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The Brussels Post, 1942-2-11, Page 2VOICE OF THE PRESS WHY YOUNG MEN ARE UNFIT Fifty per cent. of 'United States young men offering to enlist were found upon medical examin- ation tie be physically unfit for military service, so says Gene Tunnay, one-time heavyweight champion. The reason, he gives, in the refusal to take the exercise necessary to the development of muscle. Young men prefer the automobile to walking; if they seek recreation, they go to a pjc- ture show, listen to the radio, or et best, play badminton. Isn't it true to a certain extent in Can- ada. —Brampton Conservator _o_.. DE GAULLE'S FORCES General de Gaulle's forces of Free France now include an army of. 100,000 men, a fleet of forty warships and• 105 merchant ships and tankers. Numbered- among Ids army are 2,000 brained avia- tors. Despite Petain and Dalian, de Gaulle and his men are pre- venting the emblem of France from being trailed in the dust. —Hamilton Spectator —o— CAN'T BE BLAMED People in County Kerry, Etre mistook a Nazi sergeant for a.• general, when a plane made a forced. landing there. They could. hardly be blamed, of course, see- ing that the German people them- selves are mistaking a corporal for a commander-in-chief of all the Reich's forces. —Stratford Beacon -Herald -o— WHEAT NEEDED BY. EIRE Faced with a blockade of sorts, Eire stepped up wheat production to an estimated 300,000 tons. This leaves 80,000 tons to be im- ported. Now, if Eke .would let us use' the naval bases, it woulu be easier to make sure that grain got to Eire. —0— DIDN'T EXPLODE The heaviest German bomb dropped on London, which evi- dently did not explode, measured 18 feet three inches in length, two feet three inches in diameter, and weighed two tons. Why not ;fix itup for renailing and drop it over the dead -letter office in Berlin'? -Hamilton . Spectator —e— INFANT PRODIGY A professor in the University of California contends that Mother Goose rhymes can be traced back' 2,000 years. Oh, Doc, how could she have written all those jingles *way back in 58 B.C. when she was a mere slip of a gosling? —Ottawa Citizen STRAWBERRY JUICE KILLS- TYPHUS The deadly typhus germ can exist for only a few hours in fresh strawberry juice. But, let the Nazis try to find fresh strawberries in Russia in. January. French Possessions Of Strategic Value. Allied interest in France's col- onial possessions in the Western Hemisphere is due to the strate- gic importance of the group, ra- ther than their value as a source of vital . raw material, as is the case . in Dutch Guiana, recently occupied by a United States force. Except for their vast produc- lion of sugar and rum — there are 286 distilleries in Martini- que and Guadeloupe alone — this ten islands and one .piece of main- land that make up Vichy's re- maining colonies in. tic West ere comparatively poor and ov- ercrowded. But they occupy lo- cations that scarcely can be ig- nored. Martinique and Gaudeloupe end five amaller islands lie along great curving chain of islands that mark the eastern gateway to the Caribbean Sea and the ap- proaches to' the Panama Canal. St. Lucia, site of one of the United States' new leased de - Sense bases, is almost in sight of Martinique. - French Guiana, which contains Devil's Island penal colony, is on the northeast coast of South America, adjoining Dutch Guiana, which - was occupied with consent of the Netherlands Governnient to guard the United States supply 'ef bauxite. Ire occupation by an enemy would present an obvious menace, To the south of Newfoundland lie the two barren islands of Miquelon and St. Pierre. Their combined area of ninety-three square ,Hiles fe inhabited by fewer than 5,000 persons, who make their living chiefly from the tithe Ing industries. Egypt Evill pay a bounty to farmers who grow wheat, barley er beans on land formerly de- voted to cotton, GUARDIANS OF EAST COAST They're chieftains of the closely co-ordinated land -sea -air forces ;°that stand watch over America's populous Atlantic seaboard. Shown at one of their frequent. conferences are Lieutenant General Hugh A. Drum (centre); famed commander of the Eastern Army Forces; Brigadier. General Arnold N. Krogstad (left), commander of the First Air Force; and Rear Admiral Adlophus Andrews (right), com- mander of the North Atlantic' Naval