Britain Stands Cairn

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 178, 29 July 1940, Page 7

Britain Stands Cairn

Localities in Britain which have had nir raids are still quite a small part of the whole country, but in the regions most frequently mentioned in announcements by the Ministry for Home Security the to are a few places where during the last six. weeks siren warnings, the drone of engines, gunfire and occasional bombs have become very familiar.

Experience in these areas of the people's calmness, patience, irrepressible good humour and kindliness, to. each other leaves no doubt of how the rest of Britain will behave 'when its turn comes, or how the nation as a whole will stand up to the menace from the air.

Wherever Hitler's "travellers" have called with their samples of aerial inight and menace, the determination to liberate the world from domination by terrorism may be a little more grim than elsewhere, but ithere ie no despondency. The inhabitants are showing

great adaptability and ingenuity in overcoming inconvenience and disturbances from the normal routine, caused by regularly repeated warnings and raids. To avoid fatigue due to interrupted rest, many people have changed their steeping hours, while others sleep in shelters.

In many streets of small houses common shelters have jieen erected by the authorities, and where Nvarnings are almost a nightly occurrence neighbourliness is joined by something of a picnic spirit.

Wives take it in turn to provide hot drinks, men arrange games, and concerts are provided by young people, adjacent shelters sometimes exchanging the more successful "artists," whose prospective "appearance" is duly "billed" the previous day.

Such is the resilience of spirit with which enemy raids On Britain have been met so far.