After a most adventurous career in HM. Navy, the Ladybird, 625-ton gunboat, now lie the bottom of the Mediterranean off Tobruk. Many residents in China will learn of the loss of this gallant tittle gunboat with special regret, Since she was known up and down the Yangiaé for years, and often put into Shanghai. for overhauls, Before 1037, when Japanese action onused. the British population of many river ports to thin out, the Ladybird had been the Fallying point of many a small foreign com= munity upriver, The emeers and crews which manned her during her sometimes dreary vigils fon. the river, were welcome wherever they Went, Of recent years the Ladybird gured Prominently in the mews, When she was shelled by Japanese artillery nese Wuhu, and damaged, This was an entirely unprovoked, attack, and hat 1 dia not lead to a major incident was due {o the tact of her commander and other officers Who were on board. On the outbreak of the war in. Europe, the Ladybird was transferred from Shanghai to. Hongkong and later Singapore, "from where she. sailed to the Mediterranean. During this time, however, her movements were clouded in official secrecy, and the first definite information Shanghai received as, to her whereabouts was when the news arrived that she had been engaged in assisting Generat Wavell's attack on the Tlalians in Libya There she was hit by enemy shells and sustained some casualties; Her two six-inch guns had been used to shell Ttalian positions along the Efbyan coast, and owing to her light draft, she was able to creep close in under the enemy's Buns and inflict a lot of damage. It would Sppear that she met her end in some similar Hisky operation, A gallant end, and one which fan only arouse admiration ahd regret, Threat From Libya Mr. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, reminded the House of Commons that the Genere! Staff were more concerned aver the Axis threat fo Egypt from Libya than they were over the progress of the campaign in Syria. It is possible that the intensification of the raids on Alexandria during the last few days may be an indication. of an imminent at. tack, but on the other hand they may"prove no more than that the Germans are, taking ad~ vantage of the additional air bases their success in Crete has given them. and that they re attempting fo harass the British fleet out of the Eastern Mediterranean. The heat at this time of year in the Western Desert would seem to be agains, any large-scale offensive on Egypt, but thig cannot be counted upon as 2 factor' which would influence the Nazi High Command. On the other hand it would seem to be unlikely that the Nazis and the Fascists would embark upon any big attack until they have reduced Tobruk, which remains a British stronghold on their flank. Tokrok, thanks to the talions who.did not do much with it, is very strongly defended, and possesses the best natural harbour in Libya. When the German commander-in-chief, General von Brauchitsch, visited Libya in 1959, he spent most of his time in Tobruk, appreciating 4s natural advant as a fortress. Tt must be a grief to him that it sft in British hands, with little immediate prospect of the Nazis being able to drive the garrison out, An Anniversary Sunday seven hundred and twenty-six years ago King John gave one of his usual displays of temper. He had just signed Magna Carta, and the first step towards British freedom had thus been made. Then through the centuries the struggle for liberty of the individual was continued with varying results, until the ideals of democracy were attained, and the British form of Government established for other nat long fo copy. It hes been rightly: said that the story of the British has been one of slow, continual revolution, and that while other nations were shaken periodically by terrific convulsions the British were able to reach their objectives with far less blood-letting. For that Probably the national genius for compromise was largely responsible, the Civil War being the only principal exception to the rule. Today Britain, her Empire and her Allies are struggle ing in 'a worldwide revolution which has been forced upon them. Their conflict is with forces which would reduce the world to a stale much worse than when Magna Carta formed the first success: in the fight Upwards from the misery and degradation of the: Dark Ages. Hitler it is reported has his fits of temper,—not the only similarity between the two men, for John was false a cunning schemer and a man of dishonour, and the forces arrayed against him are preparing for the day when he will have io admit defeat, as John eventually had. Magna Carta opened the way for a hotier world, so will Allied victory in this war. There jean be no going back to the old ways, but the establishment of a new moral order, in which the rule of law will be revived, and security Jamongst nations which will permit them to Jwork out their destinies unmenaced by the threats of evil tien. The way may be long and hard but the benefits to be won are well worth the sacrifices. That the people of the Empire fully realize as do those other nationals, whose governments though for the moment dispossess-fed are continuing the fight, and when it ends new Magna Carta will be written, not for Britons alone, but for the whole world. shown themselves to be an improvement' even upon the eight-gun Spitfires and Hurricanes. The details of