PREMIER’S TOUR

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 243, 11 September 1940, Page 7

PREMIER’S TOUR

IN DAMAGED AREAS. CHEERED BY CROWDS. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 10 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 10. The Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) made a further visit to the damaged areas in Loudon this morning. The area visited was in the city where bombs were dropped last night and early this morning.

Mr Churchill was recognised by crowds of city workers and was loudly cheered.

One man raised the shout: “Are we downhearted?” which was followed almost immediately by a fullthroated roar of “No!” from thousands of workers.

Mr Churchill later lunched with the King at Buckingham Palace.

MORALE IMPRESSES

The opinion was expressed in informed circles yesterday that till a means of dealing adequately with night-bomb-ing had been evolved —the problem is occupying the close attention both of the British and the German experts—civilian morale was the most important single factor in the war to-day. Judgment even by neutral journalists of the German morale is difficult and perhaps impossible to obtain; the spite of the cruel Gestapo effectively prevents its expression. In Britain very different conditions have . prevailed. Freely arc views propounded, and the reaction to recent experiences is easy to assess. Consequently the views of neutral observers in London afford valuable evidence of how the ordinary “man in the street” is standing up to the aerial attack, and they are a valuable guide in estimating how the battle for world freedom is progressing. Such observers obtain the free opinion of a free people, and a broadcast yesterday by an American journalist, Mr John Macdan e, is of interest and importance.

“It was,” Mr Macdane said, “pretty unpleasant during the second raid, because everyone felt they were right on the target. But during it all ambulances and trucks kept oil lolling up to shelters, taking aboard 20 or 30 women and children and rolling away again with them. The spirit of the people was nothing short of wonderful. People who had lost their homes and relatives weren’t happy, but I saw hundreds of women and not one crying. One policeman looked at lines of homeless people, and then lie spat disgustedly and said, ‘To think we give those Nazi airmen tea Svlien they land here !’

“The wife of a public house keeper who had his establishment not more than three or four hundred yards from the docks said: T was going to celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary to-night, and my old man was going to take me out to supper. I guess I’ll have to celebrate here.’ Then she laughed and called for a round of drinks, for her customers.”