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Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 63, Issue 4462, 11 August 1941, Page 2

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FOR £lOO CHEQUE. OLD MAN’S FINE GESTURE. The small, rather bent, grey-haired man, who slipped under the barrier into the official square in Martin Place, Sydney, to ask where he could buy a £lOO Red Cross badge could not have chosen a better person to answer his question. It was Lady Walder to whom he spoke, the organiser of Red Cross Day, and of an all-day concert. When she said she had a badge in her handbag awaiting a purchaser he said: “Well, I’ll just go home and get my money.” “Where do you live,” asked Lady Walder. “Balmain.” “Then I’ll get you a taxi.” A taxi was called and off he went. He was back in Martin Place in less than half an hour and handed over his cheque signed “Joseph Hopkins.” Mr Hopkins, an Englishman aged 81, who has been a dock worker and printer, said he gave the money because he wanted England to win the war. When he was taken on the dais and the microphone put in front of him he said in a rather quavering voice: “I can’t talk, but I’ll sing you a song.” It ended up with the words: “Hitler won’t win the war because Australia will be there.” Mr Hopkins wrote the song himself and there are seven verses, and he always sings it in Martin Place on patriotic days.