Evening star. [volume], July 27, 1941, Page 13, Image 86

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
DESTINATION UNKNOWN
Continued from pago six
of Bonham the Bad's duties. In Halifax
this is difficult because anybody can
see a convoy going out simply by
taking an upstairs room in one of the
hotels on the harbor, or by walking to
the top of the old fortress, Citadel Hill.
One afternoon I myself climbed
that hill and watched a convoy num
bering almost 100 ships. The skippers
had got their instructions the night
before at a ‘‘convoy conference" held
in the well-protected dockyard. These
conferences are presided over by
Commodore Clarence G. Jones, the
Royal Canadian Navy’s good-looking,
forty-four-year-old O.C.A.C. (Officer
in Command of the Atlantic Coast).
It was dawn when I went to the top
of Citadel Hill. A sign warned,
“Photography Prohibited," and there
were several soldiers around to enforce
that order. Only a few townsmen had
1 gathered to see the spectacle. They
are mostly unexcited now about con
voys, although when convoying first
started, they often packed the hilltop.
No Coromony
Down in Bedford Basin, which is
at the back of the harbor, the ships
were assembled. They started out at
intervals of from three minutes to
a half-hour and plowed through the
long harbor, straight for a 250-foot
deep submarine net, which swung
back to let them out There was no
ceremony of any kind. As the ships
started out across the horizon, single
file and in a straight line, 1 thought
1 had never beheld such a beautiful
picture. I stayed for hours watching
the big liners move gracefully out
into the Battle of the Atlantic, and
then, having grown hungry, visited
a restaurant. At dusk, when I re
turned. the ships were still filing out
— the convoy was that large.
I could not see what was happening
out there at sea, but 1 knew that,
outside Canadian waters, they were
falling into formations. The Admiral
and Commodore vary these constant
ly. Shooting ahead, looking for trou
ble, are usually a couple of corvettes,
with their loads of depth charges
ready to dump onto subs. Battleships
follow alongside as escorts and de
stroyers constantly circle the pack.
The ships in the interior of the con
voy may be lined up in ten rows five
vessels long, or five rows ten vessels
long R.C.A.F planes roar out to give
| them aerial patrol during the day
and eventually they are picked up on
the other side by the R.A.F.
All this convoying has made Hali
fax a modern wonder city. As a boom
town, it has few equals. Normally
its population is 60,000, but since the
war, this has shot up to 130,000.
Near its edges numerous forts have
been built, and within its limits there
is a new embarkation depot, where
the neat, boyish-looking air pilots
wait for ships that will take them to
* join the R.A.F. On the outskirts of
the town 1 saw the longest freight
trains in my memory. Every train
brought trucks, foods and other sup
plies, including oil — for many of the
ships out in Bedford Basin were oil
tankers.
[W Heavy Traffic
I1 i A few years ago the streets of
Halifax were drowsy. Today they are
almost as busy as Fifth Avenue. At
5:30 one evening I was out for a walk
and was almost bowled over by a
crowd of 20,000 sailors who had been
t suddenly dumped into the cramped
business section by the launch-load.
Five and six abreast, they swung up
the streets, shouting at each other or
suddenly halting to throw their arms
around each other and sing “She's
the Pride of the Ocean” and other
songs. I got out to the curb to make
way for sombreroed New Zealanders,
kilted Scots, Dutchmen with stream
ers trailing down the backs of their
caps, a Welshman who asked me,
"Aren’t there any Welshmunn in
Hahlifahx?”, Greeks, Egyptians,
Czechs and of course many, many
Canadians.
The foreign visitors occupied not
only the sidewalks but the streets as
well. Suddenly I saw a .squad of
husky blacks from British Somaliland
marching single file up the city’s main
stem. In Halifax, they march, march,
march. The officers’ explanation is,
•‘We don’t want them to get stale.”
Halifax has met the emergency with
gusto. Navy wives have raised $30,
000 for the new North End Service
Center where twenty-cent meals are
served. For the social side, the Navy
wives have recruited a list of girls
who are available for dates.
Churches have given up recreation
parlors and landlords have surren
dered apartment buildings to help
Halifax solve its soldier and sailor
housing problem. "The Rink,” where
Halifax played hockey, has been taken
over by the Navy. In thi hotel where
1 stopped, 1 saw cots for soldiers and
sailors. Some visitors have slept on
benches in the railway station.
With the service men spending
prodigally when they have it, and
carpenters and others feeling rich
with $75 a week or more, the mer
chants are thriving. And apartments
are renting for $80 and "up. But it’s
in the harbor, where the tugs and
other craft race about helping the big
armed merchant cruisers get their
cargoes from the choked railroad
lines, that the biggest results are.
shown. This year the Port of Halifax
hopes to have an operating income of
$750,000 to $1,000,000. In 1935, it
had a $3,915 deficit.
Only the orchard owners on the
little farms are suffering. Always be
fore. Britain has snapped up all their
apples. Now there is no room on the
convoy ships for apples. Sadly, the
farmers are turning to drying their
apples for other markets.
In my hotel room, when I went to
call room service, I discovered this
warning: “It is forbidden to mention
ships or ship movements, aircraft,
troops, war industries or the weather
during long-distance conversations. —
Mantime Telegraph & Telephone
Co.” On the dresser there was a warn
ing to turn out lights when leaving
the room, in case of a blackout.
Reading the “Halifax Chronicle,”
I saw this: “Owing to censorship re
strictions, weather forecasts will not
be given in the future.” Nowhere in
any of the papers is there a mention
of convoys; it is not admitted that
c-s exist. Battleship and sea intelli
gence is datelined Ottawa, which is
the capital — but also an inland city
where one can scarcely float more than
a canoe!
Yes, unquestionably Halifax is one
of the most war-conscious cities in
our hemisphere. Recently a German
war prisoner escaped in the city while
en route to an internment camp. In
some way he got some overalls and
exchanged them for his prison garb.
Then he started out across the out
skirts of Halifax and went unnoticed
for a considerable distance.
A six-year-old girl was his nemesis.
She decided he was a German prisoner
and ran and told her father.
“But how did you know?” the police
asked her later.
“1 just knew that he looked like a
Nazi," she replied, firmly.
end
I Pour yourself a nice cool vacation!
/ . MOW’D YOU UK! to romp in the
snow on some mountain right now?
Sound nice and cooling? So’s Canada
Dry! The mountain breeze never
blew that’s cooler than a deliciously
bubbling glassful of this icy “Cham
pagne of Ginger Ales”!
C2. YOU SAY YOU LOVE sailing? All
the better! Just open an emerald
green bottle of Canada Dry and pour
some into a glass. In its clear cool
depths you can almost hear the splash
of the waves as tiny bubbles burst
like spray in your face!
3. MAYBE YOU'D LIKE a bracing
plunge into the clear cool water of
some mountain lake . . . the kind
that makes you catch your breath
with a gasp! Okay—here’s your cue—
a tinkling glassful of ice-cold Canada
Dry. A few tingling sips and summer
swims away!
__
A, BEST VACATION SPOT ill the
U.S. A. is anywhere within arm’s reach
of a bottle of Canada Dry. Whole
some, economical, a pick-up without
a let-down, Canada Dry makes thirst
a pleasure. IVeat the whole family—
at meals—between meals—at bedtime
—anytime. It’s good for you!
_>
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WHpr C-383 ■
THE FAMILY’S THIRST CHOICE
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Tom Collins Mixer
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