Coastal Frontier. They share a secret, joint headquarters somewhere in the New York metropolitan area, where they map 'defensive -offensive operations. Ontario Pupils To Aid Victory Loan Nine Thousand Schools in The Province Will Take Part In Pageant Nine thousand public schools in the province of Ontario have been asked to participate in a histori- cal musical pageant in the period of the forthcoming Second Cana- dian Victory Loan Campaign. The Provincial Ministry of Edu- cation is interested in .the pro- ject. The Minister hhnself, the Hon. D. McArthur, has written personal letters to secretaries of school boards and boards of edu- cation and to every school prin cipal urging that. some form of entertainment be- given in each school to provide a background for campaign speakers, Thee. musical pageant "Caval- cade of Canada" devised by P. R. Fenwick, Mus., Bac. of the De- partment of Education is one of several musical plays proposea for general use- during the period of the campaign. Two others—"Blue Boots" for junior grades and "Builders of Canada" a musical play for intermediate grades, both written by Mary Grannan (Just Mary) have been suggested as, alternative productions. The "Cavalcade of Canada" re- lates the history of 'Canada in music, song and dance.- It begins with an opening episode ' illus- trating in dance the manner in ' which early Indian settlers of Can- ada celebrated their festive occa- sions with song- and dance. Epi- sode No. 2 dramatises in the form of French Canadian folk songs the life of the early French set- ters, the first white settlers in Canada, beforetheadvent of the British. The coming of the British with the arrival in Canada of the famous explorers of that day, Martin Frobisher, Henry Hudson and William Baffin is marked by an individual episode in an ap- propriate setting and expressed by the singing of "Come Lasses and - Lads" and "Tho King is Still in . London." Scotsmen who have helped to make Canada great are paid tri- bute by the inclusion of a number dedicated to Scotland to the ac companhnent of themusic of "Scots Wha Hae." Irishmen who have contributed their strength and talents to the building of the country are likewise remembered —or will be — when the school children sing, in tribute to them —the words of "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls!" Welshmen, known the world over for .their passion for good .music and, incidentally, for their orator- ical eloquence, will be imperson- ated by the youthful singing of "Men of Harlech." Canada, it is pointed out in the foreword of the musical pageant, "Cavalcade of Canada," is com- posed of men and women of many racial origins. More than .5,000,- 000 are citizens of British stock or stock originating in the British Isles; three and a half million are derived froin French stock and something over 2,000,000 from, stock of other European nation- alities. - - Those European nationalities are therefore to be suitably.repre- sented in this pageant, as will be, of course, the United States of - America. ence -to Allies or to Associated Dutch Canadians will derive pleasure front the number dedi- cated to the years of expansion of their homeland as expressed in song; Belgium will be remembered by the singing or recitation of the immortal words of John McCrae's poen "In Flanders Fields" in tri- bute to the 60,000 Canadians who lie buried 'in that ill-starred land today. Scandinavian countries will be dramatised by thesinging in ap- propriate stage setting and cos- tume arrangement of Norwegian, icelaudie and Swedish national songs. Poland, the stalwart little i Baltic nation that gave Joseph Conrad in literature and Chopin and Paderewski in music will re- ceive due recognition by the sing- ing by the pupils of appropriate Polish anthems. Russia will be given a place in the colourful panorama in recog- nition of her valiant role in this -war. Pupils wearing - Ukrainian costumes will sing Ukrainian and Russian songs .in tribute, particu- larly, to Ukrainia known through the ages for its contributions to music, poetry and the arts. The D.oukhobors of whom it has been said that "music is their breath of life" will be included in the Rus- sian portrayal. - Many other European nation- alities - the Greeks, Czochoslo- valeians, Jugoslavians, Hungarians will be interpreted musically as . well. The