Ye SHOULDER STRAP OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH COLUMBIA PROVINCIAL POLICE Subscription: 50c Per Copy Advertising Rates on Application “The Shoulder Strap” is copyrighted and trademarked with the Government at Ottawa, Canada. The Editor will be pleased to receive articles suitable for publication. Photographs and other matter for illustrating articles and photographs of groups or functions which are of general interest are welcomed. Address All Communications to “The Shoulder Strap,’ Vancouver, B.C. Associate Editor: Inspector C. Clark Editor: A. A. Brookhouse ee WINTER EDITON NOTICE The Copyright of all the editorial matter, both illustrations and letterpress, is strictly reserved in Canada, Great Britain and the U.S.A., and can not be used without per- mission. Screen and radio rights also re- served. TABLE OF CONTENTS Photo by Sergt. J. A. Young * Corporal Soles Retires ____. Presentation to Staff-Sergeant Iack Russell -_ StaffSergeant H. W. King Retires ...._____.. B. C.’s Attorney General ..----... Murder on the Steamer “Okanagan”... The End of the “Moccasin Trail” = = Presentation of Second Spitfire = The Cariboo Cripple Case Ready on the Firing Line —. mu OUR GOT eas a ed SO How Germany Runs Civil Defence Ahead of the Alaska Highway The Clue of the Cloven Skull wOffethe= Records 2-5 nee ee The Rat No Trap Could Hold Walter Owen, Veteran Officer Retires Police Radio Plays Important Part in War Time The Le Roy Bay Cannery Mystery == Death of Pioneer Victorian Severs Historic Police Link Bouquets in Our Mailbag The Trailing of Andree _ Watchdogs of the World “Bround the Beat’ Page Two CORPORAL SOLES RETIRE By FRANK L. REYNOLDS IT WAS while sitting in a picture show in Nanaimo this summer that I heard a little bit about the experiences of Corporal George Soles, of the Provincial Police, 49-year old veteran of the last war, and one of the five men of the British Empire who wears the Distinguished Conduct Medal with two bars. In case you are not up on military decorations, the two bars mean that he won the medal not once, but three times, and after months of discreet questioning, and little by little, I heard part of his story. The picture that day was “SERGEANT YORK,” the story of an American soldier, the man who captured single-handed, 143 Germans, and with the help of a few comrades, took them back to camp. It was a story that thrilled the world, and obtained from York only after months of persuasion on the part of high-pressure magazine writers. Sergeant York is back today with the American army in its second World War. Corporal George Soles, was super- annuated last October after twenty years’ service with the B. C. Police, and after Left, Corp Soles; right, Const. Terry Stuart. a fine record with the Force. He was super- annuated because of excessive concentration to the pursuit of duty—chasing a criminal over miles of rough country, and later suffer- ing a heart attack which even a veteran of the rigours of battle of a first-line soldier of the Great War could not ignore. Cor- poral Soles is superannuated, not yet fifty, with a mind as young as the day he joined the 48th Battalion, Third Pioneers, but physically, as he puts it, he “can’t take what he could.” Wounded at Vimy, he was, on July 1st, 1917, transferred to the Seaforth Highlanders. He has his memories, and he has his son, Brett, not yet quite nineteen, who joined for the present war at seventeen and a half, and who is now a member of the crew of a minesweeper “somewhere.” Cor- poral Soles is really proud of the bo would rather talk about his adventur chances, than recall the exploits of rades and himself during the firs against the Germans. He dismisses an cussion of the time he took 43 Ger prisoners, single-handed, and marche back to his own lines, although s wounded in the head himself befo exploit started. He got a medal for it, but he will insist, “I wasn’t any hero—h don’t get scared, and believe me, I \ scared plenty.” Then he drifts off to other fellows did. He tells of the time whe young Frank Slavin died. Frank Sla in, 0 4 Victoria, son of Frank Slavin, one-tim world famous heavyweight prizefighter. was the younger Frank who was the machine gunner of the Battalion, says Co poral Soles, and who accounted for than twenty Germans, just before he, self, died after being riddled with ma gun bullets. “That day,” remembers the Corpe “Frank and I were standing in a trench. © The Germans were attacking. Frank, who, big and powerful, handled a machine | as easily as most men handled a rifle, sh from the hip, and the circle of his wicked bullet’s arc, brought down German a SI German as they made their advance. Frank was not satisfied. He climbed to top of the trench and stood silhouei working his machine gun with deadly eff I called him to come back, but he kept fir Then it happened. Enemy bullets struc Frank tumbled back into the trench, — through both arms and both legs. I admin tered first aid, and put him on a stretche I watched them carrying him away. Th were almost out of sight, then came a sl and Frank, stretcher, and stretcher-bea were blown to atoms. There was nothi left.” : “Yes, but what about the time you 1 the German prisoners?” I asked. Corpo: Soles relaxed a littlk—he was dressed i civies, and could relax. “Oh, that,” he saic “that was at Cambrai. “There was a | village, I forget the name, that we had take There were two trenches, a kind of pinchi like affair, skirting the village, with a mal A been wounded in the head, and figured best I could do was to make for a dr station. I started back, threw away al equipment, and was well into the villa trench, when suddenly I saw a Ge sentry. He was standing guard at entrance of a deep dugout. I had to him, but I didn’t have a rifle. I scouted back a few yards, found an abandoned Get man rifle, and sneaked back, put it against the German’s back, and said “Hands He couldn’t understand English bu knew the feel of cold steel. He droppe rifle, and elevated. There was a pile hand grenades near the sentry, and I coul see the entrance to the dugout. * many?” I signalled, holding up my han THE SHOULDER STRA