CHEERFUL COURAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 July 1940, Page 6

CHEERFUL COURAGE

EXHIBITED BY BRITISH PEOPLE IM AREAS SUBJECTED TO AIR RAIDS. GRIM DETERMINATION INTENSIFIED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Dav. 11.15 a.m.) RUGBY, July 28. Localities in Britain which have had air raids are still quite a small part of the whole country, but in the regions most frequently mentioned in Ministry of Home Security announcements there are a few places where, during the last six weeks, siren warnings, the drone of engines, gunfire and occasional bombs have become very familiar. Experience in these areas of the people’s calmness, patience. irrepressible good humour and kindliness to each other leaves no doubt as to how the rest of Britain will behave when its turn comes, or how the nation as a whole will stand up to (he air menace. Whenever Hitler's “travellers" have called with samples of the Luftwafl'a's might and menace, (he determination to liberate the world from domination by terrorism may be a little more grim than elsewhere, but there is no despondency. The inhabitants are showing great adaptability and ingenuity in overcoming the inconvenience and disturbances of normal routine caused by regularly repeated warnings and raids. To avoid the fatigue due to interrupted rest, many people have changed their sleeping hours. Others sleep in shelters. In many streets of small houses, common shelters have been erected by the authorities, and where warnings are almost of nightly occurrence. neighbourliness is joined by something of a picnic spirit. Wives take it in turn to provide hot drinks, men arrange games, and concerts are provided by young people, adjacent shelters sometimes exchanging the more successful, "artistes," whose prospective “appearance" is duly "billed" on the previous day. Such is the resilience of spirit with which enemy raids in Britain have been met so far.