BRITAIN’S CALM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 229, 26 August 1940, Page 7

BRITAIN’S CALM

RESOLUTE SPIRIT. NEUTRAL IMPRESSED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph —Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received August 26, 10.50 a.m. RUGBY, Aug. 25. A neutral Press correspondent who recently visited the southeast areas of England, which have so far borne the brunt of the German air attack, states in the Helsinki newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet that the trip was undertaken entirely on his own initiative, and without any escort. He speaks highly of the British morale.

“Oil the journey front London to the Channel it was practically impossible to aee the slightest traces of the daily raids. In a couple of towns I passed through the daily life proceeded perfectly normally. One was Maidstone, where 1 was forced to halt to obtain a permit from the Kent police, which, was granted lvithout trouble. Despite an air raid being in progress, Folkstone’s inhabitants were cheerful and calm, and took shelter only when , the guns opened fire. “In Dover there was a feeling of absolute confidence. 8 “Mv visit convinced me more than ■ anything 1 had seen hitherto of the impossibility of invasion from the air while the British Air Force remains intact. The German Command’s successes in other countries were gained by a combination of different weapons. Can such a combination also be achieved against England ? It is only necessary to see. the masses of barbed wire, gun emplacements, and machine-gun nests under the white, steep Shakespeare Cliff and look out over the foaming, grey sea to realise the extraordinary obstacle with which Nature herself has girded England.

“I was astonished by the comparatively small number of broken windows in shops and hotels on the sea front. I was struck by the manner in which women whose homes had been struck declared almost with pride that they were also now at the Front.”