Girls in Blue
F our cover picture requires an explanation it is because most of us accept as our right what comes to us free. We accepted the cars that met transports through _the whole period of the war, the girls who drove them, and the surrender of liberty and leisure that went with every journey, because they never failed. If we had been asked to provide this service ourselves, to pay for it, and to take our share of the endless tasks it involved, we should: know what that uniform means, and how much discipline and training were accepted by those who qualified to wear it. The story was told in part in an Armistice Day broadcast, but no story can be told adequately in a few minutes, and it is in any case easier to forget than to remember. Let us not forget. Let us remember that no such service comes into existence on the word of any individual high or low; that it does not spring up in a night, even under the stimulus of war; that emotions die down long before any job is carried through; and that this particular job went on only because those directing it and those carrying it out kept a little fire burning inside that a less cynical age would have called a conscience. Whatever we call it, it kept them going, not for a week or two or a month or two but for the long duration éf the war-800 cars, 800 drivers, meeting transports and hospital ships, calling for the incapacitated afterwards and taking them to specialists or to football matches, always available wherever the call
came trom, in most cases with their : own cars, and sometimes with their own petrol. Altogether they covered nearly 3,000,000 miles; and although as time went on they were organised into sections and units like an army, with local and district commanders, the rule remained that every member must own a car or be able to guarantee the use of one. It was also a point} of honour among them that they should bear their own running costs-and become good enough mechanics to do minor repairs themselves. .Add drill; add firstaid; add courses in A.R.P. and re-suscitation-and we have a few of the reasons why they took the petrel as their emblem (a bird that never rests).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 335, 23 November 1945, Page 5
Word count
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394Girls in Blue New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 335, 23 November 1945, Page 5
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.