Paris District High School - Yearbook (Paris, Ontario Canada)

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PARIS HIGH SCHOOL YEAR BOOK 23 ford it. Canadian women everywhere are busy making clothes for refugee children. Now that the British Government has decided that it is sending no more children because of the danger of German torpedoes or U-boats this hospi- tality will remain for those that are here. If later more do come it will be extended to them also. The sending of British war guests is a great linking of the Mother Country with Canada. The English children will learn to know Canadians and Canadian ways better so that a great bond of understanding and friend- ship will be built up between the people of the two countries. We should be proud to shelter the children of our Mother Country, to think that we are doing this small service while they are enduring the bombing raids and other terrors of war. It is the least we can do to show our appreciation of their fine bravery in defending our Empire and making the world a safe place for us all. Many people believe that the torpedoeing of the innocent refugee child- ren will be the turning point of the war and that the forces of the world will rise to put the cruel tyrant, Hitler, from power. There'll always be an England, and England shall be free. Beth Holder. ,i .l.l. The Royal Canadian Navy England expects that every man this day should do his duty. Lord Nelson. By the passing of the Naval Service Act in 1910, the Royal Canadian Navy came into being. The training scheme is identical with that of the Royal Navy, as are the qualifications for promotion. The R.C.N. and its Re- serve Forces are under the direction of the Chief of Naval Staff who is a member of the defense council. The Service consists of the Royal Canadian Navy Cpermanentlg The Royal Canadian Naval Reserve fnon-permanentlg The Royal Canadian Na- val Volunteer Reserve tnon-permanentl, and the Royal Canadian Fleet Re- serve tnon-permanentj. The ships of the R.C.N. are manned by men from all parts of Canada. Because of the possession of only one small but' excellent Navy College, se- lected officers and men are sent to England to attend special courses in the training schools of the Royal Navy. A proportion of the men are lent to H. M. Ships for training at sea. Joint exercises with ships of the Royal Navy while in Canadian waters are carried out at every opportunity by H.M.C. Ships. The Royal Canadian Naval Reserve and The Royal Canadian Navy Vol- unteer Reserve are organized along the same lines. The R.C.N.R. must train for forty-two days during the first year of enrolment and fourteen days an- nually in the period of enrolment of six years. The R.C.N.V.R. was organiz-

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22 PARIS HIGH SCHOOL YEAR BOOK Our War Guests When on June 19, 1940, the British Government announced their inten- tion of sending 10,000 refugee children to Canada as soon as transportation was possible, Canada was ready. Many people in the Dominion of Canada who have relatives in Great Britain are taking their relatives' children for the duration of the war. Children without relatives here are being taken in groups to large houses and others privately to small homes. Some of the older boys and girls are being placed in boarding schools. In each province the Child's Welfare Or- ganization is looking after the distribution of the children to the homes. This transportation of refugees has brought the high and low classes of England closer together. Nobility and common people have the same pri- vileges. An example of this is that the two Princesses, Elizabeth and Mar- garet Rose, are staying in England sharing the same dangers as the thou- sands of other children unable to come to safety. The purpose of transporting the children is to remove them from the horrors and ravages of war so that they may be fitted and educated to carry on the work of the next generation wisely and peaceably. A great responsi- bility will rest on their shoulders to rebuild the country after this awful war is over. The British children are in every way desirable guests. They are highly intelligent and have had physical examinations before leaving England and on entering Canada. They are courageous and cheerful and do not seem to mind being taken from their homes and set in different surroundings be- cause they know it is for the good of their country and themselves. Never- theless they deserve our sympathy because of the strain imposed upon them, knowing that their parents are in danger. During the journey across the Atlantic and especially aboard the two ships torpedoed, the children showed cheerfulness, courage and obedience. On the second ship torpedoed sixty-three children lost their lives. The peo- ple of Canada extend their sincerest sympathy to the parents of these young children. When the children finally arrive in Canada they are distributed to homes and boarding schools. Among our more distinguished guests who we are especially proud to welcome are Crown Princess Juliana of Holland with her daughters Beatrice and Irene, and the daughter of the Earl and Countess of Athlone with her children. The hospitality of the Canadian people is wonderfully represented in their whole-hearted welcome of the British children. When the project was Hrst announced people poured to meetings and stated their decisions to take children even although they had some of their own or could not rightly af-

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24 PARIS HIGH SCHOOL YEAR BOOK ed in 1923. The enrolment period is three years during which the men are requirednto attend a minimum of thirty drills at Division Headquarters for instruction and two weeks of training. The Royal' Canadan Fleet Reserve is a Fishermen's Reserve established in 1938. At the outbreak of war in 1914, the Canadian Government possessed only two small cruisers, The Niobe and The Rainbow. The latter, which was ready for sea, patrolled the western coast as far south as Panama and captured several ships carrying contraband of war. Various small craft were taken over by the Naval Department. Two submarines and a mother ship patrolled the approaches on the west coast. A patrol and mine-sweeping service was carried on after the outbreak of war. At first the vessels were Government and privately owned ships. Early in 1917 the Department of Naval Service undertook to have built sixty trawlers and one hundred drif- ters in Canada for the Imperial Government. All had seen service by 1918. The area patrolled by the R.C.N. stretched from the St. of Belle Isle to the Bay of Fundy and from Quebec to the Virgin Rocks. In this area, the navy had control of the convoys, mine-sweeping patrols and fishing fleets. At the date of Armistice, only one large ship had been lost during all enemy attacks. The Royal Canadian Naval Air Service was established in the summer of 1918 with stations at Halifax and North Sidney. It co-operated with the United States Naval Aviation Corps in patrolling the coast and escorting convoys through the danger zones. The Canadian Naval Radiotelegraph Service controls about two hun- dred stations ashore and afloat. The Naval Department opened a training school for wireless operators from which men have been sent to various sta- tions throughout Canada. Canadian dockyards refitted, repaired and supplied the Navy. They also refitted transports for troops and special cargo and re-armed merchant ships. The Halifax dockyards were seriously damaged in 1917 but were re- paired immediately by the Naval Department. In the present war, the Royal Canadian Navy, is now, more than ever, on the job. It played an active part in the evacuation of Dunkirk during which the H.M.C.S. Fraser was sunk in a collision. The Prince Robert, an armed merchant cruiser, recently captured the enemy ship Weser just outside Mexican territorial waters. This same ship, The Prince Robert, carried our King and Queen from Vancouver to Victoria Island during their visit to Canada. The Navy plays a prominent part in this war, as in the last, in convoying, mine-sweeping, and patrolling the coasts of Canada. We, of Canada, are proud of our young Navy and of the democratic ideals for which it stands. We have high hopes and great faith that through its untiring efforts, combined with those of the Royal Navy, the fighting forces, the air forces, and the courageous people of the Empire, we shall emerge victorious. Elaine Whitbread.