Fiji Expresses the Spirit of the Old R.F.C

Old R.F.C.

A RESIDENT of Suva, Fiji,, Mr. Samuel Howard Ellis, recently sent £5,000 to London to purchase a Hurricane fighter for the Royal Air Force, together with the following message to the Mini ster of Aircraft and Production (Lord Beaverbrook): — “My wife and I have cabled you £5,000 for the purchase of a Hurricane. May the name be, ‘Spirit of the Royal Air Force’.

“That spirit lives on, vital and ardent, in to day’s airmen, who accomplish so brilliantly their more arduous, and, hence, more glorious, task.

“You may care to know that Fiji sent five airmen in 1914, of whom two are now again serving in the Empire Air Scheme. Twenty-two men from Fiji have already joined the scheme, and others hope to follow.”

Lord Beaverbrook, on September 29, re

plied:—

“From across the world you have sent a message of encouragement to the Air Force, the

men and women of the aircraft industry, and to all who to-day stand in Britain in the front line of battle.

“To you and your wife I send an expression of heartfelt gratitude for the gift you sent me for the purchase of a Hurricane Fighter.

“You strengthen the power of the Empire, and stand forth among the Empire’s foremost cham pions.”

Mr. A. W. Wilkinson, one of the most popular residents of Rarotonga, left the Island for New Zealand to receive ex pert treatment for eye trouble. Mr. Wilk inson came into a considerable inheri tance some two years ago, and he and his wife, a native of Tahiti, then went to England. But the lure of the tropical islands, where they had spent half of a happy lifetime, soon brought them back to Rarotonga.

Brother J. R. Dixon, of the Sacred Heart Mission at Sideia. Papua, arrived in Sydney in September by the “Macdhui” on furlough.