BRITAIN’S COURAGE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 259, 29 July 1941, Page 3

BRITAIN’S COURAGE

Showing A Cheerful Face In Trying Times

A tribute to the courage shown by the people of England, particularly Loudon, while carrying on during exceedingly difficult times was paid by Dr. A. Gillies, who presided over the annual general meeting yesterday afternoon of the Wellington centre of the New Zealand Red Cross Society. AU sections of the community, he said, were showing a cheerful face in verv trying circumstances. Dr. Gillies recently returned from England, where he was acting as commissioner for the Red Cross movement in New Zealand. After his return to New Zealand, people had said to him, “I suppose you saw England at its worst,” Dr. Gillies told delegates. To that comment he had always replied, “Yes, but I have also seen England’s people at their best.”

Referring to the work of the Red Cross in England, he said that never before iu the history of the organization bad it shown up to better advantage than during the war. Never before had the Red Cross accomplished so much, aud never before had its ministrations been so greatly needed by mankind in general. “I have had first-hand experience of the bombing of a large city like London, and I now know what the bombing of a large- city means,” he added. “The courageous altitude of mind that has developed among the people is simply amazing. The people of London are extraordinary in the way in which they face up to their difficulties.” When he was first in London, said Dr. Gillies, the danger of epidemics arising out of unsatisfactory conditions iu the air-raid shelters was considerable, but the shelters had been improved out of all sight, and now were much safer from a health point of view.