VITAL WAR FACTOR

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1940, Page 7

VITAL WAR FACTOR

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.

MORALE OF THE CIVILIAN HIGH PRAISE FOR BRITISH

British Official Wireless. Rec. 5.5 p.m. Rugby, Sept. 9. The opinion was expressed in informed circles to-day that until a means of dealing adequately with night bombing has been evolved — a problem occupying the close attention of both British and German experts — civilian morale was the most important single factor in the war to-day. Judgment even by neutral journalists of German morale is difficult, perhaps impossible, to obtain — the spite of the cruel Gestapo effectively prevents expression. In Britain very different conditions prevail. Freely are views propounded, and the reaction to recent experiences is easy to assess. Consequently the views of neutral observers at London afford valuable evidence of how the ordinary "man in the street" is standing up to aerial attacks and are a valuable guide in estimating how the battle for [ world freedom i.s^.progressing. Free Opinion of Free People. Such observers obtain the free opinion of a free people, and a broadcast yesterday by an American joumalist, Mr. John MacDane, is of interest and importance. "It was," Mr. MacDane said, "pretty unpleasan't during the second raid, because everyone felt he was right on the target. But "during it all ambulances and trucks kept on rolling up to shelters, taking aboard 20 and 30 women and children and rolling away again with them. "The spirit of the people was nothing short of wonderful. People who had lost homes and relatives were not happy, but I saw hundreds of women, and not one was crying. One policeman looked at the lines of homeless people. Then he spat disgustedly and said, 'To think we give those Nazi airmen tea when they land here.' "The wife of a pubkeeper who had a pub no more than three or four hundred yards from the docks said: 'I was going to celebrate my 41st weddmg anniversary to-night, and my old man was going to take me out to supper. I guess 1*11 have to celebrate here.' Then she laughed and called for a round of drinks for the customers."