A LETTER FROM BIG BROTHER BILL

Evening Star, Issue 23620, 5 July 1940, Page 3

A LETTER FROM BIG BROTHER BILL

Dear Bairns,—lt is a little early to uy how the letter-writing competition went, hut some of the-letters are on this-week’s page, and I think you will agree they are all very good. A word about the competitions. It is natural that many of the bairns will find, the correct answer; the competitions . are purposely made,not too difficult. But the secret of winning is to make your reply the very neatest you can. All the correct answers are grouped together and the neatest is awarded the prize. You will not,forget our picture gallery. Your own picture,_ or a picture of your pets, or an- incident in your holidays, carl all appear on the page if you send them to Big Brother Bill, They will be returned to you in good order and condition. Now, a serious word or two. All boys lift their caps to women—whether their own mother or sister, or mother and sister of any other lad. It’s the right thing to do; the natural thing

in a lad who respects himself.. it is s silly idea that -a gentleman is one with plenty of money and nothing to do in life but spend it. A gentleman is first of all a lad or man who respects women in all things. We live in days when lads of all ages are thinking of the heroism of our soldiers on the battle fronts on land, on sea, and in the air. Think for a little while of the splendid women of the Empire who stand behind our soldiers.-. For tho second time in our generation brave women are taking the place of men to enable soldiers to do their job' for ns all. Women in England, are ploughing, sowing, and reaping: milking cows and delivering the milk; driving taxis and ambulances; acting as gas inspectors, fitters, electricians, conductors of trams and buses. There is thing men do that they are not doing* as well as their sons and fathers and husbands. Nurses and women surgeons are staffing hospitals, of course, but they are also making aeroplanes, munitions, and working behind the fighting fronts as cooks and laundresses. There are women coppersmiths, armourers, and gun-repairers; women making chains and bolts: indeed, everything short of actual fighting. They are working willingly, with courage and self-denial, in daily peril from air raids. The next time you raise your cop to a woman you know, keep in your mind it is not being ' done because they are “ weaker ” than men, but because, when the time demands it,, they are as heroic as the bravest soldier can ever be. Hats off to the women of these brave days!—Yours affectionately, BIG BROTHER BILL.