GERMANY WITHOUT CHEERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 296, 21 April 1941, Page 7

GERMANY WITHOUT CHEERS

TROOPS PASS BY IN STOLID SILENCE "Scores of times 1 have seen columns ol' motoriscd troops poiuing through lierlin and half-a-dozen other ci lies on their way to the front, first lownrds Poland and later towards the west. But among all these columns I have seen and heard only one lorry lull of men singing. All the others sat in silence. And nine-tenths of the people on the sidewalks did not even turn their heads fo watch the troops. I have never heard a spontaneous cheer for passing troops exccpt when normal parades were held. I was in two of the principal streets in Berlin for the first half-hour after the news became known that France had asked for terms. At last, I thought, I should sec some normal human reaction. It was, after all, one of the greatest military triumphs of all times. But there was no reaction to be seen, none at all. The Berliners looked neither jubilant nor happy nor even relieved. They looked iust the same as tliev had looked for more than six years. They just looked tired. The second world war is a war without cheers as far as Germany is concerned."—Walter Beuel. American correspondent recently, returned from Berlin. Minute's Silent Prayer. Following the example set in England, where a minute is se.t aside for silent prayer every night at nine o'clock, the Dominion-wide radio news service is now preceded by a similar period of meditation. A recording of Big Ben striking nine o'clock is broadcast at this time over all national and commercial stations. The practice, which has the support of the King, lias been commended to the people of New Zealand by the Governor-Gen-eral, Sir C3*ril Ntwall, the Prime Minister, the Pit. Hon. P. Fraser, and Church leaders.