Evening star., 1943-07-01

Last night the Home Guard met
at King Edwards Hall, opposite the
village pond, for what is known as
do" This means that some Of
the Home Guardsmen have been out
shooting rabbits, which are cooked
and served up by their wives, to-
gether with barrels Of laber beer do
mated by the owner Of the Red Lion
pub. After dinner the wives GO
home and the barrels Of beer are
tapped.
BY now you should understand
why the vicar is tired this Sunday
morning. He is not q member OF
the Home Guard but he was there
last night, sitting at the colonel's
table as guest of honor. The colonel
Is a local squire and a veteran Of
the last war, as are most members
Of the Home Guard. The squire's
gardener Is a captain in the Home
Guard. One of his sergeants is a
pub owner, and q private in the
ranks is vice president Of one Of
London's biggest banks.
Sing With Gusto.
At the Saturday night do" the
gardener sat at the colonel's table
and the banker sat at long table
with the commoners but they all
joined in the chorus of Keep the
Home Fires Burning" singing with
gusto shortly after the second barrel
Of beer was opened.
The party broke up around mid
night, not only because the beer
was all gone but also because Sun
day morning was to be busy time
for all hands. AS the church bell
rang out the Home Guardsmen-
with the understanding consent Of
the vicar on this occasion-met at
the Red Lion and then marched
out In close order for practice ma
neuvers at Pax Hill Park, the colo
nel's estate.
Much of the open fields In this
game park now are plowed up into
Victory gardens and the wooded
acres are intertwined with barbed
wire and pitted with machine-gun
emplacements. But the old colonel
is having more fun than he ever
did shooting partridges in peace
time. For one thing, he feels more
useful. For another he has just now
come to know his gardener through
the Home Guard maneuvers and
he finds his gardener a lot more
congenial than most of the people
his wife used to invite down to Pax
Hill Manor for the week end.
Confident Of Ability.
But the real reason for the good
feeling In the Home Guard,
whether on a Saturday night frolic
or on Sunday morning maneuver,
is that they are confident OF their
ability to take care of anything the
Nazis can send across the Channel
in the way of an invasion army.
The average age of the Home
Guard is around so years, as against
20-odd for the regular army. But
it Is one of the truisms Of modern
warfare that cool, we'll trained
man of SO may be able to handle
machine gun better than a raw
youth of 18. In rife competition
the Home Guard regularly outshoots
the regulars.
But the overwhelming advantage
these training Home Guards
men would have against any enemy
is the fact that they are fighting on
home grounds. They love this rural
English countryside and they know
every inch of it, where best to take
shelter, what positions are best for
offense and which for defense.
There was time when the church
bells in rural England were kept
silent, to be used only to warn Of
invasion. but this Sunday morning
the bells are just ringing for church
service. The Home Guard will reply
with more than bells If England Is
invaded.
distributed by McNaught Syndicate, Incl