AMAZING QUALITIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 249, 18 September 1940, Page 8

AMAZING QUALITIES.

COURAGEOUS LONDONERS.

ORDEAL BRAVELY FACED.

Reference to the amazing' qualities of sangfroid and endurance displayed by the citizens of London in the ordeal through which they are passing was made by the commentator in the Daventry news bulletin to-day. Many examples could be given of the imperturbability of Londoners, lie stated. It was difficult to convey their extremely casual quality, perhaps epitomised by the spectacle of an A.lt. I ■ warden going about his business with a monoc.e firmly fixed in one eve. the commentator, a Canadian, sakLhe had become firmly convinced that this British phlegm was not an affectation, hut a perfectly genuine attitudei of mind. Englishmen ivere behaving like a nation of heroes, though one would never hear an Englishman say so. The commentator said he had been astonished at the smallness-of the damago in London after 12 days raids. Bombs were not necessarily lethal unless people were directly underneath them, and in many cases the worst done by them was to cause a crater iii a street or break a gas main The casualties were surprisingly small. The bombardment from the sky was simply an extension of the war of nerves. London’s buses, trains, tubes, gas, water and electricity supplies were all functioning. Newspapers and the milk were still on the front doorstep every morning. The Germans were no within 100 years of forcing the withdrawal of Londoners. The object of the raids was pure terrorism, an attempt to force people to demand peace, the commentator added. It was an amazing fact, but absolute lv true, that he had not met a single defeatist or one ready to throw up the sponge.” Despite the disgusting brutality and wretchedness of mar the •people were willing ‘‘to stick it definitely because they knew, when the war began, that the ordeal would come. Mr Churchill, in his latest speech typified that spirit of endurance when he mentioned that heavier air raids could be expected.