PURCHASE OF AIRCRAFT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24417, 1 October 1940, Page 7

PURCHASE OF AIRCRAFT

GIFT FROM ST. HELENA f British Official Wireless) RUGBY, Sept. 29. Acknowledging £370 from the inhabitants of St. Helena towards the purchase of a warplane for the H.A.F. Lord Beaverbrook says; “ Over a century ago your island saw the end of a conqueror who challenged the free spirit of Britain, and now St. Helena plays its part in making sure that another foe more ruthless is brought to utter destruction.” GIFT FROM SUVA COUPLE SUVA, Sept. 30. (Received Sept. 30, at 7 p.m.) : Mf Samuel Howard Ellis received the following message from Lord Beaverbrook: “From across the world you have sent a message of the highest encouragement to the Air Force, the men and women in the aircraft industry, and all who to-day stand in Britain in the front line of battle. To you and your wife I send an expression of heartfelt gratitude for the gift you sent me for the purchase of a Hurricane fighter. You strengthen the power of the Empire and stand forth among the Empire’s foremost champions.” The message Mr Ellis telegraphed to Lord Beaverbrook was as follows: “My wife and I have cabled you £SOOO to purchase a Hurricane. May the name be Spirit of the Royal Flying Corps? That spirit lives on, vital and ardent, in to-day’s airmen, who accomplish so brilliantly their more arduous and hence more glorious task. You may care to know that Fiji sent five airmen in 1914, of whom two are now again serving the Empire air scheme. Twenty-two from Fiji have already joined the scheme and others hope to follow.”