ISLANDS’ LEADER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 212, 7 August 1945, Page 5

ISLANDS’ LEADER

FAME OF JURAT LEALE.

A short time after the liberation of the Channel Islands the statesmen of Guernsey, assembled at the lloyal Court House, heard a speech by Jurat (Magistrate) John Lcale, President of the States Controlling Committee, giving an account of his stewardship during the period of nearly five years when the islands were under the German yoke. The Guernsey Weekly Press, a copy of which has been received by Palmerston North residents, describes the speech as creating a sensation —“a speech worthy of the great occasion of liberation, masterly in its composition and setting out.” Of this notable figure, Eric Bennett, in the Sunday Express, writes: “In time of crisis every country throws up the leader who is characteristic of its people. In Guernsey, under German domination, a lean, sun-tanned, whitehaired Methodist minister, with a soft voice and a steady eye, became the spiritual leader of the islanders. When the Germans came to Guernsey in 1940 Rev. John Leale was 48 years of age and his hair was grey rather than white. He was a Jurat—a life magistrate and member of the Royal Court, and as President of the Finance Committee was virtually Chancellor of the Exchequer. Together with Major Ambrose Shenvill, Guernsey’s AttorneyGeneral, be had already taken a lead in rallying tlie islanders. He advised against a panic evacuation. It was left to Jurat John Leale to preside over the Control Committee and to protect tlie islanders from their ‘visitors’. A difficult job, and the Germans deliberately made it more difficult by obstructing tlie work of the committee so that they could sow the seeds of distrust and suspicion among the Guornseymen. But Rev. John Leale was imperturbable. He answered the barked commands of the German officers in a soft voice which deflated their dignity. Ho fought their unreasonable demands for labour with a quiet persistence winch often conquered. When it did not, he undertook what was required with cool correctness. Above all, lie set a personal example of honesty, integrity and modesty. “John Loalo set bis own standard of living at the lowest level allowed to the poorest islander. As a member of tho Control Committee bo was allowed to use a car, but lie would not ride a yard or use a pint of German petrol. He walked to whichever part of the island his duties took him. Ho walked as the citizens under liis control had to walk. As President of the Committee, lie was allowed a large, wellfurnished office; bo refused to leave bis cubbv-hole with its one chair, desk and telephone until lie was forcibly escorted to a more important room. ‘Tho Germans,’ John Leale told mo. ‘are such a meddlesome people. They did not understand our ways of life, our agriculture or our fishing, and they did not trust us who did. So they meddled and interfered and invented systems which could not possibly work, but as they were systems, and as the Germans worship systems, they had to be obeyed.’ ” The attitude of Rev. John Loalo throughout the occupation has been vindicated on all sides and he stands today a great figure among Guernsej’men. Immediately after the liberation the newspapers of the island published special liberation features and messages of congrauilation, tlie rejoicing of the population being the keynote throughout.