BRITISH WORKERS’ MORALE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 284, 26 August 1940, Page 12

BRITISH WORKERS’ MORALE

Contempt Of Air Raids NO DISLOCATION OF INDUSTRY • British Official Wireless.) (Received August 25, 7.5 p.m.) It is expected that the Home Secretary, Sir John Anderson, will make a further statement shortly dealing with the special arrangements lor air-raid warnings in industrial areas. In this connexion interest attaches to the considerable prominence which the German ‘'Workers’ Challenge” station has given recently to propaganda talks, the purpose of which is to incite- British workers who, they hope, are listening to their transmission, against being 'compelled to continue work on vital war production during air raids.

Constant repetition of this theme in the broadcasts from the German station is considered in London to be a sure sign of serious disappointment at the failure to dislocate Britain s industrial life, which Germany hoped would result from her recent large-scale air attacks. In point of fact, the view of the British worker, which is frequently seen expressed in the Press, is that, providing air-raid warnings are sounded to enable his dependants to take shelter, he himself is prepared to ignore them ami continue his work. Discussions along these Hues are reported to have been proceeding between the Home Secretary, the Minister of Labour, employers and officials of the trades unions. But the German raids have not only failed to dislocate British industry, but have also failed to have anything but a strengthening effect on tiie morale of the British people. Testimony of this fact was given by Lord Nuffield this evening. He said that he had been profoundly inspired by the steadiness of cheerful courage of British workers in the face of air attacks. “If the enemy could see certain residential districts in industrial centres which I recently visited,” he said, “and noted the cheerful contempt with which his airmen’s efforts are treated by the workers whose homes have suffered. he would despair of ever breaking the morale of the British people. One of the examples which Lord Nuffield instanced was that of a worker whose cottage was damaged in a night raid and who carefully rummaged among the rubble for a Union Jack which he had kept since the Coronation. When dawn came it was fluttering gaily from the battered chimney stack. ;