NEW MEANING OF B.B.C.

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 92, 15 October 1940, Page 9

NEW MEANING OF 8.8.C.

"BRITAIN BLESSES CANADA*

BROADCAST TO EVACUATED CHILDREN

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 13. In a broadcast talk to the evacuated children in Canada, the Under-Secre-tary of the Dominions, Mr. Geoffrey Shakespeare, told a good story. He was broadcasting in the new weekly programme in the 8.8.C. North AmerlI can service called "For the Children." "I am very delighted," said Mr. Shakespeare, "to have a chance at I speaking to you—the 1534 boys and I girls who have by now settled down in Canada. How are you all? Your reply echoes across the Atlantic: 'Very well thank you.' I knew you were. "There was one girl I heard of called Sheila —I won't say in which town in Canada she is. When asked by the chief escort if she had had a good dinner, she replied: 'Yes, thank you. I had chicken and cauliflower and sweet corn and gravy, ice cream, five oranges, two peaches, and some grapes.' 'But.' said the chief escort, 'Sheila, you will burst!' and Sheila replied, 'Yes, but it's worth it'" Mr. Shakespeare continued: "It is an awful responsibility to iave to answer for this huge new family -of C.0.R.8. children. Thank you for making my task easier by behaving so wonderfully. During the voyage, I am told, you charmed half the buttons and badges off the officers and -crew.

"I hear from many letters how happy you are in your new homes. Do you remember when I spoke to you in the hostels? I said, 'You are the lucky ones. You have been chosen to represent Britain in Canada, and you will not only have fathers and mothers here whose loving thoughts are always with you, but you will get new fathers and mothers as foster parents and perhaps new grandfathers and grandmothers and new aunts and uncles.'

"I picture you now with your new parents or new friends, and your war duty is to show by your conduct how grateful we all are to them for two blessings—first, for sending to our aid their magnificent fighting men, and, secondly, for .so generously giving you safe shelter in homes far from the war zona.

"That is why BJ.C. has a new meaning: it means Britain Blesses Canada. So Canada and Britain will be drawn ever closer and closer together."