• I i ‘"" Professional Cards knew Certain quarters reach the the open, the ropes whispers where they ears of But well were were the wasDor onia dash across instructions. But in the be oth- anxious •that the superin­ intended sending the Atlantic. At had been made at papers provided no mention time. The for the sake of appearances ^S nobody appeared to in- the pursuers he went there had been miscalcula- The time factor had gone for one thing. purser fixed him up cabin. Every place the customary re- to be suspended. ‘You were lucky to make the cross­ ing at all,” he commented. t Jerry grunted, not seeing where the good fortune came were occasions during when he wished more that ,Tie had refused to a dummy by the wily “Whom do Nou Take But that part was over at last and he was looking forward to landing. Up above there was the usual com­ motion incidental to making port. A fussy tender was drawing up alongside to disgorge a number of men who temporarily took pos­ session of the Doronia. Soofi there in. There the voyage than ever be used as CleWthers. Me For?” I we front Monfelli.” more than if I said mine Bill Grandon without ex- to -be called a liar.” suppose ’ we slip already as if you you talk. with will no wound able to manage that without hearing a With theii’ usual protuberance part of a fortnight. CHAPTER XXII the re- the finished way you scar, even a bite out of things mean any- leaned forward, far too , many his liking during now deserted. commented Bill doesn’t seem like Always has been >r But and sort Bill you're go- of to then some, spilling it clear your something in to look an aw- out sooner or it does. - But what a you satisfied with already got?” the bed .. ................................:■ — GLADMAN & STANBURY (F. W. 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SOLICITORS, && LOANS, INVESTMENTS, INSURANCE Office; Carling Block, Main Sire©9, EXETER, ONT.two compartments.the office of of the Daily came on.” That) I had room to spare- in .the other. sat in editor messenger light is an enemy plane has Coast somewhere. iift It A but were on women dogs. lounge excitement, gone on. plane was .definitely wards- London. All over the city, in and newspaper offices, ed for the red light to would be the one that would send the sirens screeching through the streets. There’ had been no red light for months. » A.R.P. posts men watch- come. That With the Watchers on the' Roof W.ZG. COCHRANE, B.A. Barrister, Solicitor, ■ Notary Phone 77 Exeter Residence Phone 74, Outside a man from the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and his girl Stood in the corridor. We invited them in. The girl was able to knit by the dim radiance of a tiny light in the compartment and the map talked to us rather guardedly. We must have been near South Coast when the' train slow-} ed to a crawl and the white light j door had been and stood beside a went out, leaving only one dim blue stranger, bulb burning. ’’ “You’re in an air raid,” youn’g soldier said. • f We didn’t believe it. There been too many, false alarms. “All right/ he said, “but if K _ hear machine guns, lie on the floor. - It must have been nearly half an hour before the lights "came on and the train speeded u:p. In no time we were out on the station plat­ form at Bournemouth. An Imper­ ial Airways officer was there' to greet ;us. “There has been , an air raid, but the All Clear has just sounded,” Perhaps he thought we looked disappointed. ‘.‘No bombs were dropped,” he added. ’ , Two Planes Across the Sky Just then two planes went over; quite low down. The long finger of a searchlight swept across, pick­ ing up one or them directly over-, head. That was strange, I thought. They don’t put searchlights on our, planes'. Could it man ? Had they •Bishop Renison went .away in the other six of us piled“info a ( station wagon aijd followed. A few Short blocks away‘we came over the top of the hill arid saw the Channel in the moonlight.' Suddenly there’ Was a terrific ex-, plosion and a great fan of yellow light covered much of the sky over­ head. It had come. I knew it as surely as I knew we were in Bourne­ mouth. . - . . C. ■< I wasn’t frightened in the least. That seems strange, looking ,back. but perhaps it was because we were all newspaper men now, on the path of a big story. Not one of the oth- were The had stone . We looked back into the I huge lounge, and as we stood there, the ’ half the fancy plaster ceiling drop- I ped past our faces. A few feet had, farther in and wp would have had Dr. G. F. Roulston, L.D.