BRITISH BACKS ARE UP
'■To have lived through the last few days is to have experienced once again the mysterious movement of the spirit of a nation," wrote the Dean of St. Paul's, Dr W. R. Matthews, on the eve of the outbreak of war. "The most obvious thing to say about the feeling of the people at large is that it is totally different from that of September, 1938. Then there was bewilderment and fear— 'neither of them unnatural nor unfounded. Now there is no fear, and if there is bewilderment it is of a different kind. The people with whom I have spoken do not for the most part profess to understand the intricacies of the European situation, but they think they understand very well the essentials of the problem. They have been bitterly humiliated by the events following Munich, and they are determined that they will not be bullied and cheated again. The simplest description of their mood is that their backs are up. But this does not sum up the complex spirit of England. There is absolutely no hatred of Germans. There is nothing but an earnest desire to be friends with them mingled with a despairing compassion for that .great people that it should have fallen into the hands of fanatics for power,"
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Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 91, 17 November 1939, Page 3
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218BRITISH BACKS ARE UP Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 91, 17 November 1939, Page 3
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