BRITAIN ALIVE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23748, 30 August 1940, Page 11

BRITAIN ALIVE

PEOPLE MAGNIFICENT SOLDIERS' IMPRESSIONS NEW ZEALAM) FORCES v ' / (From the OfficiaHVar Correspondent attached to the New Zealand Forces in Britain)' ALDERSHOT, July 15 Four weeks this afternoon since we dropped anchor in Home water. l ;. Four weeks of high summer, rather too dry for the countryside and for urban water supplies—unseasonably dry, with August ahead. Yet four more perfect weeks it would be hard to find had the object of our coming here been to impress us with .the beauty of Eng- . land, to fill our hearts with love for her, to enlist us anew in her defence. Four of the most crowded weeks in history thrust upon us at the. end of a long, tedious voyage that until its last day was notable chiefly for the bad news which marked our halts. Come what may, come when it may, Britain will be alive: stung to glorious, righteous, irresistible anger by the threat to her shores. As. this crisis presses upon them, the English people are magnificent; the Scots and the Welsh in their different ways equally so. We were told when we landed by overtalkative busybodies and unintending fifth-columnists that the people at Home did not realise they were at war. (What, then, we thought, of the people in New Zealand?) Democracy At Its Best We .know now that, whatever the one-time truth of that accusation, .it is true no longer. People here are not losing their heads. They are not giving up their civil work and standing idly around waiting for Avar. pass along the busy street of a co'wqty town, and, except for the men and girls in uniform, see little to indicate the abnormal. Factories are humming, ■fields are busy, shipyards are noisier than ever before. Work; striving; effort everywhere. But all of it directed to one end, the national end. No dictatorship here, but an astounding demonstration of voluntary cooperation and .willingness to take orders from an ~ elected authority. Democracy under test, if you certainly democracy at its best. The children are coming home from school, clattering down the road past camp, each with his little gas mask over his shoulder. A few of the older girls, as is the way with girls, seem to be taunting that little fair-headed chap of seven or thereabouts. "I'm not afraid of blinking Hitler/' he pipes up, "even if he does send his bombers." The papers record the same sentiment differently expressed by a child of Slayfair, a "seavacuee," upon his arrival in New York. Asked if the British would win. he replied. "3l most assuredly believe they will." A Sergeant's OpinSon A woman walks out of her kitchen to "arrest" an armed Nazi airman who towers almost a foot above her. j A workman is placidly painting an inn door when the landlord, calls, "Come, let's get those Jerries." They jump s, hedge and race across to capture the crew of an aeroplane that has been shot down. True, these are only tho outposts of war. But the response they have evoked from the ordinary people of Britain leaves no doubt'how the great majority will face the terrors to y come. And when they stand-to in defence of their soil that has known no alien tread for nigh on 900 years, our little band of New Zealanders will stand and march with them. Men to most of whom this land was only a dream one month ago; yet men who are at home in it already, because it has awakened in them pride of ancestry, shown them the sources of human liberty, and wrapped the green tendrils of its beauty about their hearts. _ *• Sergeants are not given to-sentimen-tality, esnenially sergeants who wear three medals from the last war. Which 4" makes this comment from one of them £ the more valuable: "I was in Egypt, on Gallipoli—T lost my best cobber there—and in France. I'd go again if we were needed. But I nerer liked the 'Gynpos': I hated Gallipoli ; and I froze in France. If T have to fight for this country. I'll fight because I mean it. And won't Fritz know it!" . . VOYAGE TO ICELAND CAPTAIN'S SURPRISE TRIP EXPERIENCES ON LEAVE ABSENCE OF SIGNPOSTS ; (From the Official "War Correspondent attached to the New Zealand Foices in Britain) ALDERSHOT, July 14 To sail from Lvttelton . for, as he thought, an Egyptian port and to M arrive in Iceland, has been the experi- ®j ence of Captain C. N. Watson, of Christchurcli, and a member ol: a New Zealand Biflc Battalion. Captain Watson was quartermaster of his' transport, responsible for all the military stores it carried. Stores for shore were still in the holds when the last of his colleagues left to entrain for camp, so he stayed aboard. Tho ship was lying in the stream, troops having gone off by tender. - • Later troops were coming on board —troops for Iceland. The orders of the military and naval authorities were that they must sail at once. There was no time to spare for unloading. Military stores for Iceland were . stowed on top of those from New Zealand, awaiting discharge in the United Kingdom. Captain Watson sought fresh orders. "Stay with your stores," lie was told. So he stayed, spent a., fortnight on the Icelandic c'osistj and, his ship back in British waters and the precious stores unloaded at last, has • just come with them to camp. The boys, generally, although their adventuring has been mostly, of short radius, have accumulated ? a wide variety of experiences and impressions. ' On leave, wherever they went, they had the time of their lives. The further they went, the better tho time, because -the fewer there were in the place tha greater the individual attention and hospitality each received. The first private to visit Birmingham cams back telling that he simply could not. spend there. Nobody would take his money. Nono who went to London returned with that complaint. Tho removal of all .signposts and the obliteration of railway station nameboards and all similar signs which might help an enemy to find his way in Britain, makes travel, whether on duty or pleasure, a little difficult for friendly newcomers. The New Zealand High Commissioner, with a brigadier, a colonel and a captain, was delayed in [ one village for a quarter of an hour seeking directions to the railway and forestry companies. Finally a civilian cyclist, after being-at first'unable to help, returned and asked if members, of the party could show authority, to support their questionings. Upon their doing so, he directed them.