DEAREST LITTLE PEOPLE,

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22203, 21 February 1942, Page 7

DEAREST LITTLE PEOPLE,

It is queer, isn’t it, that even tvhen the news is not so good, X , we know quite certainly, that we are going to win the war. “There '£ J will be set hacks of course,” we say, “hut it will be alright in the <• • end.” J And yet, it is not queer at all, this knowledge. It is just a £ part of the British race, that “dogged does it, never give in. * Hold on, hold on, until you win” spirit. And that is just why we ❖ » never will be beaten. I All through the ages this spirit has triumphed, and triumph ♦ ; again it will. Don’t you remember the famous battle of Trafalgar? •> > “There are orders that we should cease firing, sir,” Nelson was told, 4 > as the message was pointed out to him. “I can’t see it,” said he, X putting his telescope to his blind eye. Then he ran to the masthead J ’ his famous message. “England expects that every man this day 4 ’ will do his duty.” The fight continued, and the battle was won. J They are too numerous to mention, these stories of British * ’ heroism; of Drake and the Spanish Armada: of the Charge of the * ’ Light Brigade; of the battle of Waterloo, and many, many others. 4 Sometimes I think that these heroes of old are looking down X ! from the heavens, with a glad, proud smile. They will see no J ; Spanish galleons, but streamlined battleships; there are armoured + ' tanks in the Crimea where the Light Brigade made its famous 4 , cavalry charge; there are War machines in the waters under the j ' seas and in the heavens above. 4 But oh, the eager, dauntless spirit of those who fly ’planes % like birds in the air; the cool courage of the men in battleships J and submarines; the stoic endurance and quiet determination of ♦ the soldiers. No wonder the heroes of old smile so proudly. 4 “It is well —though the foe be strange, and the craft be new, 4 and the old ways change.” The old spirit still burns as brightly J as ever, and theirs is the knowledge that all they have built up * through the ages can never be swept away; for the spirit also 4 ; prevails amongst the civil population, women and children, old and J young. 4 Aren’t you glad that you belong to the British race, that 4 yours are these great traditions, and that you too have a part to J play in this great Adventure! Ours is a great privilege—let us * never forget’it. ■ 4 Happy days, and lots of love to everyone, 4 ™ SN | YOUR OWN I jAth. I | . V i