TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21244, 15 October 1940, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Submarine Heroes It is inevitable at the moment, perhaps, that public appreciation and gratitude should be concentrated chiefly upon the gallant young men who daily take to the air in defence of their country and their homes against the enemy who seeks world domination through devastation, says the Times, London. Nothing can detract from the credit that is their due; but the epic story of the adventures of H.M. Submarine Sealion recalls that there is another group of young men, daily risking their lives in their country’s service in a very different sphere, to whom their countrymen owe no less. There is little that is spectacular in the normal work of a British submarine in war indeed it is the very object of her existence to be the reverse. For none of her company except her captain is there even a sight of the enemy, or knowledge of the course of the encounter, to generate that excitement, which helps the ordinary man to meet great dangers undismayed. Yet their work calls for a high degree of skill, coolness and presence of mind, to be exercised at a moment’s notice throughout weeks on end of the discomfort inseparable from close quarters of a i small ship which keeps the sea in all weathers. In that they have never failed.