Hebrew population of Canada - will be included when there is sung in tribute to their, contribution to the allied cause in this and other wars the anthem "Lift Thine Eyes" by the noted Jewish composer, Felix Mendel- asohn. This is probably the first occa- Ilion in the history of this or any other province in Canada upon which a Ministry of Education has stepped into -a national campaign of this kind as the Zion. D. Mc- Arthur has done. Certainly it is the first Occasion in tuty province in, Canada upon which every Paced child in the province—or any province --has been impressed into a useful place in a national drive of this kind. For this reit- son all Canada is expected to oh - terve with interest the results of the provincial campaign in On- tario; the results from that par- ticular angle or in that particular sphere of campaign activity, - Inclusion of the 'drools, school teachers 'and pupils alike, on such a sole as now contemplated by the campaigners is a tribute to the growing influence of the school authority and the school in the local community. It is an in fluence often felt but seldom ade- quately recognised. The forth- coming campaign should illustrate.' to what extent that influence is a potent factor in the lives of Canadian families. - "You Can Fight for Canada!" Irene the patriotic review "Pull Together Canada" has been ad- opted as a theme song for this province by the Provincial Public Relations .Committee of the Sec- ond Victory 'Loan Drive. The opening words of the song epitomise its spirit. They are: • "Shine and guns and planes we need, .our country to defend— "But we must arm the hearts of men to win out in the end!" - That song in the form of song sheets has been circularised toall of the sixty four territorial com- mittees now hard at work—pre- paratory work—in Ontario: Those committees have been asked .to - ensure that it is in the hands of every •student, every school boy and girl in the province, by the date the National Drive is sche- duled to begin -on February 16. Itis expected that between Feb- ruary 16 and March 16—the per- iod of this year's drive through Canada—everybody will be sing- ing it. That song again will be em- ployed as a prelude to addresses by competent speakers who will appear in every city, town and hamlet in Ontario, during the per- iod of the campaign, to explain the importance of Victory Bonds. for Victory; Canada's urgent need of money "to win this war. Children of London Give Their Pennies Children of one of the most horribly bombed areas of London recently presented Bertram D. N. Cruger, London representative of the British War Relief Society, with a gift of five shillings and - nine pence to be devoted to the people of the United States who have suffered from the war. The gift was made up of pen- nies saved`by the school children since Ddceniber- 7—the date of the Japanese attack on Pearl Har- bor. The presentation was made at the "America Day" celebration at a settlement house in the Ber inondesey area.,. Cruger who has allocated hundreds of thousands of dollars to. British organizations in the last two years, said in thanks "This makes one feel that the 'work of the British War Re- lief Society has been worth while." ' Writes In Verse His Last Bequest Many interesting and unusual wills have been probated • in the - county of Wentworth, but here Is one contained in four lines of poetry. It is that of Charles Robert Hodgson,' who bequeathed his en- tire estate of $19,422.86 to his widow, in this fashion: "All my earthly goods I have in store, To my dear wife I leave for ever- more I freely give, no limit do I fix, This. is my will, she the 'execu- trix., ItIr. Hodgson was a well-known Hamilton florist who died June 19 1941. The unusual will was made on April 12, 1927. There were no moths or but- terfies during the Great Coal. Age, when many other insects flourished, because the flowers upon which these nectar drinkers depend had not yet appeared. REG'LAR FELLERS—The Hero • VA./ A BANK ROe8ERY i t'VE GOT P40 GUN ON ME! :'.J -vagam..V, t. l'e ottiro. All vithwrmefae r.'vE 40T K„ x'L1, ctRAB THE 8AG SOP MONEY AN USE IT LIKE A WAR CLUB ON 'EM INDIYJDUALCitiieuS AN MAUJRIC II21V 1 N L '1 A Weekly Column About This and That in The Canadian Arms`' Everyone has heard, soma time or another, a public speaker men- tion 'the various arms