Northern light - 01.07.1941, Qupperneq 4

9
NORTHERN LIGHT
shall be full of optimism at all times. We
know that the things we fight for are
the things of lasting value. I would like
finally to read you this statement inscrib-
ed in the church of Staunton Harold in
Leicestershire: “In the year 1653 when
all things sacred were throughout the
nation destroyed or profaned this church
was built to the glory of God by Sir Ro-
bert Shirley, Bart, whose singular praise
it was to have done the best things in
the worst times and hoped for them in
the most calamitous”.”
The G.O.C., though not himself a mem-
ber, has in many very practical ways
given proof of his interest not only in
our work but in the principles for which
we stand. His presence at the Army Guest
Night held in the House on May 27th is
an honour and an encouragement which
the House will do its best to deserve. In
the course of his address to us he referr-
ed to the International Scout Jamboree
held at the Hague before the war at which
the youth of every nation but Germanyand
Italy was represented, and said that this
war was being fought in order that those
absent boys might be brought back into
the fold. He concluded by quoting a well-
known Kipling poem, adapted for the
occasion:
“The Light of Toc H — What is it?”
“The lean white bear hath seen it
in the long, long Arctic night,
The musk-ox knows the torch that
flouts the Northern Light.
The Light of Toc H — What is it?
Ye have but my bergs to dare,
Ye have hut my drifts to conquer.
Go forth, for it is there!”
TOC H COMES TO ICELAND
Memory is a fleeting thing, and there-
fore if the venture of Toc II in this is-
lant is to be recorded in any detail it is
as well that the story of its beginnings
should be set down while the memory is
green.
The first move to estahlish a group in
Iceland was made hy means of a notice
in Force Orders early in September last
asking that names of men interested
should he sent in to Rear-Admiral Scott’s
Secretary. (Let us, at this point, acknow-
ledge the debt which Toc H owes to it’s
vice-president stationed here, for his ad-
vice, initiative and encouragement in these
first months.) Undeterred by a somewhat
meagre response to this circular the first
meeting was held in the Borg Hotel on
September 16th, there being nine persons
present. Preeisely what happened at that
first meeting beyond Ihe appointment of
the everwilling Padre Robertson as acting
secrelary is not recorded; hul evidently
a good deal of enthusiasm was shown,
for when the next meeting was held some
two weeks later (hy which time Dallas
Ralph and I had arrived) the numbers
had increased to twenty. It was at this
meeting that Dallas disclosed the plans
for opening a Services Club in Reykjavík.
Nobody felt that the Borg Hotel was a
suitable place to meet regularly, so when
the Salvation Army kindly agreed to house
us temporarily in one of their rooms, the
suggestion was readily accepted. Meetings
continued there throughout October and
the log-book records a steadily increas-
ing attendance. The outstanding event of
the month was the visit of Tubby Clayton
and the Guest-Night on October 22nd,
which was the culminating point of his
stay in Iceland.
Meanwhile, thanks to a suggestion on
the part of the Senior Chaplain, a suit-
able house had heen found, and by the
middle of October Túngata 6 had been
leased and work commenced on the
necessary alterations. By November 5th
it was possible for the Group to have
its first meeting in what is now the can-
teen, under the strictest injunctions to
“mind the paint”.