Two British marines Spend Mid-War Shore Leave at Harvard, Wellesley

Two Royal Marines of the British Navy visited Harvard yesterday evening, inspected the College, ate dinner in Lowell House, received their first taste of American football and then traveled on to greener pastures in the direction of Wellesley.

The 22-year-old subjects of King George VI have been in the country for about a week and expect to remain three months longer while their ship, the cruiser "Newcastle" undergoes a complete overhauling in the Boston Navy Yard.

Ran Away to Sea

Edward Jones is a blond-haired native of Liverpool who ran away from home when he was 16. He wandered about Liverpool and Plymouth until he had passed the minimum age requirement to join the Marines and just after his 18th birthday signed up in his Majesty's service. After a time in barracks he was stationed aboard the "Newcastle" after the outbreak of war and has remained there ever since.

His shipmate, James Arthur, was born in Glasgod, Scotland, and enlisted with the Royal Marines when he was 18 years and two months old. Both boys were entertained by their brief stay at the College and expect to return next Wednesday, when a soccer team collected from the 18 Marines aboard the "Newcastle" will meet the Harvard Varsity in a game arranged by Captain Jack Penson last night.

Woo at Wellesley

After dinner, three Harvard students, Norman Knowlton '42, Cliff Goodman '42, and Dave Hart '43 escorted the marines to Wellesley, where dates had been arranged for them. When asked the stock question if they preferred Wellesley to Radcliffe, Jones replied naively, "I'll tell you when we get back."

Neither of the boys thought that the U. S. should enter the war openly, since they felt that the country could do more as an "arsenal" without the burden of having to supply her own troops. However, America's attention should be fixed on the Far Eastern situation and she should be propared to leave the British fleet free from action in those waters.

As to when the war would end, neither could predict, but both had heard rumors both in England and the States of a victory within 12 months. Churchill, they felt, follows the policy of describing things as worse than they actually are.

Since the war began the "Newcastle" has soon action in northern, Mediterranean, and southern waters. First she served on the Iceland patrol, where her eight-inch guns saw special action in an all-night fray with the merchantman "Parana."

Later she was in the English Channel during the fierce German air assault on Plymouth and brought down a total of 27 Luftwaffe planes. On a mission in the Mediterranean, the "Newcastle" and six other English vessels attacked an Italian flotilla of 21 ships which fled after the British had sunk a cruiser and a destroyer, suffering only five casualties themselves.

Since that battle the "Newcastle" has been on the South Atlantic patrol, preventing German and Italian merchantmen from reaching South America, and now she is reclining at leisure in the Boston Yard