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Show tn the enj the labor problem which confronted the telephone engineers was solved only by the assistance of the local govern- By RICHARD STORRS COE About a gigantic plane treo in the Balkans was gathered a threatening threat-ening crowd of Albanians and Serbs. A line-gang had alreudy begun trimming the tree to make way for an aerial cable. The crowd was protesting vigorously. vigor-ously. The whole community, , Christian and Mohammedan alike, had rallied to the defense of the holy plane tree. Venerated for generations, It had gathered about It a mass of hoary tradition running run-ning back to the days when it was worshipped In the Middle Ages. Even the gendarmes were In sympathy sym-pathy with the demonstration. In fife Egypt to the tomb of Tut-ankh-A mm. Burning 8nd and Dripping Jungle Under the broiling sun of Africa a platoon of Egyptians struggled up a precipitous hill, scrambling, straining, pushing, heaving and hauling In the stifling heat, they finally reached the summit, dragging drag-ging with them the pole-Una equipment equip-ment for the construction ot this desert telephone circuit. The Valley Val-ley of Kings, where lies the fa-, mous burial vault, Is shut in by a steep hill. This as well as the treacherous Nile had to be spanned by the telephone line from the tomb to Luxor. This line was not built for public use, however, buf The Icelamllo linemen, riding out iu winter across the froxen drifts, jometlmes fording Icy streams or urging their poulos along the precipitous pre-cipitous sides of the fjords, face handicaps that have been overcome over-come only by the utmost hardihood hardi-hood and resolution. But in that sub Arctic country It is all In the day's work. In northern Sweden also the telephone tel-ephone is pushing on, even Into the Arctic Circle. Not long ago the Swedish telephone authorities undertook to extend their wires far up toward the northern end of the Scandinavian peninsula for the transmission of "meteorological bulletins and Information ot snow conditions" to the wandering tribes ot Lapps. These hardy nomads-short nomads-short of stature, broad of face-depend face-depend tor a living upon the herds of haft-wild reindeer which they drive south In the autumn, returning return-ing north again when winter has broken and the melting snow lays bare the scanty pasturage of the Arctic uplands. The Land of the Lamas Recent advances ot the telephone Into new territory are by no means confined to Scandinavia and the South Sea Islands. The mountainous mountain-ous wilds of Thibet In the depths of central Asia have also been penetrated pen-etrated by a wire line, and the ubiquitous telephone hag finally reached even the Forbidden City of Lhasa. For hundred and forty-four miles this line wag pushed forward with Incredible labor over the roughest kind of country. The unskilled work wag done by Thibetan Thi-betan peasants, who took the place ot the yaks as beasts of burden on In the South Sea Island ment, which put a gang ot indolent indo-lent native convicts on the Job. Even then, however, new difficulties difficul-ties presented themselves. The regulation spades for digging pole holes could not ba used by the barefooted islanders. A type of spade especially adapted to their requirements had to be provided. These handicaps were ultimately overcome, . however, end the telephone tele-phone system was installed despite the difficulties of construction In those languorous tropical islands. The Country of the Fjords If one were to search the world over he could hardly find a more striking contrast than that between be-tween the coral Isles of the South Seas and another island In which also telephone construction has been carried out In the face of difficulties. dif-ficulties. Many thousands of miles In the Land of the Fjord from the blue lagoons, the palms and the sparkling waters of the South Pacific there lies a bleak land against whose cliffs the cold gray waves of the Atlantic beat unceasingly. Deep fjords indent its shores, end In winter Arctic gales sweep over the uplands and along the coast with merciless severity. se-verity. Such is Iceland. Yet It Is the home of a progressive and hardy population, who, since the days of the sagas, have made their Island a worthy outpost of Scandinavian Scandi-navian civilization. The capital, Reykjavik, is a modern city, with paved streets, a medical school, libraries and telephones. Telephone and telegraph construction con-struction In Iceland has been no easy task. In winter the wires sometimes become encased in cylinders cyl-inders of Ice six Inches in