Hongkong, Oct, 1.
Apart from some inconvenience to shipping, there is litre sign that Hong kong ison a war footing as widely slated in some outport papers. There was a black-out Tost week, but such tests were made long. before the European war broke out, The last test was unsatisfactory, because instead of controlling their lights many people simply turned off the electric current, throwing. their premises "in to complete darkness. What the Air Raid Precaution authorities want is that the lamps must be shrouded, so that light may still Wluminate inside the houses, offices or plants, "For the defence of Hongkong, many young Chinese have joined the Volunteet Defence Corps as machine gunners. One machine gun. company open' to Chinese, while it is said that another Chinese company will be formed owing to many' applicants desiring to render service. The total strength of this force is about 5,000.
On the other hand, many British residents when called up to join this service are unable to spare'the time owing to the nature of their work. This is true especially with the editorial staff of the four "local English language papers, who excuse themselves on the plea that they are Working under high pressure with a skeleton personnel. All of them including one business executive are exempted,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.