Everyone will agree that if Lieut. Davies was to be
given the George Cross it is entirely right and fitting that (together with • one of his magnificently courageous staff) he should be the first recipient of it.. Such an award sets a standard and a value for the new order. But why the George Cross and not the V.C.? It was definitely and distinctly stated by the King that the new distinction was being instituted as " a new mark of honour for men and women in all walks of civilian life." Why, then, does the first George Cross go not to a civilian at all but to a soldier? And why, if a soldier earns the highest honour avail- able, as Lieut. Davies unquestionably has, does he not get the soldiers' highest honour, the Victoria Cross " For Valour." The qualification, it is true, is performance of a conspicuous act of bravery in presence of the enemy, but men who work on with hostile aeroplanes zooming overhead are surely " in presence of the enemy " in any ordinary reading of the words.
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