AIR TRAINING SCHOOLS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24716, 19 September 1941, Page 6

AIR TRAINING SCHOOLS

SUCCESS OF SCHEME DUKE OF KENT IMPRESSED RUGBY, Sept. 17'. The fact that airmen are now passing out of the Empire air training scheme in thousands was disclosed by the Duke of Kent in a broadcast. The Duke returned by air on Saturday from a tour of Canada extending over three weeks, the main purpose of which was to gain personal knowledge of the amazing development of the air training scheme. The Duke said: “I believe it can safely be said that in this great air training organisation, which is to play one of the major roles in the ultimate victory of free peoples over tyranny, there is to be found manhood the equal of which is not surpassed anywhere in the world. I found everywhere among these future pilots, observers, wireless operators, and air gunners, an admirable spirit of comradeship and a deep consciousness of the gravity of the crisis which confronts us and an eagerness to get on with the job and see it through, no matter what personal sacrifices it may entail. “I am glad on my return to be able to tell the King what I have seen and what I have heard in Canada. His Majesty told me it brought back to him unforgettable memories of his own visit to Canada. It was not the first time I had been in Canada, but it was the first time I had seen Canada at war.

“ The magnificent spirit and resolution of the whole of the Canadian people impressed me deeply. It may be because I have been in the New World in the past few weeks that I am able to separate my thoughts—temporarily at least —from the tragic events at present,, and I look forward to the day when the whole world will once more be pursuing the paths of peace. I believe that out of this conflict there is surely being born friendship and union of those people who cherish freedom for freedom’s sake. This understanding, founded as it is on a common spiritual conviction, will mean not only preserving the hard-won privileges of liberty, but retaining those simple fundamentals of life, honesty and fair dealing between men and nations upon which any new and better order must be founded.”