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Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Rodin Rathbone (son), English reservists; Brian Aherne, Gary Grant, Charles Laughton, James Stephenson, Claude Rains, Errol Flynn, Donald Crisp, Richard Greene, John Loder, Directors Robert Stevenson and Alfred Hitchcock, able-bodied Britons all, and Raymond Massey, Canadian, prepared in Hollywood for a call to British arms. In Paris, Erich von Stroheim, cinemactor-director, who had early training in the old Austrian military, volunteered for the French Army, intended to join the American Volunteer Corps now being formed in Paris, if his offer were rejected.
Francis Neville Chamberlain, little-publicized 25-year-old son of Great Britain's Prime Minister, a $25-a-week chemical plant apprentice, was called up for service, joined the 69th Anti-Aircraft Brigade.
Rt. Hon. Robert Anthony Eden served in World War I as a captain, was decorated for valor (Military Cross), came out a Brigade Major, remained a major in the Territorials. In the Cabinet and out his chief characteristics were his impeccable clothes and his championship of meeting force with force. Early last week, just before World War II seemed sure, Major Eden put on his King's Royal Rifle Corps uniform, posed in front of a tent (see cut), hurried off to his battalion guarding London's East End docks. But before Great Britain fired its first shot and practically every other able-bodied male had followed him into khaki, Major Eden quit the docks, took off his uniform, accepted a job (as Dominion Secretary) in Neville Chamberlain's War Cabinet (p. 27).
Colonel Hubert Fauntleroy Julian, famed "Black Eagle of Harlem," who drilled Ethiopian youngsters with wooden guns during the Italo-Ethiopian War, arrived in Paris to make a "comprehensive study of the international situation" as a war reporter for the Harlem newssheet, the Amsterdam News. "I am," said he, "ready to offer my services to France."
*Arnold Bernstein's big contribution to the shipping business was installation of modern elevators in his freight ships so that automobiles could be driven on and off. He pared the cost until the Bernstein Line did 65 % of U. S.-Europe automobile transport. When he was jailed, Studebaker and Ford companies cabled Germany urging his release to provide continuance of vigorous trade for the Reich.