NATION ON GUARD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 September 1940, Page 6

NATION ON GUARD

KING EXPRESSES GRATITUDE TO CIVILIAN WORKERS DEVOTION OF ALL REGARDLESS OF DANGER. SERVICES RANK WITH THOSE OF FIGHTING FORCES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, September 23. His Majesty the King’s broadcast was from an underground shelter at Buckingham Palace, during an air raid warning. “To the men and women who carry on work of the A.R.P. services,” said the King in his broadcast, “I should like to say a special word of gratitude. The devotion of these civilian workers, firemen, salvage men and many others, in the face of grave and constant danger has won a new renown for the British name. These men and women are worthy partners of our armed forces and our police —of the Navy, once more, as so often before, our sure shield, and of the Merchant Navy, of the Army and Home Guard, alert and eager to repel any invader, and of the Air Force, whose exploits are the wonder of the world. Tonight indeed we are a nation on guard and in the line. Each task, each bit of duty done, however simple and domestic, is part of our war work. It takes rank with the sailors’ duty, soldiers’ and airmen’s duty. The men and women in the factories or on railways, who work on regardless of danger, though the sirens have sounded, maintaining all the services and necessities of common life and keeping the fighting line well supplied with weapons, earn their place among the heroes of this war. No less honour is due to all those who, night after night, uncomplainingly endure discomfort, hardship and peril in their homes and shelters.”