NOTABLE SERVICE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 127, 29 April 1940, Page 7

NOTABLE SERVICE.

NEWFOUNDLAND RESPONSE. (British Official Wireless.) Received April 29, 9.45 a.m. RUGBY, April 28. Referring to the arrival in England last Thursday of fighting forces from Newfoundland, the newspaper Observer comments: “Although it is not relatively a large contingent, it is in some ways the most significant of any. Newfoundland, though the oldest, is the smallest and poorest of the Dominions with a population of under 300,000 and lias a hard climate and infertile soil. Had they said their own troubles were enough to cope with and professed only academic sympathy with the Allies who could have wondered? But what do we find? Fewer in numbers than the inhabitants of Lambeth or Islington, the Newfoundlanders have claimed a place in every department of war. Thousands are enrolled in the Navy, some have won distinction in the Air Force, and the men who arrived on Thursday will form an artillery unit of their own. Other thousands are engaged in logging ill the British woodlands, and complain only that they are not allowed to substitute service in arms for the employment in which their technical skill is so invaluable. “None of these men is serving the Allied cause for any reason but bis own choice. Individuals were under no compulsion to come, for their Government told them. They are here because they feel the battle is for liberty, that the Empire is embarked on a glorious enterprise, and that the honour and satisfaction of sharing in it is due to themselves.”