Hongkong Aug. 19, Tribute to the work of the late Lord Willingdon in connection with the Boxer Indemnity fund was paid this morning by Mr. Han Lih-wu. Secretary-General of the Boxer Indemnity Board, "There: are many achievements to the credit of Lord Willingdon, not least of which is the part he played in the return of the British Boxer Indemnity Funds." Mr; Han declared.
"He visited China in 1926 as chair. man of the delegation of the Indemnity Committee, presenting a report in which were laid down the principles by which. the British Boxer Funds could best be us "It would be fitting hal. at an appropriate date. some way should. be found permanently to record Lord Wilingdon's services in determining the equitable disposal of these funds."—Reuter, So much has been published al the battle of Matapan, that T see any harm in telling you about it from our own point of vie view. You will have heard (ad nauseam!) over the wireless, the general scheme of the battle, so I won't say anything more about it.
When we left harbour on Mafeh 7. and steamed at 20 knots to the north-west, we had in our own minds very little hope of anything more than the usual high-speed chase, with the enemy easily outdistancing us, and giving us time to give them very little punishment.
Planes Leave Formidable But it was rather thrilling to ste the torpedo bombers leaving the Formidable, and wondering" what they would accomplish. Three small groups of them were flown off during the day, and through glasses you could easily see the torpedoes tucked peri under their tummies.
Throughout the diy (Friday) we got several reports, and when we heard that the Vittorio Veneto was jer, damaged and slowed down our hopes began to rise. In the afternoon we thought there might possibly be a chance of sighting some of the Italian rearguard, so we remained at stations, and hoisted battle ensign At the upper yard-arm we had white ensign, and at the masthead the "Commonwealth Blue"—the starred Blue Ensign of Australia.
However, nothing was sighted duiing the day, so we went back to our normal cruising stations, I had night watch that night so turned in fairly early.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.