BUSINESS AS USUAL

Evening Star, Issue 23693, 28 September 1940, Page 12

BUSINESS AS USUAL

HOW BRITAIN IS CARRYING ON DISTURBANCE LESS PRONOUNCED THAN WAS EXPECTED (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 27. (Received September 28, at 10.5 a.m.) The speed with which London has accommodated itself to front-line battle experiences has deeply impressed foreign observers, and the disturbance to business life is less pronounced than was anticipated. Some business premises have, of course, been completely destroyed, but in others temporary repair of damage has been undertaken, and with a minimum delay business is being continued.

This is particularly noticeable in the case of shopping centres which have been bombed, and even in much-bombed Oxford street business life is once again flowing strongly. Throughout the capital public services which have become so much a part of our lives that continuance passes almost unnotiped are being maintained. Trade as a whole laid its plans before the war and they worked admirably. The arrangements in the uninterrupted operation of the milk distributing trade are good. It is an example of what is occurring in other essential industries, not only in London, but in the provincial towns which have been heavily attacked. A remarkable feature of the bombings is that not only is the loss of life less than was expected, but the damage to buildings is less than was feared. This was disclosed in a Home Office leaflet on protection of factories, which says:' “It is generally imagined that in the case of a direct hit the building and occupant are doomed. This is not supported by the evidence obtained from a study of recent air raid damage. There have been many cases of light 50kilogram bombs detonating on the thin corrugated roofing of single-storied factory buildings, with little damage other than to the roof covering and very slight casualties. Similar bombs detonating on the floor of a shop remove the roof covering over a wide area, but do surprisingly little damage to machines, There is very little clanger of serious structural damage from a near miss. Very heavy bombs of 500 kilograms falling within 33 feet of a workshop with corrugated iron walls did no more than strip the sheeting from the steelwork. There is evidence in the case of multi-story buildings, in which all loads are carried by steel or reinforced concrete frames, that the damage caused by even a direct hit will be local and confined in most cases to the floor and the part hit.”