THE SOLDIER AND THE CANARIES

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 9, 5 October 1940, Page 18

THE SOLDIER AND THE CANARIES

TlEAli Everybody,-— Il'c hate heard some strange and very thrilling stories of the epio evacuation of Dunkirk. All the horrors and heroisms of that historical campaign icill never be completely recorded, but we thought that you would like to read this small footnote which has its own small niche in the great drama that took place a few months ago on the shores of France. It was not the B.E.F. alone that got away. The "Children's Newspaper” stales that accompanying them ivere three canaries, and they are now singing blithely in the West of England! It all happened like this: A British soldier was hailed by a Belgian refugee who asked him to take care of a big cage containing the three canaries. Despite the hardships that he had already experienced the soldier had evidently retained his sense of humour, for he goodnaturedly took the swaying cage with its terrified little occupants and waded through the surf to a rescue boat. Once on board the ship he took off his soaked uniform and lay down to snatch a brief sleep. But he did not relax for long. A bomb struck the ship and he was dragged on board a nearby destroyer, still clinging to the birdcage. There is no doubt that many other weary infantrymen had good reason to smile when they sate this man, clad only in a steel helmet and a limp shirt, doggedly refusing to let the cage go! The three canaries had their feathers charred and blackened by the dust and fumes of bombs and bullets —in odd contrast to the soldier's bare ichite legs as he stood undaunted on the deck of the warship. There i-S no doubt that the. Tommy himself smiles at the memory of it. And we haw no doubt, either, that- somewhere in the Book of

Noble Things there is a page which tells the gallant tale of the soldier and his birds! Cheerio.