THE SPIRIT OF ENGLAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1310, 13 October 1914, Page 4

THE SPIRIT OF ENGLAND.

“These are the days of many farewells ; sorrow comes with parting and a sense of pride, for we know now that Englishmen are still Englishmen,” writes a correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph. “I have just said good-bye to a party of bluejackets newly enrolled. Yesterday they were graduates and undergraduates of Cambridge University men who have won distinction in upholding the honour of their ’varsity in peaceful waters —a president of the C.U.8.C., two Blues, aud many other oars whose names are known on the towpatb. These men, some of whom, hardly more than a month ago were championing Leander colours at Henley, and helping to keep at least some of the ‘pots’ at home, are now wearing the round cap and all-enveloping trouser of the seaman of the British Navy. Most

of them well over 6ft., and broad iu proportion, in their new ‘rig’ they hardly suggest the comfortable build of the ordinary British tar. Eager to serve in the lowest of ranks, rather than remain idle for even a short time in the hour of emergency, these men all signed on without demur in the humble capacity of A.B’s. of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and, under the command of the . more experienced ot their number, now the newly-commissioned lieutenant of this crew, they go to-day to carry out orders of the Admiralty. This is, I imagine, a story typical of hundreds of others. They differ in detail, but the spirit—the spirit which demands service for the Mother Country in the time of her need—is that which has ever actuated the sons of England, and which has brought us to realise in these last days of stress that England’s call still finds its response in the hearts of Englishmen.”