ON the last days of March, 1941, with Clydeside still recovering from the pulverising Luftwaffe raids, Clement Attlee, Lord Privy Seal, and a man who had himself fought in the Great War, came north to pay his respects. At the St David's (Ramshorn) Church he joined in a memorial tribute to 13 A.R.P. workers, most of them women, and all of them members of a first-aid post, who had lost their lives in the Blitz. Attlee is pictured here with Glasgow's Lord Provost, Sir Patrick Dollan, and with Arthur Jenkins MP, his Parliamentary private secretary.
During his weekend visit Attlee also went to Motherwell, Paisley and Greenock, and toured some of the bombed areas on Clydeside. He also attended a union official's long-service presentation at Glasgow's Ca'doro Restaurant.
At a lunch in the City Chambers, Attlee made a stirring speech about the war. "Hitler's air forces," he said, "strike now here, now there. They hope somewhere to find a soft spot, but they fail. Everywhere their attacks are met by men and women whose souls are steel-tempered in the flame of liberty."
Every town, every village was a fortress of democracy, with its own natural leaders, but able to co-operate in the larger whole, he added. This gave a supple steel strength to this country which was infinitely stronger than the brittle cast-iron of the dictator States. "We in this country are an example to the world of free people - Scots, English, and Welsh - working together."
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