ON THE MARCH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 302, 28 September 1940, Page 5

ON THE MARCH.

THE EMPIRE WAR EFFORT.

SOLID BACKING FOR BRITAIN.

LONDON, September .26. Air Marshal AV. A. Bishop, the famous Canadian Y.C. airman, who shot down 77 German aeroplanes in the .last war, in a broadcast said that it was a great thrill to him to be speaking on British .soil when only a few days ago he had been in Canada.

Recalling .a quarter of a century ago when ho was “doing, my humble bbst towards -victory,” Air Marshal Bishop said that th%n they had had difficult and unequal fighting in the skies. “But,” he continued, “22 years ago we drove the pirate Huns out of the skies of Europe. The Empire, lie said, was on the march and with Britain through and through. As the months went by, be added, there would bo trained pilots in thousands coming to Britain to do again what their forbears did before. of the Empire air training scheme which, he said, was far ahead of schedule, Air Marshal Bishop said: “The Empire plan will bring from our Canadian -shores the trained aviators of our sister Dominions of Australia, New Zealand, and our own Dominion of Canada. Men of all parts of the Empire will train together as later on they will fight together. It will be an air force which will truly be an Empire Air Force binding the glorious ties of Empire which in the words of Burke ‘are light as air but strong as links of iron.’

“To-night, we think again of Britain of 1805, girding herself to meet Napoleon, the conqueror of Europe —as yon gird yourselves now to meet Hitler, conqueror of half of Europe,” he continued. “The role that once belonged to the Mother of our Empire alone, now belongs to all the Empire. A heavy load of responsibility now falls upon the Commonwealth of democratic peoples. “I repeat, that from Canada I bring you good cheer and a message of courage. We who, up till now, have had an easier task, athnire more than ever before, the great 'and hard task which has been yours. I bring you the greetings of Canada—of Canadians achieved. We in Canada say that Britain yet shall stand and the Empire emerge from these times of trouble a greater, more vital and more decisive factor in world history than ever before.”