ADAPTABLE LONDONERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 244, 12 September 1940, Page 7

ADAPTABLE LONDONERS.

LIFE ADJUSTED TO RAIDS. , LONG HOUEsTn SHELTERS. LONDON, Sept. 10. Londoners have taken the Luftwaffe’s daily raids in their stride. In one week the entire life of the city has changed —regulated by the time-tabled visitations—and the people have settled down to withstanding the greatest air siege in history.' The first daily warning can be expected at midday, when the Germans make a regular attempt to break through with bombers in mass formation. Londoners shrug their shoulders and estimate that the shelter-sitting will last half an hour to ail hour. The next raid usually arrives at approximately 5 p.m. and lasts about the same period, while the German pilots endeavour to drop bombs which will cause fires and guide them throughout the night. Then, between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., the nightly sessions begin. Everywhere in the vast, sprawling city millions go to the shelters, prepared to remain there till 6 a.m.

Suburban residents have converted their shelters into bedrooms, and with their children and even their pets they bed down cheerfully for the night. Those lacking private shelters hurry to public shelters, where they settle down in small, brave-hearted communities, intimately drawn together by the overshadowing peril. Those living in hotels go to t'he basements and ground floors, prepared for a fitful vigil. QUEUES AT SHELTERS.

“Night life” has been abandoned temporarily. The theatres are closed, but the queues remain. Where once Londoners sat patiently waiting for the show to begin, amused by itinerant entertainers, they now wait as patiently for the' shelters to open with the first note of the sirens, since the wardens will not allow seats to be reserved. Working hours have been adjusted to suit the raids. The homeward trend begins two liours earlier; the staffs of offices have been advised to set off at about 4 p.m., before the first raid, so that they have settled down in their homes by dusk. Queues for trains and buses wait patiently, and more tolerantly than in peacetime. More Londoners arc having a cold midday meal instead of a hot one since the gas pressure of many of the restaurants is reduced. Some of the water services are also reduced, and the Metropolitan Water Board has appealed to the people to use less water for bathing and washing up.

As the raids continue night after night one thing emerges: The people, who have been schooled to expect the toll of night-bombing, are resigned to get it oyer as though it were a distasteful necessity in order to free Europe of a scourge.