12
London
IT was a strange England, tiny and exquisite,
that I discovered through the window of the
Flamingo. Its winding roads, its pretty villages,
its camps, its well-kept lawns on which traces of
work could be seen so plainly from the skies, seemed
to be part of some delightful exhibition of toys.
One's heart tightened at the thought of other airmen
seeing these same cottages, these camps, these
gasometers, and the bombs hurtling down.
I went straight from the aerodrome to the French
Mission. My instructions from Colonel Schiffer on
leaving Paris were to make the English public under-
stand the appalling difficulty of the situation and
the necessity of sending us immediately whatever
forces were available in England. The French
Mission ^'Information took me to the British
Ministry of Information. I arrived at the precise
moment that the daily press conference was being
held* Charles Peake, the chairman, stood me up on
the platform there and then and without allowing me
a moment's preparation, said:
'If you want to tell people about the situation in
France, now's your chance. You'll be speaking to
the entire British Press/
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