BRITHSH SPIRIT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 17, 20 January 1940, Page 11

BRITHSH SPIRIT.

i ' UNITED OPTIMISM. NO IDEA OF DEFEAT. AUSTRALIAN'S ADMIRATION. Unbounded admiration for the spirit of optimism and the resolute unity pervading all classes of Great Britain was expressed by Mr. William G. James, controller of music for the Aus- ti tralian Broadcasting Commission, who c( spent three months in England inimedi- ti ately after the outbreak of war. It was G really remarkable, he said, how very r( determined and united the people were; , they would not for a moment hear of c ' defeat. a London was a city of sandbag shelters, Yi and the people carried gas masks with n tliem at all times, yet they carried on C( with surprising gaiety. Personally iie had found the black-outs at night very depressing. There was not a light in the a streets, nor from a window. Any gleam !', of light permitted to come from an up.shrouded window brought a speedy repriniand. Yet people went about at nights 1 to places of amusement, mostly picture shows. There were various gadgets in use, such as luminous buttons, for avoiding pedestrian collisions in the streets. Ho had formerly lived in Loudon and experienced that city's fogs but he found the black-out more depressing than the a densest fog. Amusement shows had to b conclude at 10 p.m., and most of the v musical recitals were held in the after- V noons. L Out of the Fog. J, After a dash across the Atlantic 111 a British ship which was unconvoyed, but f was fast and well armed, lie experienced a great revival in spirit 011 entering the American atmosphere of unrestricte I n lights and normal night life. ' jj

I The impression gained in Xew York c was tliat America was strongly pro- j Allies and appeared to be convinced that ( what Britain was fighting for was tlic 2 right tiling. A feature of their war news c was direct broadcasts every night from j London. Paris, BeHin and Finland, in j which the contradictory news was am- t lysed by experts to give a lucid resume of what was happening. i Again Mr. James returned to the optimism of the great mass of the British 1 people in circumstances which, he had ( found trying, their faitli in victory, and ] the wonderful feats of organisation per- i formed in the evacuation of the child- 3 ren of the cities to places of comparative 1 safety, and, especially, of the of i the British Broadcasting Company's station in all its vast reticulations to "somewhere in Britain." There -was also the building up of a radio service that went for 24 hours a day, including the broadcasting of news and propaganda in 17 different languages. No matter what precautions were taken in Germany against listening-in this news was bound to seep in.