The Cine Technician (1939)

20 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN April-May, [937 Crowned Heads and Others Twenty-five Years with Pathe Gazette FRANK A. BASSILL DURING the years' service which I have had with the Pathe Gazette Newsreel, I have a sincere and sentimental respect for the friendships I have made during that period, and the newsreel to which I have been .11 1 ,K lied for so long. To give a record of twenty-five years in the same newsier] is perhaps similar to sitting with a crowd of chaps after a re-union dinner and searching over memories to find stories which we hope are new, but there are certain fai ts in that period which will remain with me for ever. In the service of the Gazette I have been sent to nearly every country on the Continent, Egypt and India, and events crowd only too quickly into my mind when I recall these various incidents, but there is one thing which I am quite certain of, and that is that there is every bit as much romance and strangeness in real life as in fiction. I can sympathise with the chap who goes to his office at 9 o'clock in the morning and remains until 6 o'clock, from January until December. However, one must realise that there are two sides to every question and we, of course, onlv remember the good and forget the other side. I joined the Pathe Gazette on November 11th, 1911, on the day the late King George V. left England on the "Medina" for India. On the same date in 1918, as an Official Cinematographer in France, I was called to the Town Major's office in Cambrai to make a picture of General Sir Douglas Haig and his army commanders. On this occasion they were gathered together as the Armistice had been signed. The same evening I was among the German patrols outside Enghien in Belgium, and was asked by one named Schmidt to take over some guns. He said that he would be back at the Ritz Hotel in London in a month. On returning to G.H.Q., I was informed that I had broken the terms <>f the Convention of Armistice, and was threatened with Court Martial, as the following communication shows : — With reference to your C.P. (/>) of 16th inst., I have the honour to report that Lieuts. E. Brooks and T. Aitken, Shooting a Tiger Hunt. Shooting an Earthquake, New Marble Hills, Italy. Official Photographers, and Messrs. F. A. Bassill and F. L. Wilson, Official Cinematographers, proceeded from Lille on the 14th instant with orders to accompany the Allied advance to Brussels and record the entry of the King of the Belgians, which was understood to have been fixed for the 15th. I understood that Messrs. Brooks and Wilson would go by Courtrai and Ghent and the other party by Tournai and Ath, but it appears they went together by the Tournai road to Enghien, where in the wake of some other British cars they passed the sentries and unexpectedly found themselves face to face with a party of Germans. As they were in a narrow road where it was difficult to turn their cars, they appear to have made the best of a bad situation, but it is regretted that photographs were taken ; these will be destroyed. The party returned to Enghien, where they passed the night 14th 15th, they appear to have met a D.A.P.M. oi the L Army Corps. On the 15th they again advanced towards Hal and again took photographs of German troops. The whole of this affair, though in direct contravention of my instructions that no car was to go beyond the Allied line, must be regarded as in implicit obedience to the general order that the party were to arrive in Brussels immediately after King Albert. I should, however, feel bound to request that these four gentlemen be tried by General Court Martial but for two considerations, viz. : — Lieut. Aitken having this d.w proceeded to England on duty (and being about to resign his commission on grounds oi ill-health, greatly aggravated by his devotion to duty during the continuance of hostility . while Messrs. Bassill and Wilson are attached to this Section l>\ the Ministry oi Information. It follows that Lieut. Brooks and the A.S.C. Drivers are liable to incur all the blame, although the responsibility for this foolish action is equally shared by the four operators concerned. In the second place, 1 feel that more harm is likely to arise from the publication of this story than was probably done by the actual adventure. thoroughly aware oi the oily, and 1 hope thai you These gentlemen are now possible consequences oi their