and ser- vices" of the Army, What does that mean? That's what I asked. I asked the A.G., the. C.G.S., the D.M.O. and I., and a dozen other high ranking officers. • 'Before we forget I suppose I'd betterclear up those initials — some day, if the editor can spare the space, we'd better have a glos- sary of army terms — "A,G." is Adjutant -General; "C.G.S.",-Chief of the General • Staff, and "D.M. 0. and I", Director of Military" Operations and Intelligence. There are probably nicknames for these high appointments but at the mo- ment .I can't tell you what they are, - But to get back to "arms and services". Here are the distinc- tions, "Arms" are the branches of the Army that carry out the tactical plans of the commander. They include: .Artillery, Engin- eers, Signallers, Armoured Corps and. Infantry., "Services" look af- ter the .arms, support and supply them. They are: Royal..Canadian Ordnance Corps, Royal Canadian Arty .Service Corps, Royal Can- adian rAmy Medical Corps, eta. Don't think for a minute, though, that when you refer to the Services, as supporting the arms that you are riot referring to fighting soldiers. In the mechan- ized, all-out war of today - the war that the individual citizen's army is being. so highly trained to fight — every man in uniform is a fighting man who was trained first as a fighter before he was trained for or started work at his specialty. Every officer or man in both Area and Services starts his sol- diering by taking the regular ele- mentary training course. A stret- cher-bearer in this war is as cap- able of assembling a Bren gun from assorted parts in the dark as a Medical Officer is of carry- ing out a major operation by the light of a motorcycle headlamp, The same is true of Ordnance, Army Service Corps every ser: vice. No matter what uniform, a soldier in your army wears he is a fighting soldier, Here is an interesting note while we are on the subject o all-round training. The 'trained Mechanic, a man who is found in great numbers in both "Axes" and "Services", is a qualified "first -aider", having passed, as has every combatant soldier, 4 St.. John's Ambulance course pi. Ing his elementary training. In March, 1918, the' enemy came close to breaking through .. ail on that occasion - cooks, bak- ers, farriers, - laundrymen and a host of other neeeasary, but not necessarily war -like, odds and endsturned to 'with - cleavers, picks and shovels, hammers ---any., thing that would serve as a weap- on. They acquitted themselves - well, too. The weapons - seemed archaic. They were. But today, if such a situation shouldarise, the men - would be ready for it. Today there is a course given to all soldiers in "un -armed combat"e This course, teaches.:them how to use improvised.; weapons. such as 'shrapnel helmets, : fists, knees, boots in a Lethal manner, Imaglne what a man armed with a but- eher's cleaver or a tailor's goose could do with them after learning to take care of himself without any arms. A few minutes ago I referred to a shrapnel helmet. Once we used to call them "tin hate.. Now you frequently see then' referred to as "battle -bowlers" — what will they think of next? Good -Morning Mr. Shopkeeper — Dialogue recently over- heard in a London shop:. Sweet Young Lady:. Have you any cigarettes, please? Shopkeeper: No. . Sweet Young Lady: Have you any matches? Shopkeeper: No! - Sweet Young Lady: Have you any chocolate? Shopkeeper: No II Sweet Young Lady: Have you any manners? Shopkeeper: Noll! Hat -el What are you getting at? Sweet Young Lady: You, Mr. Shopkeeper. Good morning! - Reform Thy •World Beginning With Me The President's informal re - /Arks to the industry -labor con- - ference set an admirable example of the spirit in which we' must try to adjust our domestic prob- lems during the period of the war. If each of his hearers re- cognizes his personal. responsi- bility foi national unity and na tional strength, there would be no difficulty in arriving at a - prompt agreement, The President cited the .prayer of a Chinese Christian: .''Lord, reform. thy , world, beginning with tne," There could be few more useful prayers for each of us to keep as a guid- ing rule in the present crisis. LIFE'S LIKE THAT By Fred Neher \/ Iq.ieewaa: .:neo 1<a No O'natmono "Wow! I" er we're By GENE BYRNES HEY I WARE UP / WHATSA IDEA OF BELTIN'teE WITH THAT PILLER ?