17th January 1941
MORE WAR WEAPONS ARE WANTED YET

With a rousing rallying call from the Mayor, Councillor T.W, Hill, and the Vicar, Reverend A.P. Morley, Pontefract’s War Weapons Week was launched on Friday in the Market Place. A be-flagged Buttercross, almost submerged in pictorial exhortations to ''Join the Crusade'' and ''Keep it up'' contrasted sharply with a wrecked Messerschmidt aeroplane on the ground alongside, with a land mine and bombs, guarded by the military. The band of the I.T.C. of the York & Lancaster Regiment, under bandmaster H. Livesy helped create the atmosphere and there was a large representative gathering.

Speaking from the shelter of a cinema van the Mayor said that Pontefract was going to show the rest of the country what it could do. It was the first town to hold a War Weapons Week in the New Year and he believed the aim to raise £300,000 would be realised. The war, he thought, would be a long and bitter struggle, and we must have the money to carry it on with the enemy at our gates. Three hundred years ago Pontefract was a besieged fortress, and was the last in the country to surrender. ''Shall we surrender now?'' he asked: and received the emphatic reply ''not likely!'' He urged his hearers to buy Defence Bonds and Savings Certificates, and said that as a trade unionist, their honour, dignity, and lives were at stake, and everything we held dear was challenged. We had to help the men of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and the Mercantile Marine. He also urged the growing of more food in Pontefract. There were five thousand houses in the town and if every householder provided one month's supply of foodstuffs, our situation would be greatly relieved. He knew many could do so. Would it not be far better to have an aching back in producing food than a broken heart crying for food?

The Vicar pointed out that aircraft today cost seven times as much as in the last war: the equipment of troops twice as much: and a battleship twice as much. We were spending ten million pounds a day. Five hundred million had been saved in this country since the war began. None of us was prepared to give up our ''green and pleasant land" and we were confident of victory but to achieve it we must contribute to the cost through War Savings Certificates and Defence Bonds. Everybody stood in the front line today. All glory to those who were in uniform - our soldiers, sailors, airmen and civil defences, who performed such magnificent feats. And all glory too to those in uniform. They were not asked to give but to invest on the greatest security - our happiness, homes and firesides. The Vicar mentioned he was a native of Halifax and Halifax held the proud record in the British Isles of contributions per head of the population towards war weapons. He would like Pontefract to beat that record so that he could go back and crow over them! The team spirit could accomplish that and he believed that Pontefract would raise far more than the £300,000 aimed at.

The Mayor mentioned that Messrs Muscroft and Co., of Pontefract, had lent £10,000 free of interest, and said that the gesture should be an inspiration to all other traders in Pontefract, because the response so far had not been very good. The ceremony ended with the playing of the National Anthem by the band.

The opening ceremony was the herald of a week of similar events. On Saturday morning, a ceremonial March Past took place at the Buttercross, of a detachment of the I.T.C. of the York and Lancaster Regiment and the salute was taken by Major J. Derby. Afterwards a military band again played selections until noon.

In the afternoon, shows were given by a cinema van and again there was military music. An exhibition of war photographs arranged by the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury was opened in the Municipal Offices and then the Mayor announced the total subscriptions received during the first day. The exhibition of war photographs, which is a comprehensive collection completely filling the committee room at the Municipal Office, was opened by Mr. J. Crerar the Managing Director of South Kirby, Featherstone and Hemsworth Collieries Ltd.

The Chairman described it as an outstanding exhibition and declared that, if it had not been for Mr. Crerar, the War Weapons Week would never have been organised. Mr. Crerar recalled very appropriately some of the history of Pontefract, including the sieges of the Castle during the Civil War when silver contributed by the tradesmen and gentry was melted down to make coins with which to buy supplies for the defence of the Castle. He pointed out that the present time, therefore, was not the first occasion on which Pontefract had contributed to the cause of the King, but added that the present request was not for gifts, but for loans. It was nevertheless one of the most momentous episodes in the life of the town, and a record response was looked for, befitting the urgency of the need. The immediate aim was to subscribe £300,000, but the Committee also wanted to create a continuing stream of enthusiasm, which would maintain the supply of war savings. After the war, and the clearing up, Pontefract would become a prosperous industrial and agricultural town and one worth living in.

1941 INDEX