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Show LONDON PEOPLE DESCRIBED AS VERY BRAVE The light which shines from the tower housing Big Ben to tell the people of London that the House of Commons is in session was recently lit again after' being extinguished for five years, seven months and 23 days of wartime blackout restrictions. Speaker Col. Clifton Brown, who turned the switch, told the members of the House: "I pray that with God's blessing, this light may shine, not only as on outward out-ward and visible sign that the Parliament of a free people is assembled as-sembled in free debate, but also as a beacon of sure hope in a sadly sad-ly torn and distracted world." The British Parliament like the people of London, survived the German blitz but not without paying pay-ing a price. The House of Commons Com-mons was destroyed by fire bombs and high explosives in May, 1941. A temporary home was found but later the House returned to the Parliament buildings, borrowing the House of Lords for its sittings. During the robot bomb attacks of 1944, when the buildings were unsafe un-safe because of their quantities of of glass, the House went back to its temporary meeting place. Later Lat-er during the V-2 rocket bombardment, bombard-ment, the House membes stuck it out in the old Parliament building. build-ing. There are many people who, for various reasons, do not like the British but every free man in the world must be conscious of the debt that the world owes the nation na-tion which in 1940 momentarily expected invasion and while without with-out adequate means for defense, responded to the famous "Back-to the-wall speech" of Prime Minister Minis-ter Churchill, who then uttered his memorable words: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing ground, we shall fight in the fields and in the streetss we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender." |