SEEKING UNDERGROUND REFUGE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 59, 3 December 1917, Page 4

SEEKING UNDERGROUND REFUGE

TUBE STATIONS CROWDED TURING AIR RAID. Remarkable evidence of tho calm, methodical manner in which thousands of families in the crowded quarters of tho city prepared for prospective danger from tho German air raiders was

to be seen in the London tube stations at niirht. writes a representative of tho "Daily News," who mado a tour of tho principal centres on tho north side during a recent, raid. Little processions wore to be seen trudging towards the tubes. Mothers with t.lieir babies.' fathers carrying older children, pillows, shawls, and parcels of food filed ' quietly _ into the stations and down the stairs. In the extensive network of tunnels and stairways which link) the systems con verging'upon King's Cross the throng was greatest, and streams of safetyseekers flowed into this subterranean haven from all the congested streets in the district. There was perfret order. Mothers nuietlv arranged little beds of pillows for the bnbies, and many were soon iisieop. Supper was served out to older children, and the various parties arranged themselves in srroups, much' as one might, prepare for a night's bivouac. Strnn the descending streams swelled rapidly, and news spread that firing eeu'd be heard. The newcomers, including mnnv children, wero safetyseekers, wj+.h an actual sense of imminent peril, hnt the scene was astonishing as an example of how a crowd can restrain its emotion of fear. With no one in authority to marshal or control them the people pressed quiotly forward down the stairs, along the tunnels. and on to the platforms. Manv of the Imfrios slent profoundlv through tho noise of shuffling feet and the confused murmur of talk, and the moving throng stenoed carefuUv where the infants lay. Even when the platforms wpro crowded a narrow space at the edge was left voluntarily, so that no one might be pushed over. There was then a quiet, movement lnek into the passages and recesses, with the > result tlmt it was possible to keen a virtually full service of trains running.