CIVIC RECEPTION

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24814, 2 March 1946, Page 8

CIVIC RECEPTION

SIR WILLIAM DOBBIE HONOURED

THREE ENGAGEMENTS YESTERDAY

On the second day of his visit to Christchurch, Lieutenant-General Sir William Dobbie, the former Governor of Malta, made three public appearances. In the morning he addressed the pupils of St. Andrew’s College, and later he was the guest, at luricheon, of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. Last evening he and Lady Dobbie were given a civic reception in the Civic Theatre. It is expected that Sir William and Lady Dobbie’s visit to Christchurch will last a week.

Speaking at the civic reception last evening, Sir William Dobbie said that he was firmly convinced that Malta could not have been held without God’s help. It was tremendously important that the island should be held, and God was to be thanked that it remained in British hands. Sir William Dobbie said that at the time of Dunkirk, an aeroplane carrying a high ranking British officer had landed at Malta to refuel. He had asked the officer to tell him, in confidence, how many men the War Office expected to be saved from Dunkirk. The officer told him that it was hoped to evacuate 20,000 men. The number saved had actually been in excess of 350,000. It was a miracle, just as the stand of Malta had been described as a miracle.

In introducing Sir William Dobbie, the Mayor, Mr E. H. Andrews, said that Christchurch had be'Sn honoured by the visits of a number of distinguished persons recently, but none was more distinguished than Sir William Dobbie. Lady Dobbie, the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Rev. A. K. Warren), And Mr D. W. Russell, president of the. Christchurch Returned Services’ Association, also spoke. Chamber of Commerce Function A warm tribute to the work of the Merchant Navy was paid by Sir William Dobbie at the luncheon arranged by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. He referred particularly to a convoy of 14 ships which left Gibraltar for Malta in August, 1942. The situation at that time was grim, and supplies were very low. The convoy had to fight its way across the 1000 miles to Malta, and only three of the ships arrived, and one of these sank in the harbour at Malta after it had been unloaded. When the next convoy arrived, in December, the cupboard was almost bare, and only a week’s supplies remained, so it would#be seen how the food and munitions unloaded by the three ships which survived in the previous convoy, had helped. The people of Malta had shown a splendid spirit right through, and they had never caused him, as their Governor, a moment of worry on, the score of morale.

Address to St. Andrew’s College Pupils The difficulties of defending Malta with insufficient equipment and men were described by Sir William Dobbie in an address to the pupils of St. Andrew’s College. Only four battalions of infantry were available for the defence of 30 miles df coastline, and the rest of the island. By holding out, Malta had made a very considerable contribution to the victories of the Bth Army.

Before addressing the pupils, Sir William Dobbie screened a film made at Malta during the siege, showing tha island’s defences in action, and the havoc caused by the frequent and heavy bombings.