BRAVE CHILDREN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 September 1940, Page 6

BRAVE CHILDREN

COOLNESS IN TORPEDOED SHIP ATTACKED ON ITS WAY TO CANADA. i PURSER THE ONLY CASUALTY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, September 1. A British evacuee ship carrying children and other passengers to Canada was torpedoed by a Üboat. No children were lost. The purser was the only casualty. Over seventy children were landed at a Scottish port.

The children on the ship, aged from 5 to 15, gave an amazing demonstration of courage and sangfroid. There was no crying or whimpering. One eight-year-old declared: “We don’t want Hitler to think he can beat us that easy.” The children went to bed at 7.39 p.m. on August 27. Within 31 minutes of the alarm bell after the ship had been struck by a torpedo every child was eft its boat, station, wearing a life-jacket and overcoat. The boat drill they had received and their coolness enabled them to carry out orders in the darkness. It was found that the holds were filling, so die children were ordered to the boats. Everyone got away safely except the Purser, who was fatally injured when he missed a step entering a boat. Most of the children landed clad only in pyjamas and overcoats. Although full details of the mishap are not yet available, it is known that the ship was not sunk.