diameter. diame-ter. Poles 23 feet high have been completely covered by drifting snow, and where the lines cross the fjords In submarine) cables they are often in danger or breakage break-age by floating ice. Tongh little ponies are the chief means of transportation outside the town. the crowd their police uniforms were conspicuous among the short Jackets of the white-kilted Albanians Alba-nians and the scarlet and blue waistcoats of the Serbs. The protests were becoming momentarily more vehement. At this point, however, the local authorities au-thorities took a hand. Quieting the crowd as best they could, they presented a solemn official ro-test ro-test against any further desecration desecra-tion of the sacred tree, which the people had jealously guarded for centuries, even during periods ot hostile Invasion. This' incident illustrates one ot the difficulties sometimes encountered encoun-tered in telephone and telcgruph line construction in remote countriesnative coun-triesnative hostility. Even among the turbulent mountaineers of southeastern Europe, however, hostility can generally be overcome over-come by tact and good sense. Indeed, In-deed, it is often easier to deal with open opposition than with the less tangible obstacle ot native shift-lessness shift-lessness and Indifference. This became very evident to the engineers who constructed a telephone tele-phone system a few years ago in one of the South Sea Islands. Lotus Land To most readers those magic words, "South Sea Islands," conjure con-jure up a softly alluring picture. Palms and tree terns, stirred by the trade winds, fringe the beach of a blue lagoon. Lithe Polynesian Polyne-sian sport in the sun-warmed waters wa-ters or catch brilliantly colored tropical fish among the coral reefa. Parrots scream at the edge ot the jungle, and bright lizards gun themselves on the steps of the consulate. British officials in pith helmets and white duck suits, a missionary and one or two derelict dere-lict beach-combers complete the picture. South Sea Island fiction of the alluring type, however, generally gen-erally has little to say about three things. One is the rainy season, another is the Insects, and the third is the exasperating indolence of the natives. In this case, for example, when jobs were offered on the telephone construction gang the easy-going Islanders simply were not interested. inter-ested. Work"seems superfluous in land where requirements for clothing, fuel and shelter are reduced re-duced to a minimum and where food la abundant and easily obtainable. In the Land of th Pharaohs was designed solely to keep th archaeological explorer at the tomb In constant communication with Luxor and thus speed to the outside world new ot the successive succes-sive discoveries in the magnificent -sepulcher ot the Egyptian king. The blistering heat ot Egypt, In which this telephone construction was carried out, is at leaBt a dry heat. Elsewhere telephone Una-gangs Una-gangs have had to hew their way through dripping jungles, iweatlng In the humid atmosphere of equatorial equa-torial Islands. On the rain-soaked tropical Island Is-land ot Borneo, lying only few degrees north of the Equator, 1 a seven-mile telephone cable con nectlng the oil fields with the coast. These oil fields ar at Lu-tong Lu-tong In the "Raj" (or principality) of flflmwnb. TTrnm hl ramntl spot communication bag been established es-tablished by telephone with tbs port of MIrl something ot a test considering the climatic condlf tlons. Telephone Progress Although In certain cases the Introduction In-troduction of the telephone has been due to the needs ot some particular par-ticular undertaking, there Is In many lands a growing appreciation of the value of telephone facilities for the general public. In various countries men are striving for th building up of telephone service along lines similar to those which have been followed in the United States, where the telephone was Invented and where It has attained Its greatest development n In the Land of the Lamas trails where even these great ox-like ox-like creatures found the going hard. Over the desolate heights, along roads that were merely the roughest of tracks, these stalwart Asiatic villagers hauled the poles, a family of six often forming the "team" for a single pole. The line to Lhasa is presumably to serve as a permanent communication communi-cation system. Yet in various quarters of the globe telephone service hag been established in the face of formidable obstacles to meet a t mporary or at any rate a highly specialized need. Of this character was the telephone line pushed out across the sands of |