LONDON’S PROUD SPIRIT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 251, 20 September 1940, Page 7

LONDON’S PROUD SPIRIT

UNQUENCHED BY NAZIS

PUBLIC SERVICES OPERATING

DESPITE TERRIBLE DAMAGE

(United Press Association.—Copyright.— Rec. 9.30 a.m.)

(British Official "Wireless.) RUGBY, Sept. 19

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 the five continents, the damage inflicted by bombs has news value far in excess of its intrinsic importance.

Tlie result might well be to give those abroad a distorted picture of the actual injury inflicted by. these wanton attacks. Put reports of foreign newspaper correspondents, to judge by the extracts from their newspapers telegraphed back to London, have, in fact, succeeded in keeping the tale of destruction in proper proportion. LIFE NOT PARALYSED.

The New York Times reminds its readers that out of millions of buildings only 2000 have been destroyed and 3000 seriously damaged, while t'he toll of fife —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 ten 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.

Tn the same sense, the HeraldTribune’s correspondent bears witness that most of the rail services in and out of London continue to operate with a frill schedule. FOOD ASSURED.

This fact is also-noted by the Chicago Tribune’s correspondent, who adds that this means the food supplies are assured.

The plentiful food supplies have also impressed a Finnish correspondent, who says no difference whatever is visible in the restaurants.

Mr Wallace Carroll, the United States correspondent in London, was given the opportunity of consulting the confidential reports of the Ministry of Home Security. He telegraphed that these reports had convinced 'him that the furious German air bombardment through ten days and nights had inflicted severe damage and suffering in London, but had left Britain’s waT machinery as a whole unimpaired.

AERODROMES WORKABLE. Mr Carroll said not one aerodrome had been put out of action. The reports stated that the aircraft industry had been hardly scratched. They said the oil stores destroyed were said to be only a fleabite in Britain’s reserves. , >

No power station had been put out of* action, but one of the gasworks had been disabled.

Most of London’s railroad stations were operating normally, but some of the services on the others had been suspended. Ships continued to move in and out of the Port of London. “These and other assertions contained in tlie reports correspond to my own inspection of the aerodromes, factories and other military objectives,” said Mr Carroll.

Naturally, reports are flashed from London when it is known that great departmental stores such as John Lewis and Peter Robinson’s have been hit, 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 nightly bombardment. i LONDONERS’ SPIRIT; From two widely-separated parts of the world comes comment on the large part which is played by oral or visual proof of the effectiveness of the deience measures in creating confidence. An American correspondent tells the 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 a Propaganda Department to tell them their defences are effective.”

The London correspondent of the Finnish newspaper C/usi Submi tens the Finns how Londoners are lulled to sleep 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.” . ~ A most striking witness to the spirit of London is given by M. Wauters, a former Belgian Minister of information and euditor of the Brussels newspaper Le Peuple, who is now in EonIn an open letter to a number of friends he recounts : ‘To-night I 6pent eight hours in a public shelter full o workers and petits bourgeois these people’s good humour, cordiality, aa< t solidarity in distress were profound y moving." During the whole ot tliose eight hours I heard not one word o complaint or recrimination, not a worn against the authorities.

REFUSAL TO BE AFRAID. “Here once more are the deep roots of that great democratic tradition which ensures that the P eo ß„ has confidence' in its rulers bccau it controls them. If Goering decid d on his savage bombardments in or to provoke a mass exodus on the roads he has completely failed, roads will not be choked up here they were in Belgium and I' ranc ®‘ The Germans will not have a; chance to assassinate 10,000 civilians flight as they did on the road from Paris to Chartreux.”

Ail almost identical impression uas made on the shrewd American o server, Mr H. R. Knickerbocker who has seen peoples under the stra war in half-a-dozen areas in as m y years. He reports that "Londoners and the English people in general are stubborn, invincible, even et upid if .you like, in their refusal to I>er -° I “ rtain ] v This sort of destruction is certain y

not going to win the war. The following message from the Leader of the London County Council has been made public: “Although the fabric of the County Hall received some damage I want to assure the public of London that the civil defence and other services of the County Council arc being maintained. In unity with and in service for London the County Hall carries on.”