WHY MORALE IS HIGH

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 63, Issue 4462, 11 August 1941, Page 6

WHY MORALE IS HIGH

FIGHTING IN “THE LAST DITCH.” LONDON’S ORDEAL. Last war, when Jerry dropped a few bombs on the East End, men bolted blindly, women hid their faces, and children ran screaming. All cursed the Government for not protecting them and the rich for escaping, and smashed the shops of German Jews. They felt that was expected of them, of all civilians. Danger and courage were then the exclusive perquisite of the armed forces (writes the Rt. Hon. J. C. Wedgwood, M.P., in the Christian Science Monitor.) This war, when the sky cracks and death hurtles down, all may be just as afraid, but they don’t show it and try to joke about it. It is “bad form” to show fear. Public opinion is much, stronger than any law. If that miserable siren starts moaning when you are out shopping in the morning, everybody in the open is gripped in some degree by fear, although they know there may be no

Jerry within fifty miles and the odds C against their being hit are demonstrably millions to one. Many may be inwardly terrorstricken; but see how hard they try not to walk more quickly, not to look nervously up into the sky. Drivers may “step on the gas” a bit, because it doesn’t show. The girls in uniform consciously walk on chatting, and other girls “don’t like to do different.” All do what is expected of them, show nothing; follow, or set, the approved example. That is as well, for fear is horribly infectious. REASON FOR CHANGE. Why this change from 25 years ago? This: This is a very united people. They know there is no way out. all Europe behind him, Herr Hitler’s “peace” could only give him time to hit again irresistibly by sea as well as air. To be fighting alone, deserted, in the last ditch, exalts one morally. v We are united also in intense appreciation and admiration, if not love, for the most remarkable Prime Minister, who will promise nothing save “toil and tears, blood and sweat”; who invents only immortal phrases which shape our new lives. “Grim and gay,” says he, and the ruins around us take on a new aspect. “We will fight on the landing grounds; we will fight in the streets,” and straightway a million and a-half men spring up, unpaid, to defend their homes. “Never in the history of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few,” and the thought of our boys in the air makes courage easy and fear shameful. “It just goes rolling along,” says he, and we see a dawn of hope, of irresistible reunion, with “the New World, stepping forth, to the rescue and liberation of the Old.” Hitler has united us. Churchill has inspired us. But close behind comes a Press and Parliament which have played their part as never before— 0 free, determined, eloquent, but critical of every abuse of power. They have shown that there is something to fight for, as well as against. There is yet something else, largely unnoticed, which has steeled our nerves. I come back to the truism with which I started. People will behave as they are expected to. Praise a man for fine qualities and he will seek to deserve that praise. The British and British courage have been praised as never before in history; not by ourselves, which would be easy and valueless, but by those afar who have had much to criticise in our past, I think of the Dutch welcoming our death-dealing planes over Amsterdam and praying for the safety of our pilots of liberation. FROM DALLAS, TEXAS. Above all I think of America. Few \ can have read without deep emotion ' the press extracts and letters from America about our land and our Londoners. Few here have ever heard of Dallas. Yet far away there in Texas, a leading newspaper has this poem quoted for us by the Daily Express: Do ye ken John Bull, with his clothes so red? Do ye ken John Bull, with his upflung head? Do ye ken John Bull, with no sign of dread, As he faces his fight in the morning? And so on for many stanzas. If that adaptation had come from Calgary or Wagga-Wagga, or even from Aidershot, it would have been ‘.‘jolly fine,” and left a pleasing taste for the day. If it had come from Amsterdam or Athens, it would have been pathetic and inspiring. But from Dallas, in the Lone Star State, one gets a lump in the throat. It is good to have friends and relations who can appreciate it and us. We will see to it that they never have cause to change their vision. HOW TO BE POPULAR. If you are one of those sniffling, sneezing, coughing people the first thing is to get rid of that apparently perpetual cold. Get right down to it with Baxter’s Lung Preserver. Ordinary common-sense precautions and Baxter’s will fix any cold.. Insist on Baxter’s, the proved pleasant remedy with the tonic action. Get better—get Baxter’s !