CHAPEL WRECKED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 220, 16 September 1940, Page 7

CHAPEL WRECKED.

DAMAGE AT PALACE. Some Priceless Treasures Left Unharmed. United Press Association.—Copyright. LONDON, Sept. 15. The representative of the Australian Associated Press who visited Buckingham Palace yesterday saw torn metal railings fronting the Mall and an ugly crater in the quadrangle, 10ft deep and 18ft across. At least 100 windows had been shattered around the court. "One bomb had made a large hole in the south-west corner, through which I found it a simple matter to enter the Palace vaults," says the correspondent. "The Diplomats' Corridor, through which countless debutantes have filed, received the full blast of a bomb. It looked more like a cloister than a corridor, but among the priceless paintings, covering almost every inch of the walls I found only one badly torn, namely a portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge by an early Victorian German artist.

"A strangely ugly portrait of the Czar of Russia, which King Edward VII. described as 'a portrait thrown on a landscape,' was directly in the path of one explosion, but was unharmed. Some other canvasses were spattered with dirt and rubble from the quadrangle. "There were three casualties among workmen sheltering under the chapel, which is considered beyond repair. A bomb dropped neatly through the roof. It left the walls standing, but completely wrecked the floor, and the altar, together with all the priceless eacred emblems and furnishings on it, crashed in a ghastly heap of masonry. "A Bible, in which intimate details of the lives of all the members of the Royal Family were entered, was found, not even torn, under the heap of debris, but the lectern on which the Bible had rested could not be found." The priceless Gobelins tapestry depicting the baptism of John the Baptist still hangs unharmed on the wall over where the altar stood, says a British official wireless message. Hidden away in the debris was the famous mother-of-pearl cross which stood on the altar. The King's Colour of the 3rd Scots Guards on its standard attached to a cream and gold pillar also stands undamaged among the ruins, but a regimental colour which stood beside it was buried in the pile of rubble. In the gallery the King's pew is undamaged. Only a jagged hole roughly two feet square in the beautiful coffered gilt ceiling shows where the 1001b bomb tore through it to burst just before the altar rail.

DONE UNDERGROUND. Exchange "Goes To Earth" When Sirens Sound. BUSINESS IN LONDON. (Reed. 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 15. City commercial institutions are daily improving arrangements for continuing operations in what is at present the front line of the war. Lloyd's announced, that part of its A.R.P. shelter will be reserved for underwriters and brokers who wish to transact insurance business during raide. Some banks continue internal work in shelters, but business with the public is still interrupted by sirens. The Stock Exchange goes to earth whfn warnings sound. More and more business is being transacted provisionally underground, and then confirmed when the jobbers return to their books. LONDON SHELTERS. USE AS DORMITORIES. (Reed. 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 15. London'e air raid shelters are increasingly assuming the appearance of wellorganised dormitories. A large degree of adjustment to the new way of life has been achieved, but tho continuous morning alarm has brought new problems, necessitating the banks remaining open for an hour after the normal closing time for the purpose of paying out wages. Hundreds of patients, including air raid victims, have been transported from the south-east of England to quieter hospitals in Yorkshire.