By OvM, Greex you oslo a policeman what he thinks of Mr, Chivehill's tribute to his work during the alr-raids, and specially of the lady who wrote to the Prime Minister, of the police, What gentlemen they are!" his language will probably not be that of a gentleman at all, You can hardly annoy an Englishman more than by paying him compliments. It is curious fo read of the violent opposition there was to Sir Robert Pecl's "peelers," as one thinks of the essentially friendly' relations between the British public and their police, land there's the grand difference between our police and those of Germany, Japan, Russia and. even France, Credit for this happy feeling belongs. to] oth sides, But one cannot speak too highly the police, One very noticeable feature is their esprit de corps. In the early days of the war, a number of "specials" appeared in the streets. They did not fully know their job and were sometimes a litle irritable. But {hig very soon passed as the benign Olympian spirit of the Fore spread into them. In the terrible nights of the air-raids—and you can hardly imagine till you have experienced it how disconcerting to one's nerves is the-mere darkness of the streets—the police have been Superb, deserving all that Mr, Churchill and his lady friend have said about them. nounced seventy beginning with a CHE, for he: decorations of the Fire Brigade an-
Major Frank Jackson, Deputy Chief Officer of the London Brigade, are also well earned. Major Jackson commands over 33,000 men and women, and it is difficult to know which most to admire, his organization or the cour~ Aye and resourcefulness of the people under him. Every American visitor, from Mr. Wen Gell Willkie. downwards, has praised our firemen's work as something almost credible. Bad as the City fires have been they were nothing to what they would have been but for the Fire Brigades magnificent Mow their task is much lightened by the roof-watchers, It Is odd that this precaution vas not thought of months ago, at a time When the Government was s0 scary that even ehiléren playing on the beach were severely fated if they had not their gas masks with them. (This is not fancy, but fact of. which 1 have first hand knowledge). The watchers have abundantly proved how easily in~ ceendia'y bombs can be quenched if tackled one Charity Bie, aged 16, of West Bromwich Is other decoration must be mentioned.
despatch rider. She was out one night helping her father an A.R.P. warden, when a bomb fell on a business building. With her father, she pushed into the house, fell through 2 floor and injured her back, but nevertheless Continued for three hours to cycle to and fro carrying despatches, Three times she was blown from her bicycle by blast; once her machine was wrecked, but she borrowed an~ other from a passing man and carried on. Her reward is the George Medal. Her comment on receiving it was "any kid would ede BINE oont of, the same." hundreds indeed, that one might quote. And there are hundreds and hundreds more of whom nothing is ever heard. T know per~ sonally of one gil who went on for a considerable time at rescue work with a nasty Wound in her head, till loss of blood forced her to stop. She will get no decoration. Such eases ate too common. But one might echo the Dodo's words to Alice "Everybody has won and all must have prizes." One may feel without undue conceit, that Britain will not be a comfortable country to invade, route many' of out carter Judgments the great healer, is causing us to
notably in respect of King Leopold of the Belgians, He celebrated his birthday last week, At the time of the Belgian Army's surrender, it may now be mentioned, a common story was that he was completely under the influence of a German baroness.
"A. journalist who had been in Brussels for long time stated that he utterly disbelieved the story. "Leopold was devoted to Queen Astrid" he said. "I am sure he has never got over her death, and T am sure he has never looked at "another woman since then." Still the facts of the surrender, as related by M, Reynaud the French Premier, looked pretty bad.
Now 'a-pamphlet has been published by M, Emile Cammaerts, Belgian writer and historian, which suggests that M, Reynaud must have been badly: misinformed (as may well have been) when he announced that King Leopold had capitulated without a word of warning to the French or British.
Cammaerts says that German break through at Sedan put the Belgian Army in an impossible position. 'There are docu ments to prove, says M, Cammaerts, that 48 hours before the surrender King "Leopold warned both London and Paris' that the Belgian plight was desperate, One day ater he' told the French that "the limits
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.