Brother Knorr were traveling with four Gilead graduates through the city on one occasion, and they were amused to watch the bus driver draw up to the curb and ask someone if he wanted to go somewhere. It is all right for the driver to solicit business, and he will stop for anyone who even looks as if he were thinking about getting on a bus. Sometimes he will stop in the middle of an intersection to pick up a passenger.

However, the two visitors and the Gilead graduates got their greatest thrill and amusement this morning when the driver stopped on a hill behind several other busses. Then this rickety vehicle’s brakes gave way and the fun started. Instead of allowing his machine to drift two or three feet and bump into the machine ahead, the driver foolishly steered the bus to the right and mounted the sidewalk. People scattered quickly to avoid being run down as the bus rolled along the sidewalk. Finally the driver, gesticulating wildly to show that his brakes were not working, wedged the machine in between another bus and the building, blocking the entrances to two shops. Fortunately no one was hurt, and it was impossible to keep from laughing at the situation. The passengers could not get out of the bus, because the entrance was jammed against the building wall and the windows were too small to crawl through. There was much excitement and a lot of talk, and within a few minutes three policemen were on the scene arguing with the bus driver as to why he did such a thing. Arguments were loud and gestures augmented the words to prove that the brakes really did not work. This seemed to wholly satisfy the policemen. It seemed that if your brakes did not hold, that was the thing to do; and there were no traffic violation summonses being handed out to appear in court for using a vehicle for public conveyance that was not in proper shape.

Finally the policeman got after the driver of the bus that had us pinned to the building and told him to get moving. Then we wondered what would happen. Would we continue to roll down the sidewalk? There were hundreds of people standing right in front of the bus by this time, thoroughly discussing the situation, and it would do no good to tell them to move. There was excitement and everyone wanted to be in on it. Fortunately the bus was pressing so tightly against the wall that it would not move down hill. The only way the passengers could now get out was through the emergency door in the side of the bus, now that the other bus had moved on. Brother Morgan tried to open the door by loosening the latch, but he found that the emergency door for quick exit was nailed shut. One of the Gilead graduates explained to the driver in Spanish that we wanted to get the emergency door open. So he took his lucky horseshoe and, using that as a hammer and pry, bent back the nails, making it possible to open the emergency door. All the passengers got out and walked down the street a few blocks to another bus, leaving the excitement behind. Later in the day the same group of brethren got on another bus returning to the missionary home and, much to their surprise, there was the same driver who had run the machine up on the sidewalk. He appeared just as exuberant and happy as ever, only this time he had a new bus and he insisted that the brakes worked on this one. To convince us he drove full speed ahead and then slammed on the brakes to stop quickly at a corner. And so with the little busses and their horns Panama City keeps on the move.

Resolution of First Canadian French Circuit Assembly

The following letter of resolution was drawn up by a committee of elder brethren of the Quebec circuit who have witnessed the growth in numbers of Jehovah’s praisers from about 5 publishers twenty years ago to well over 500 now. It was presented at the final session of the circuit assembly, Sunday, January 15, 1950, and enthusiastically adopted.

“Jehovah’s witnesses of Quebec, Circuit No. 1, and their friends, united in assembly in the number of 800, desire to express to all their brethren, and to all their friends, as well as to all persons who may be reached by this present, their firm resolution to remain unshakably in the service of our heavenly Father, the Great God of the universe, Jehovah, who made himself known to us through his organization, while we in Quebec were still held captives, in ignorance of the Word of God, the Bible.

“Our resolution signifies our determination to continue in the way blazed for us by Jesus Christ and the apostles, in spite of the fact that systematic opposition and intense persecution are unleashed against us. We have not forgotten the words pronounced only a few years ago by persons in high honour in this province, declaring that ‘the handful of Jehovah’s witnesses will soon be forced to evacuate this province’, dominated almost entirely by Catholicism. In fact, far from having left the province, by the grace of Jehovah, who has abundantly blessed and protected us, His witnesses are now in greater numbers than ever before, spread out in more than 32 different localities of the province.

“The persecutions and restrictions of which we have been the target since the start of our preaching of the Bible under the direction of the Theocratic organization will not at all impair our resolution to march ever forward in the way that we have followed to now, and which we would follow even to death, whatever be the persecutions and the machinations that the Devil may raise by his agents or organizations.

“We know that there are yet many ‘prisoners’ in this province, but the fact of being united here, in our first French circuit assembly, in such large numbers, is for us the proof that we are carrying out the will of God.

“It is therefore with absolute confidence in Jehovah and with gratitude toward Him, and love for our neighbor, that we are resolved, being fortified by ‘food in due season’ received from Jehovah through his faithful and wise servant, to seek in our turn all those in our circuit who hunger and thirst after righteousness; to bring them the same spiritual food which will deliver them from their condition of captivity and cause them, with us, to ‘praise Jehovah more and more’ in preaching His Word.

“With much love for our brethren of Bethel, of Gilead, and of the Toronto Bethel, we are,

United with you to the end of the fight,

YOUR BRETHREN OF QUEBEC CIRCUIT No. 1.”