MONEY FOR WARSHIPS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23582, 9 March 1942, Page 4

MONEY FOR WARSHIPS

New Campaigns In Britain “MOST CRITICAL STAGE OF WAR” (8.0.W,) RUGBY, March, 7. No fewer than 152 warships weeks were opened in England and Wales today. Five areas set out for £1,000,000 —Birkenhead, Chester end Hoqle, Rockdale, Luton, and Watford. Luton and Watford are in friendly combat. A few weeks ago, Watford sent a challenge to Luton by a knight in armour, who rode to the town hail, and in medieval fashion, threw down a gauntlet, and read a challenge from a vellum scroll. At the opening of the Broadstairs (Kent) warships week, Captain H, H. Balfour; Parliamentary Under-Secre-tary to the Air Ministry, said the public must beware of long-haired experts who said that to smile was wicked and who would breathe an aroma of jaundiced prejudice over everything that did not fit in with their particular picture of a regimented colourless national life. "Distress arid long faces need not necessarily go together. Though (his is total war, it need not mean total gloom. The Government has said that amusements and relaxation and the personal conduct of our lives must rightly be confined to limits within which our war supplies are not being wasted or our war effort harmed. Extravagance and display must be cut out. "Needless to say, there are killjoys who take every advantage of this declaration to read into it something which is not meant. It does not mean no fun for anybody. If our young men fly hard, then let them have a party and be cheerful. If someone works 55 to 60 hours a week, let him go to the cinema or to such races as may be allowed, or dance the evening through wjth his best girl. ‘Tough but cheerful’ should be our motto for to-day. “Our first and main job,” Captain Balfour said, "is to win the war. If we argue and dream too much about the brave new world of the future we can only divert our energies from the vital needs of the immediate future. The Prime Minister has set aside a section pf the Government to do this work so that the rest of us can concentrate on getting on with the war job.” Critical Stage of War The First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr A. V. Alexander), speaking at Fulham, "London, said the Navy had never had to meet such a variety of attacks at sea as in this war. “The stage of the war at which we have arrived is the most critical,” he said. "The Navy has been given a far more difficult job as a result of events in the Far East. We need courage, endurance, and doggednesg,” At the opening of the Pepge (Kent) warship weeks, Mr W. Mabane, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Security, advised civil defence workers'to get on their toes and stay there. ‘"There are facile optimists who imagine that the German bombers will never return, just as there were those who said they would never come at all. Do not heed such people. Look instead at the pictures of our own raids on the Renault works. Read the speech of the Air Secretary on bombing policy, Realise that an offensive of unexampled force and fury against Germany is part of our contribution to the efforts of our gallant Russian allies in the spring. Then be ready for German raids in reply. j