WORLD PICTORIAL NEWS NO 250 [Main Title]

An edition of the British official newsreel "World Pictorial News", produced by the Ministry of Information, Middle East.

I. 'CIVIL AVIATION. Minister of Civil Aviation, Lord Winster boards a parked and chocked Vickers-Armstrongs VC1 Viking passenger aircraft. Brief interior footage shows Lord Winster sitting in his seat. Viking aircraft G-AGOK runs up its Bristol Hercules 130 engines and taxies for take off (aircraft is in natural metal finish and is not liveried). Aerial footage shows Viking G-AGOK in flight. British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Avro Lancastrian G-AGWG "Starlight" stands parked and chocked on the tarmac at the newly opened Heathrow Airport in Middlesex. Lancastrian "Starlight" takes off from Heathrow en-route for an undisclosed location (possibly on the inaugural flight of the BOAC high speed service between London and Australia).

II. 'RUGGER - KIWIS V. WALES.' Highlights of a well-attended New Zealand (All Blacks) vs Wales rugby football match held in Cardiff Arms Park. New Zealand Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, is introduced to the competitors.

III. 'JAPS EVACUATE KOREA.' An item concerning the repatriation of Japanese soldiers and their families from Korea. Panoramic footage shows Seoul and its surrounding mountains. Koreans go about their daily business on the streets of Seoul. United States (US) infantry search the belongings of Japanese awaiting repatriation at Pusan Docks. Japanese returnees are sprayed with DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) and are inoculated against typhoid prior to embarkation onto waiting merchant shipping.

IV. 'NEWS FROM GERMANY.' An item highlighting Ministry of Health (MoH) anti-typhus measures in Hamburg. An MoH inoculation leaflet bears the legend "Typhus-Schutzimpfung." A disinfection squad wearing protective clothing moves rapidly into action to cleanse a room formerly occupied by a patient suffering from typhus. The patient's bedding is taken away and the room is sprayed with DDT. Brief interior footage shows male and female laboratory workers producing serum for inoculations. German civilians queue at a Hamburg inoculation centre. Interior footage shows inoculations being given and inoculation cards being issued on completion of treatment.

V. 'FAREWELL TO US TROOPS.' The closure of "Rainbow Corner" American Red Cross Centre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. Exterior footage shows Rainbow Corner with a Healey and Baker "Sold By" board attached to its frontal elevation. United States (US) servicemen congregate at the entrance of Rainbow Corner, where they chat and smoke cigarettes. Honoured guests, Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt and Anthony Eden arrive for the final nights entertainment at the Red Cross Centre. Crowds throng the entrance to the centre. Interior footage shows couples dancing on a very crowded dance floor. Exterior crowd scenes follow.

35mm