REPLY TO HITLER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 246, 14 September 1940, Page 7

REPLY TO HITLER

BRITISH DOGGEDNESS

TIDE MAY BE TURNING

(United Press Association —Copyright.) (Britisli Official Wireless.) (Rec. 11 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 13. “Nothing has been a better and greater answer to Hitler in tlie last few days tban the unflinching, dogsred spirit of our people —many of them occupiers of small dwellings ' and humble homes,” stated the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir Kingsley Wood), speaking at Leeds to-day.

“They realise and have shown by their courage and confidence that the front line in this war is as much on their own thresholds as in. the lines held by our Fighting Forces,” J the Chancellor added. “We are only just at the beginning of this grim, vital struggle, and we have many perils yet to face. It may well be that the tide i 6 now turning, but wo have much to endure, much to suffer, and much to accomplish before victory comes, as it surely will.” Sir Kingsley Wood said the latest figures showing the public’s response to the appeal for investment in Government loans were highly encouraging. The fine total of £353,000,000 had been reached in savings certificates, defence bonds and savings bank deposits. The 2-J- per cent. National War Bonds had produced so far £202,000,000. and loans to the Treasury free of interest already totalled £17,000,000. In all, including the 3 per cent. War Loan, a grand total of £873,000,000 had been raised since the beginning of the year.

EVACUATION SCHEME.

AUTHORITIES DISAPPOINTED.

SHELTERS AS DORMITORIES.

LONDON, Sent. 13. The Daily Telegraph says-that, despite nearly a week of intensive bombing, London’s working-class mothers are still reluctant to co-operate in the evacuation scheme of the Government and local authorities.

“We expected that a very largo jump in registrations would follow the maso air raids, but frankly we are disappointed,” declared an official. “It is true that registrations have risen from a few hundred weekly to 1000 daily, but the figure is far less than was anticipated, because a scliemc was ready for the evacuation of 250,000 within a few days. Serious problems are arising from the use of public air-raid shelters in the outlying districts of London as nightly dormitories by people living in the severely-bombed eastern areas. Thousands of people from the East End and also the inner eastern suburbs flock every evening into London’s green belt, taking blankets, mattresses and food, and fill the shelters when the sirens sound. Thqy sleep as best they can and then go home in the morning. Many of these shelters were intended primarily for pedestrians caught in the street, and not for allnight use. Similar problems have arisen in the ’West End. Members of A.R.P. squads say people tour the shelters in the daytime and select the most comfortable.

HISTORY 0E PALACE

ACQUIRED BY CROWN IN 1762.

Buckingham Palace is situated in Green Park, a triangular piece of ground formerly called Little or Upper >St. James’ Park, which is set at the extreme westerly limit of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, on the south side of Hyde Park Corner. The Palace is the chief object of interest in the park. It is not altogether in St. Martin-in-the-Fields; in fact, tho greater part, ineluding most of the grounds, is in the adjacent parish of St. George’s, Hanover Square. . . Sir Walter Besant, describing the Palace, refers to it as a “dreary building, without any pretence of architectural merit, hut it attracts attention as the London home of the English Sovereign.” The Palace stands on the site of Arlington House, so called from its connection with Henry Bonnet, Earl of Arlington. John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, bought the house and rebuilt it in. 1703, naming it after himself, and including in the grounds part of the land belonging to Tart Hall, which stood at the head of St. James’s Street. Buckingham House was bought from Sir Charles Sheffield, son ot the Duke of Buckingham, by the Crown in 1762. In 1775 it -was granted to Queen Charlotte as a place of residence in place of Somerset House, and at this period it was known as the Queen’s House. The interior is handsome, and like that of many a London house of less importance is considerably more cheerful than the exterior. The chief staircase is of white marble and the rooms are richly decorated. The state apartments include drawing rooms, saloons, and the Throne-room, which is 64ft long. The picture gallery contains a collection of pictures made by George IV, chiefly of til? Dutch school. It includes works of Rembrandt, Rubens, Vandyck, Durer, Cuyp, Ruysdael, Vandervelde iand others.

The grounds are about 40 acres in extent and contain a large stretch of ornamental water, on the shore of which are a pavilion or summer-house, with frescoes by Eastlake, Maclise, Landseer, Dyce and others, illustrating Milton’s'Comus. The channel of the Tyburn, now a sewer, passes under the Palace. The Marble Arch, at the north-east ' corner of Hyde Park, was first designed to face the Palace, and so it stood still 1850.

The Palace is partly on the site of the well-known Mulberry Gardens, a place of entertainment of the Seventeenth Century. These gardens originated in an order of James 1, who wished to encourage the growing of silkworms in England. This project, like many others of the same King, proved a failure, and the gardens were turned into a place of public recreation. In this form the place was extremely popular and was often mentioned in contemporary literature.

The architure of Buckingham Palace was the work, not of Sir Christopher Wren, but of Captain! Wynn, largely altered by John Nash.