War
In January 1939, months before the outbreak of World War II, 300 members of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, Canadians who had fought on the losing anti-Fascist side in the Spanish Civil War, faced confinement in a French internment camp. On being contacted by Canadian reporter Matthew Halton, Weston donated $5,000 to help pay for their overseas passage home to Canada. The other half of the money was raised through other sources. Weeks later, the first of the ‘Mac-Paps’ arrived in Halifax.
During World War II, Weston sat as Conservative Member of Parliament for Macclesfield but his efforts in support of the war were largely outside the British House of Commons. With the arrival of the first Canadian soldiers in England, Weston donated five hundred radios after the troops complained of boredom in their camps. In August 1940, following a day of heavy losses during the Battle of Britain, Weston gave £100,000 for the replacement of fighter aircraft The donation received considerable press coverage, promoted by the Ministry of Aircraft Production and Lord Beaverbrook in the hope of raising more money through public donations to the "Spitfire Fund." Weston also gave money and lent his name to a "Tank Fund." During the Blitz, the Nazi aerial bombing campaign, he set up a system of canteens that fed thousands of civilians as they took shelter in the London Underground. He and his family also hosted air service personnel at their estate outside of London, providing a place of retreat.
Read more about this topic: W. Garfield Weston
Famous quotes containing the word war:
“War. Fighting. Men ... every man in the whole realm is in the army.... Every man in uniform ... An economy entirely geared to war ... but there is not much war ... hardly any fighting ... yet every man a soldier from birth till death ... Men ... all men for fighting ... but no war, no wars to fight ... what is it, what does it mean?””
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“There is great fear expressed on all sides lest this war shall be made a war for the negro. I am willing that it shall be. It is a war to found an empire on the negro in slavery, and shame on us if we do not make it a war to establish the negro in freedom—against whom the whole nation, North and South, East and West, in one mighty conspiracy, has combined from the beginning.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)