"The White Cliffs" performance was held around this time, possibly several times as the name is mentioned in diary entries by R. E. Jones on 7 Mar, and by Eric MacNider on 12 Mar. For a more detailed description we have to wait for John Charter writing on 11 Jun and 12 Jun:
That reminds me that I should have mentioned another quite outstanding show that was put on towards the end of February. This was ‘The White Cliffs’ which is a poem about England and America written by an American woman. I believe it became very popular in America and England at the beginning of the war and was used extensively in America for propaganda purposes, being very pro British. An abridged edition, set to music, was recorded by HMV I believe, and John Sterricker, who produced it here, had possessed this set of records and had lent them to ZBW for broadcasting in Hong Kong. The poem in parts is rather heavily sentimental, but for all that it is intensely moving, particularly at a time like this. With musical background arranged by Betty Drown and provided by her choir of about 40 or 50 people, Roy Heasman, violin, drums and Betty at the piano, the whole thing lasted for 50 minutes. Winnie Cox recited the poem simply beautifully. It was a tremendous task she undertook in memorising it. She was the ‘I’ of the poem; the young American girl who comes to England and falls in love with and marries an Englishman. She stood on the stage on a low dais in front of a blue screen with the white cliffs of Dover in the background and seagulls wheeling round.
The choir and the musicians were behind the screen. The poem tells the story of how her husband is killed in the Great War of 1914-18 and ends with her son joining up at the outbreak of this war. It was therefore very moving and somewhat harrowing for those who had lost husbands and sons here. But it was splendidly done and quite unique in its way. Terrance Feltham designed the set. John Sterricker is to be congratulated on the whole thing.
In 2018, Barbara Anslow added her memories of the show:
Eric McNider's reference to 'White Cliffs' surely records the recitation by Mrs Winnie Cox of the famous wartime poem at a camp concert.
At a Stanley Reunion in England in 1997 I met up with Winnie and introduced her to an ex-Stanley HK policeman, as soon as he heard her name, he remembered her and proclaimed the first line of the poem!