THE DARKEST HOUR

Patea Mail, Volume L, 1 November 1929, Page 2

THE DARKEST HOUR

MR. SNOWDEN’S INSPIRATION. EIGHT LINES FROM KIPLING. How Eudyard Kipling inspired the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Philip Snowden, in his fight on the reparation question at The Hague was related lb} Mrs. Snowden in a speech at Norfolk. In the darkest hour, Mrs. Snowden said, when the gloqm was so intense that it was difficult to distinguish friends from foes, they sat on the seafront, she writing on a piece of paper, her husband looking out to sea, anxious and thoughtful.

“I passed the paper to him,” said Mrs. Snowden, “and he recognised the words at once. He nodded, and said ‘Yes.’ They were the first four and last four lines of Kipling’s 'lf.’ ” The lines quoted are as follow: — If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on yon. If youi can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting, too. If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it. And. which is more, you’ll bo a Man. mv son!