BOMBING DAMAGE

Evening Star, Issue 23689, 24 September 1940, Page 8

BOMBING DAMAGE

BRITAIN'S NATIONAL RESOURCES NOT SERIOUSLY TOUCHED YET LONDON, September 23. (Received September 24, at 1.55 p.xn.) Mr J. M. Keynes, broadcasting, said it was easy to exaggerate the damage to national resources Britain had thus far 'suffered. “We have lost 1.500,000 tons of shipping,” he said, “ but this loss in one year is no'greater than our normal yearly capacity to build ships. In losses of property by bombs the case is no worse. The total damage before the end of July could be made up in a couple of days by the country’s peacetime building capacity. The damage in August was much more considerable, but could be made up within a month. The heavy destruction in London in the past three weeks had not yet been accurately estimated, but London is a big place. There can be a mighty power of destruction before the building properties of Britain are seriously touched. One million sterling worth of destruction is a frightful sight, but if we suffered as much damage nightly for a year we should not lose more than 4 per cent, of our buildings and their contents, or more than, is restorable in a couple of years.”