these planes are naturally being kept secret, but it is known that they are not mere imitations of the German planes which carry cannon, but are a development, of an aeroplane cannon which way evolved some years ago, the design of which has been so much improved in recent months that it8 standardization is now considered justified. The Germans have had some diMicully with their cannon-firing planes in countering the recoil of the guns, which has necessitated some strengthening' of the frame of the planes A Fesult has been a loss of speed, and manqeuvrability which in many cases gave the mulllmachine-gunned British fighter a preponderant advantage. The British cannon, however, ly believed to be a great advance on anything the Germans have so far used. The efficiency of the fighters on which it has been installed has not been lessened, but rather has their deadliness been increased, since one hit from one of the cannon's very sensitively fused shells Is believed sufficient to wreck any enemy plane. The British cannon is remarkable for its effective range, its rate of fire, and ly more accurate over a long distance that the machinegun, Its calibre is about twenty millimetre. The fuses of the shells of cannon such as this have to be remarkably sensitive, since they must explode when striking even the fabric of the plane at which they are fired, Tt has been found that the shells fired from German plane-cannon have not always exploded, and have caused some casualties among British civilians when they have been picked up off the groun Some time ago official warnings were advising souvenir hunters to leave these shells alone and to warn the local authorities when they were found. They are liable to explode on the slightest impact, and many people have suffered needlessly as a result of their curiosity.
The Italian Air Force One of the mysteries of the war has been the comparative ineffectiveness of the Ialian air force, though they were supposed before the outbreak of hostilities to have one of the most 'em cient flying arms in the world. In actual practice, however, it has been shown that the Dest of the Italian machines which have so far been in action have: proved po; match for. the British" Gladiatory—q_ machine ' which is. con sidered "Inthe" Royal "Air' Force In' the British Isles {0 be obsolescent, if not obsolete. In aero~ me. construction: the. Italians were: reyurded: as being among the first light before the war, In fact, they were the principal opponents of Britain in the Schneider Cup contests, and for period it looked as if the Italian. design and construction might prove superior to anything which the British might produce, In this war it has been shown, however, that the Italians have not benefitted from their experiments. in spetd-—unless they have something up their sleeves, which seems unlikely that the planes they have put up against the British have been disastrously inadequate to meet the demands of modern warfare. The Fiat ER 42, for example, are fighters armed with only two machine guns and capable of a speed of only 270 miles an hour. An improvement on these planes is the Macchi C 200, but the speed is only about 300 malles an hour—not nearly enough 10 enable them to meet a Hurricane on equal terms. The Flat G 50, another new fighter, is, farmed with four machine guns, but has a speed of only about 300 miles an hour. No amount of Mussolini bombast can make it the equal of some of the planes which the British are now regarding as being not good enough for first line combat, Tu bombers also the Ttalian air force has proved to be pitifully behind the times. Their Savoia Marchetti S 79 is eMictent, being armed with four guns and being capable of 300 miles an hour, But their Caproni CA 133 bomber can do no' more than 200 miley an hour and is on easy mark forthe more speedy British planes, The Mahan reconnaissance plane, the Meridionati RO 37, does only 240 miles an hour, while the Italian flying boats, the Cant S01, have proved to be too slow to be of any real Value in modern war. Al experts are asking themselves what has happened {o all the research the Italians are known to have put into aeroplane construction before the war. 1s possible that the Fascist regime has allowed all this priceless knowledge to be thrown over board? Or have the Italians something in re~ serve which they are holding back for a bigger blow? The latter seems unlikely, With the Italian empire reduced to such straits that it is now almost non-existent, is it probable that the Italians would not have put forth their utmost air strength to save themselves? It 1s known that they have designed. some very efficient fighters, such asthe AUT 18° monoplane and the Meridionali RO 51, and also the squat Breda 88 all metal bomber. But where are they? Why have they not been used? The answer appears to be that the Ilalians have not got the facilities or the factories for producing these good machines in any quantity—another proof of the state of unpreparedness in which Mussolini, in the be-Wet that nothing remained but to get in on the Givision of the spoils, entered the war. How great has been his mistake is shown by the Bumbers of wrecked Italian planes scattered over the' Western Desert, and by the number of Italian families who are mourning the loss of sons who have perished in unequal combats.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.