LONDON IN WAR TIME

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2330, 11 December 1914, Page 2

LONDON IN WAR TIME

We get abundance of graphic and picturesque descriptions of the war at the front, but what 'London is like at the. moment is unwritten, writes "Alien" from London to the "Otago Witness." At all times the world's' history is reflected in its pictures,, and these are now vital and vivid representations of' the, war.. Orderly, quiet— bow quiet—tho people go about their daily business; trains run, buses run as usual. There aro not so many /'straphangers" on tho trains, nor at the week-end such crowds of young men, going off-for tennis or hockey or football, or shooting, nor elderly men for golf.' You wait, longer' o8" the' curb for a bus—so many are at the front doing duty, with'thoir London drivers, as ambulance wagons, etc., of whom such accounts come that wo are told to take off our hats ' to the motor-bus driver whom we meet. You may have often abused him for the cheery nonchalance with . which ho splashes you on a muddy day. You may often' have mentally resolved to "write to the company'' when he airily ignores your frantio signals to stop. . But write that, all off and doff your hat when ho passes. Ho is a hero. Just as he is a new typei in tho' London streets so has his class created a new type of hero,in war. Tho man of the moment at the front is the London bus-driver.. At homo he may be just a driver with a police badge and a reckless way with the brakes. At the front he is a private in the Army Service Corps, driver of ono of tho splendid fleet of motor lorries which has mado- the British Army transport the "envy of tho Continent, serving in a corps whose services are one of tho noblest features of the British Army's splendid record in the present war. As a class ho cannot shoot. He probably doeß not kuow the first elements of drill. But ho can drive omnibus. Whether ho has to drive it down the Strand on a wot night "with tho theatres coming out" or along a Shell-swept. road in France is all alike to him. Ho is quite content to leave st&tegy to Sir John French and the care of the immediate futuro to his officers. "Go ahead 1" are tho only orders he wants to hear. Suoli intervening circumstances as shells or parties of Germans wishing for nothing-Detter than to kill him and seizo his lorry are of littlo consequence to him as long as the engine runs nicely. When it stops, according to hia rough-and-ready philosophy, it will be quite, time enough to turn to the unfamiliar weapon by his side. He does not bother his head much about gallantry, so he is often a hero' unawares. There is an inborn conviction in tho heart of the Londoner—reasonable or unreasonable —that lie is of tho salt, of tho earth, and either' son of a lord, of a 'Arr.y 'of 'Arry's he is proving his valour in fighting or dying for the country of which his city is the heart.