$.,D.D.S. DENTIST Office: Carling Blocfe EXETER, ONT., dosed Wednesday Afternoon# very sore heads, if not worse. My (unknown friend said: “it’s not too secure in here? it was again: statement. Four people' : hospital care, ly scalped by flying girl was carried out on a stretcher. She was not unconscious. Through it all, the old grandfather clock in the lobby kept going. The Airways people weighed us in the only room on i the ground floor where a candle could be. burned. The lady who managed the hotel brought excellent sand­ wiches and" coffee within an hour, She apologized because she had no beds _ ..... ___ ’glass and most of were the sea were soaked with' B. K. Sandwell and to sleep on mattresses on The lady manager led us upstairs with the occasional light of a torch. She . apologized that we had to sleep on the floor, “You sec,” she said, “we’ve been a bit pushed about here tonight!” •After an hour or so, vre slept well. The only disturbance was the sound of men shovelling up. plate glass off the streets all night. Every window within a mile was gone, if it miles away •ed. When We We agreed that if the German had pulled his bpmb lever half a sec­ ond sooner, not one of us would have survived. Evidently those bombs didn't have our number on them. youn Dr. H. H. COWEN, L.D.S.,D*D;S DENTAL SURGEON Office next to the Hydro Shop Main Street, Exeter « Office 36w Telephones Res, 38J • 0 Closed Wednesday Afternoons I laughed. There that* British under-The editor, who had graduated from 1914, after 'roof, John Bedside Explanations Seven apologetic men grouped themselves round the hospital in a sheepish deputation. Jerry, opening a wary &ye, Con- clude'd that they had all the pearances of qnficipating a dyin; confession until he realized their attitude was one of commun­ al contrition. ■ “It was all a mistake,” one of(as several of our own party. them was explaining-earnestly. His i the light of electric torches, demeanour sug; were permissable in a police offi-j cer's eyes they could be obtainable .on tap at a moment’s notice, Six coroborative nods, provided a bizarre accompaniment, counted, the company slowly, two—three—four—five—six— en. Why the department?” amazement. . “The plained “You that lot “Took ’Course, for scrapping in such a small cabin. “Evidently I gave a good”ac-count of» myself.'” . Jerry was cheered by the thought. “Sure did,” one of them agreed. .“Sent me to sleep with a black­ jack, you did.” * “I beg your pardon?”- “May have been a length piping. I wouldn’t know.” “Neither would I, not having anything murderous handy. Any anaesthesia was accomplished by( my own fair hands alone.” “Come again?” “There was no blackjack, Only bare fists.” “What a punch!” The appfoba-. ap- ►g that the University of Toronto in thought jve might see a' raid all, so we 'hurried up to the George Drew was there and Collingwood Reade, as well With ", we .ggested that if tears! went up 'inetal stairs, • past great | tanks of water in the top storey and out-onto tjie roof, where two men in steel hats kept a constant vigil. I stayed with them for an hour, but the Jerry never reached London. Out to the.eabiwhrd we saw flashes from the anti-aircraft grins, but that was all. (.The others went be­ low, but I "remained, listening to stories of the days when London ■ was the hot spot. These men, vet­ erans of the last war, were in the thick of it then, but* they had the same philosophy, that carries all -London through^ its -dark hours:, “If a bomb hasn’,t got your number ou it, it won’t get you; if it has, it does not matter where you are.” On my last night in London, I came out of the brightness of the Royal Automobile Club into the blackness of Ball Mall. .For the first time, I saw' the long fingers of searchlights waving across the London sky. In daylight; I had seen the guns and the searchlights in Hyde Park, but this was the first night there had been any , sign of life. , The purple light must have been on again. They ’faded out after a while but I walked hopefully along Pall Mall ___ ____ __ and through Trafalgar Square and tion was free from any! suggestion! down the strand'arid nothing hap­ pened. It was nearly one o’clock when I wakened suddenly in’my bed in the. Savoy. I thought I heard the guns going outside. Carefully, I went into the bathroom, shut the door, turned off the lights, opened the. window, and looked out. There was nothing to see and no guns to be heard. >; Half an hour later I awakened again and dressed. After all, it was my last , night in ’Louden and one more walk in the blackout would be pleasant. But outside, all Was still and I walked to Waterloo Bridge with two Canadian soldiers hurrying to catch a train, then Went back to the hotel. It wasn’t hard to get stories of