LIFE IN ENGLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24424, 9 October 1940, Page 5

LIFE IN ENGLAND

GERMAN MISJUDGMENT OF CHARACTER The following extracts from a letter received by a Dune Jin lady from a friend in Camberley, Surrey, afford a glimpse, corroborative of other accounts, of the conditions of life in England at the present time “People are taking all the raids most calmly, and they carry on as if there was no one hoping to bomb them. The Huns are certainly no judges of character if they thought lh .'y’d shake us the way they did the French. It was really unbelievable when we heard about France. They know the Huns from bitter experience, and it seemed incredible that any one of them could imagine they’d get any armistice terms, or that if they did the devils -would keep them! I find most people are glad ve’ve got o more allies to stab us in the back. “ We’ve made a shelter ot the cupboard under the stairs. We stuff the window with big cushions, and can leave the door open. We’ve made a cosy corner for Rex (the greyhound), and he went in last night most calmly and lay down. Before w got it ready we just sat in the hall and played patience, but it is so annoying losing our sleep. When it’s a single plane we don’t have a warning, and then there's no way to know when the raid is over, as, of course, there’s no ‘all clear.’ As a result, we had to come down twice last night Our R.A.F. is wonderful beyond words—it is really superhuman. “ We’ve both registered as blood donors,' and my sister has given a pint of her blood to the big military hospital at Aldershot. We’ve always wanted to do .c because we’re so healthy and everything heals so quickly on us. We’ve found a good many more people here who are willing to do it too and the other day had them here. Twelve army doctors came and did the tests to save them having to go to Aldershot. We gave them tea in the garden, and it turned into . very successful party. It’s a comfort having our soldiers in our own country, but no one knows how long it will last. It’s a perfectly horrible war fighting alone against the forces of evil. It’s only a small thing, but I do hate going for walks with Rex. never knowing if there’ll be a raid, and where I can get with him. I’d go into - house if there was one. but 1 generally lake him the most country ways I can. “ We helped to run a canteen for the splendid Dunkirk men at the station here for a week, and I’ve never done a job I liked so much, though it was very tiring. It was awfully hot, and there was such a lot of standing and walking. They were so splendid and such dears. They were all wanting to go back to punish Jerry, and were coldly angry—not on account cf what they’d endured, but because of the appalling things they’d seen done to the refugees by those arch-devils - they ran over them with tanks among other vile things, and drove them wherever luey wanted them to hamper us. One man brought home a baby! He’d seen the mother machine-gunned and fall on it. It must have hampered him most terribly. He fed it on Swiss milk and took it to his wife wJien he gat to England. Aren’t these men marvellous! ”