LONDON LIFE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 252, 21 September 1940, Page 8

LONDON LIFE.

SERVICES CONTINUED. *

UNAFFECTED BY RAIDS

(United Press Association —Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.')' 1 <Rec.-1.43 p.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 20. Rising after a night disturbed by the almost continuous roar of . the v anti-aircrait barrage punctuated by the occasional crump of nearby enemy bombs, the average Londoner finds timely'reassurance _in the regular appearance of the milk at his door and the newspaper in his letterbox.

It is these manifestations of normality, bespeaking as they do the efficient functioning or the processes of, communications and distribution over a wide area and involving a great variety of - activities which 'have most deeply impressed foreign .observers in London. This is obvious from the frequency with which the theme recurs in their despatches. •The most recent example is the London correspondent of the Madrid newspaper A.8.C., whose report in Friday s issue insists on the normal manner in which the distribution of bread and milk is carried out in London. Tie also repotted on the adequacy of food 31, P" piies and the failure of the raids seriously to disturb railway services. Foreign Press representatives in the British capital are being driven to the same conclusion as that reached by Brigadier-General George Strong, who arrived in New York on Friday in the Yankee Clipper with the United States Army Mission which has been in Britain. He is stated to haxe expressed the view that it the bombardment of London continued for a whole year on t'he same scale as in the last ten days before he left the result would probably begin to be serious. The. bombing, he said, had been extensive, but there had been no serious damage. The Secretary for War (Mr R. A. Eden) visited a number of anti-aircraft gun and searchlight stations in the London area this afternoon and took the opportunity of examining t'he new methods and technique of night firingHe congratulated the detachments oil their excellent performance during the recent strenuous period.

BOMBINGS IN GERMANY

In the course of the R.A.F. attacks against -.occupied territory and Germany on Thursday night the Dunkirk docks were also attacked from a low level in spite of intense anti-aircraft fire.

Other squadrons bombed the railway yards at Mannheim and Ehrang, the goods yards at Neckarau (four miles south of Mannheim), and the main railway lines at Coblenz. Attacks were also made on a bridge over the Rhine near the Trier Canal (between Veere and Middleburg in Holland) and the aerodromes at Munster, Hanedorf and Bergen-op-Zoom.

AUSTRALIAN PLANS.

(Rec. 10.45 a.m.) ADELAIDE, Sept. 21. The Minister for the Army (Senator Mcßride) stated that large-scale recruiting for the A.I.F. is not likely to be resumed until some of t'he troops now in training are. sent overseas. The plans for raising a home defence force of 250,000 men will not be affected by any decision which may be made to send A.I.F. troops to the Middle East.