the blitz second hand, Nearly every­ body had been bombed. Nobody bragged about it. It was weeks before I knew that tfoby our host from the British had been carried Ipte a after being blown oilt of, one night. He didn’t tell I a^kect him. The 8avoy Itself, had' six or seven bombs, one of which blew the end out of the i’es* taurant, Canadian Military Head* quarters in Coekspur street had suf­ fered more than the Active Army in the field. So It went everywhere. At the Tress Club one night I listened to amazing stories bf Tibet Street In the blit^, It had been .hammered almost to destrueriofif, when a great land mine came floating down on a parachute. If It gene dffj every blinding for blocks around would have gone over like a row of Jerry “One- •foUr—five—six— sev- major portion of the he asked in genuine were all in it,0 ex-boys the spokesman. • mean to say it took to lay me,* out?” . us all oui* time, mister, there weren’t much room »• all of of disbelief. “We’re all. sorry it had to happen.” -Jerry tried a forgiving smile, but gave' it up When he realized how difficult such a thing was, with a cut mouth. What he intended to be a reassurance had all the out­ ward appearance of grim malevo­ lence, “The department wants to’ make it up to you,” tiie spokesman went on hurriedly. “As well as they can, that is to say.” •Another involuntary muscular spasm further disconcerted him. “Don't take it like this,” h& im- ployed. “Like pet was incipient to emotional anger. >(To be Concluded) what?” The hoarse whis- dhe to the after effects of strangulation rather than Too Much SWEET Vw BmrMm fl CAPOR AL ] IBmO*** WHICH Z tobacco can be smoked/* “WW you Jove me if i grow fat?” Husband: , '“No, .1 promised for better or worse—-hot through thick and thin?’ be another Ger-' returned? and Dave Rogers officer’s car. The in the hotel needed One man was near­ glass. A young, for us. They were full of windows side next water. I decided the floor. the out. Those on the faced the sea. Five* windows were crack- came to think it over, O’Brien, Council, hospital his car rile till ARTHUR WEBER LICENSED AUCTIONEER For Huron and Middlesex ,. Farm sales a specialty PRICES REASONABLE . SATISFACTION GUARANTEED Phone 57-18 Dashwood 0 R. R. No. 1, DASHWOOD FRANK TAYLOR LICENSED AUCTIONEER For Huron and Middlesex - FARM SALES A SPECIALTY Prices Reasonable and Satisfaction Guaranteed Exeter p. o. or ring iss WM. H. SMITH LICENSED AUCTIONEER For Huron and Middlesex Special training assures you Of your property’s true value on sale day. Graduate of American Auction College■ • ■ '■ i, Terms Reasonable and Satisfaction Guaranteed Crediton P. O. or phone 43-2 AN EXCEPTION Vice-Pres. ...... T. G. BALLANTYNE Woodham, R.R. 1 C. P. R. Employees’ $50,000 Buys Two Fighter Planes USBORNE & HIBBERT MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY , Head Office, Exeter, Ont. President ....... JOHN McGRATH - Dublin, Ont. DIRECTORS W. H. COATES ............... Exeter JOHN HACKNEY ... Kirkton R. 1 ANGUS SINCLAIR ... Mitchell R. 1 wm. Hamilton ...... cromartyfR, i AGENTS JQHN;ESSERY ............... Centralia ALVIN L, HARRIS .......... Mitchell THOS. SCOTT .............. Cromafty SECRETARY-TREASURER B. W. F. BEAVERS...........Exeter GLADMAN & STANBURY Solicitors, Exeter f Canadian Pacific Railway employees throughout the system sold’ toeas«i'ed keepsakes, and cash, contributed $50,000 for the purchase of two fighter aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Torce. The cheque was presented at an impressive ceremony'held recently in the Windsor Station edn- ln Montreal when representatives of the services, officials of the company, employees, and representatives of the R.C.A F. joined in a colorful ceremony. Illustration shows C. E. Stockdill, assistant to the vice-president, Western Lines, presenting the cheque to Ait Commodore a. d6 NlvbrviHe, Air Officer Command* % 3, Training Command,, who in turn passed it on to Air vic.e-Marshai G‘ O» Johnson, M,c„ deputy chief of the Air Stuff. ik6 Golden,Aircraft Fund originated with Miss Gladys GoWHafid of the company’s treasury department, and was carried, through to a, Vigorous finish by an employees* committoo. sergeant halted the hew sentry Opposite the mail he was to relieve, ‘’Give., over your orders,” he said, The old sentry reeled off the routine instructions with confi­ dence, but one of the special orders baffled him. “Com on, muni” geant, Impatiently. “On no account,” sentry, “are you to tiohable character ____ __ lines, except the. colonel’s wife!”' father generally 'checks’ the list of Christmas gifts said tlie Set- stammered the let any ques- through the 9