LONDON UNDAUNTED

Evening Star, Issue 23686, 20 September 1940, Page 7

LONDON UNDAUNTED

LIFE FAR FROM BEING PARALYSED SMALL DAMAGE CONSIDERING SIZE OF CITY M PUBLIC UTILITY OUT OF ACTION (British Official Wireless.) , p rau Association —By Telegraph—Copyright RUGBY, September 19. {Received September 20, at 9.30 a.m.) It is now known that in Wednesday’s air battles over England 48 enemy aircraft were destroyed, one by anti-air-craft gunfire. Two R.A.F. pilots previously reported missing are safe. The British losses for the day, therefore, are 12 fighters, the pilots of nine being saved. Now that the German air fury has been unleashed upon the greatest city in the world, whose streets, buildings, and monuments enjoy the sentimental regard of millions scattered through five continents,' the damage inflicted by bombs has news value far in excess of its intrinsic importance. The result might well be to give those abroad a distorted picture of the actual injury inflicted by these wanton attacks. But reports of foreign newspaper correspondents, to judge by extracts from their newspapers telegraphed back to London, have, in fact, succeeded in keeping the tale of destruction in its proper proportion. The ‘ New York Times ’ .reminds its readers that out of millions of buildings only 2,000 have been destroyed and 3,000 seriously damaged, while the toll of life, terrible as it is considering that 95 per cent, of the victims are helpless civilians, is even less damaging.

An American agency message, surveying the 10 days’ constant raids on London, says.they have demonstrated how difficult it is to paralyse London’s life. Traffic at many points is dislocated, but in no sense is it halted. No public utility in the London area has been put out of commission for any considerable length of time in any large district.

In the same sense the ‘ Herald-Tri-bune’s * correspondent bears witness that) most rail services in and out of London continue* to operate on full schedule, a fact also noted by the Chicago ‘ Tribune’s ’ correspondent, who adds that this means that food supplies are assured.

The plentiful food supplies also impressed a Finnish correspondent, -who says no difference whatever is visible in restaurants.. *l-., ■ • -i

Mr Wallace Carroll, United Press (correspondent in London, was given an opportunity of consulting confidential reports of the Ministry of Home Security. These reports convinced him that the furious German air bombardment through 10 days and nights had inflicted severe djamage and suffering on London, but had left Britain’s war machinery as a whole unimpaired.

Mr Carroll added; “ Not one aerodrome has beep put out of action. Reports stated tliat the aircraft industry was hardly scratched. They said the oil stores destroyed were said to be only a fleabite in Britain’s reserves. No power station was put out of. action, hut one gasworks has been disabled.

“ Most of London’s railroad stations are operating normally, but some service# on others have been suspended. Ships have continued to move in and out of the Port of London. /These and other assertions contained in the reports correspond to my own inspection of aerodromes, factories, and other military objectives. “ Naturally reports are flashed from London when it is known that great departmental stores such as John Lewis and Peter Robinson’s have been bit or that bombs have fallen with the possibility of serious damage to cultural treasures in such places as the courtyard of the Wallace Collection, the Inner Temple Library, the Public Record Office, and the courtyard of the British Museum, 'but foreign observers’ reports show that to them the real news story lies in the spirit of the Londoners under ithe nightly bombardment. “ From two widely separated parts of the world comes comment on the large part which is being played by the oral or visual proof of the effectiveness of the defence measures in creating confidence.”-

The American correspondent tells readers of his newspaper in the Middle (West that “ the English are finding the constant sight of wrecked German warbirds throughout the city the best possible medicine for their morale. With the charred remains of Junkers on every hand they do not need u propaganda department to tell them that their defences are effective.”

The London correspondent of the Finnish newspaper, ‘ Unsi Suomi,’ tells the Finns' how Londoners are lulled to Bleep by the roar of their own guns. “ When the Londoner hears the antiaircraft guns roar he falls asleep peacefully, and tired faces are no longer visible in the morning.” BELGIAN’S TRIBUTE.

A most striking witness to the spirit of London was given by M. Wauters, former Belgian Minister of Information and editor of the Brussels news-

paper ' Le People,’ who is now in London. In an open letter to a number of friends he recounts; “To-night I spent eight hours in a public shelter full of workers and petits bourgeois. These people’s good humour, cordiality, and solidarity in distress were profoundly moving During the whole of those eight hours I heard not one word of complaint or recrimination, and not a word against the authorities. Here once more are the deep roots of that great democratic tradition which ensures that the people have confidence in their rulers. If Goering decided on his savage bombardments in order to provoke a mass exodus on the roads he has completely failed. The roads will not be choked up here as they were in Belgium and France. The Germans will not have a chance to assassinate.4o.ooo civilians in flight as they did on the road from Paris to Chartreux.’’ An almost identical impression was made on the shrewd American observer, Mr H. 11. Knickerbocker, who has seen peoples under the strain of war in half a dozen areas in as many years. He reports; “The Londoners and the English people in general stubbornly and invincibly, even stupidly, if you like, refuse to become afraid. This sort of destruction certainly is not going to win the war.”