BOMBED LONDON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1941, Page 2

BOMBED LONDON

INEQUALITIES PERSIST CO-OPERATION ESSENTIAL. PRIVILEGED SECTIONS JEALOUS OF RIGHTS. LONDON, May 12. Bombers are droning over London as I write this article (states a special correspondent of the “Sydney Morning Herald"). Bombs are dropping some distance away, a mile, two miles, perhaps three. I can tell they are not close, because the explosion is muffled. The building is vibrating as the guns tire, the big ones with a thunderous roar, the little ones with a bark like a yapping terrier. A musical tinkle outside my window is shrapnel falling on the pavement. I can hear people walking along the footpath chatting normally, untroubled by guns, bombs, or black-out. I envy them their nonchalance. Although the building in which I am working is solid steel and concrete, and as safe as anything can be against a high explosive.. I have been jumpy since the air-raid warning sounded 10 minutes ago. I have been here only three months, and faced only three major raids. The people in the street, like all Londoners, have been through nearly nine months of “blitz,” and have seen things at which, with my little knowledge, my imagination boggles. No one who has ever watched Londoners in a raid can believe that England. even in these desperate days, can

be vanquished. There is something almost superhuman in the way the people face, without any sign of cracking, the most savage form of warfare the world has ever seen. Every observer from the outside world ’has been impressed by the people’s extraordinary fortitude, and many have tried to find the explanation of it. Some have called it stupidity, some have called it phlegm, some have called it courage. Whatever it is, it engenders this extraordinary spirit which gives people power to stand up to terrorism and disaster without flinching—a spirit which makes a race unconquerable. LIFE GOES ON SMOOTHLY. London goes on today almost as smoothly as it did in peace time, in spite of the fact that thousands of homes have been, devastated and acres of the city arc desolate wastes of debris. It is still possible to shop in the normal way, it is still possible to travel anywhere one wants to go, and it is still jossible to conduct business in the normal way. People follow their ordinary pursuits as naturally as if the world were at peace; and they seek their pleasures even if in a simpler form in much the same way as they have always done.

Raid or no raid, most Londoners sleep in their own beds at night, and in very few eases where homes are still standing do falling bombs interfere with normal, domestic routine. The shelters and undergrounds are still crowded, but they are mainly crowded, with people who have lost their homes and have nowhere else to go rather than people seeking shelter from bombs.

I have been through undergrounds and through shelters all pver London, and I have talked with the people who occupy them. I have found that in most cases they are permanent communities who have set themselves up there so that they will have a roof over their head because their homes have been destroyed. Each has his own sleeping place, and his or her rights, which are observed by the under-' ground dwellers. In one place I found that a shelter had been organised on such a highly efficient communal, basis that the civic rule of the little community was that a man lost his rights to his bunk only if he failed to appear three nights in succession; and even in these circumstances his rights were restored if ho could produce a medical certificate that he had been unable to observe these rules.

NO SIGN OF FEAR. A lter London’s greatest raid recently. when casualties were heavier than ever before and devastation was on an almost inconceivable scale, I made a tour of the city just as dawn was breaking. I travelled at least five miles in all areas of central London, and everywhere I found shattered homes, blasted buildings, and flreswent tenements. I clambered over burnt woodwork, twisted steel, and shattered bricks, and I talked with people who had seen their families killed or injured; with people who were still fearful of what removal of the wreckage might reveal: and with people who had seen a life's work blasted about their ears in the tenth of a second. Not one of them showed any sign of fear, of breaking, or of hopelessness. Many of them were still able to joke and few of them were unable to smile. In many cases they were working their way industriously dragging out pieces of furniture, bedding, tables, chairs, to make some makeshift home wherever they could find shelter. In the city itself, where great structures were blazing and shattered masonry was still falling, police, firemen. A.R.P. workers, civil defence forces, women ambulance drivers, and all the auxiliary organisation which have been set up to resist the Nazi invader were working calmly and efficiently to dig out the injured from the wreckage, to- quell the fires, and to clear the streets so that London might carry on its business day. as usual.

Three hours later, as the city's day was just beginning, I made another tour, and. but for a traffic dislocation because of blockage of some street, I found nothing that would suggest that London and Londoners were not going to carry on as usual. I saw the day through with constantly growing admiration for a people who. having faced such a terrifying ordeal, can preserve an ordered discilpline which, unless it were understood, might almost be taken for nonchalance.

If courage alone were all that were needed to win this war. there is no doubt that Great Britain's triumph would already have been complete; but more than courage is needed if the Nazi terror is to be vanquished. There must be co-operation and equal sacrifices by all classes in the national interest. Unfortunately there are privileged sections who arc still resisting fiercely any threat to what they regard as their rights and selfishly and complacently asking others to bear the burdens which are necessary if victory is to be won. Herein lies one of Britain's chief weaknesses, from which derive many I of the obstacles to efficient admin istra-j lion which, so far. have had a ham-1 pering effect on the war effort. These people do not lack courage, they do! not lack loyalty; what they do lack is' understanding.

COURAGE NOT ENOUGH.

In the three months in which I have been in England, I have probably seen more of the country than the average Englishman sees in a lifetime. By force of circumstances I have had to travel through the length and breadth of the land— to the great industrial centres, to the social resorts, and to the country areas. I have lived in England’s leading luxury hotel, I have spent I much time in other leading luxury hotels in London, and I have stayed in high-priced hotels all over England. 1 have also stayed in .country “pubs," and today I am sleeping on the floor in Fleet street'

I saw so much that pained and oppressed me in these luxury places that I can honestly say that, if I had my choice between my “gilded cage" and V bed on the floor in Fleet Street, I would choose the bed on the floor.

It seemed impossible to me as I sat in gaudy and lavish surroundings and watched women in expensive evening gowns and smartly-tailored men ordering extravagant dinners and expensive drinks that the mass of the people were fighting desperately and with a magnificent courage against a savagery such as the world has never seen before.

In their steel and concrete fortress, surrounded by huge brick blast walls, they are able to sit comfortably through the fiercest raid with hardly an evidence that buildings were being devastated and people dying all over the city. Even the roar of the huge guns a few hundred yards away come to them only as a muffled thudding.

When I told some of them stories of the Plymouth blitz that I had seen, the East End and of the conditions in shelters and undergrounds, they either look at me with astonishment or treated me as though I were an explorer returned from the wilds. Some cf this class, of course, following the magnificent lead of the King and Queen, who spend all their spare time among the people, are doing magnificent and self-sacrificing wark. but their efforts are offset by the evils which arise from the selfishness of their fellows.

MANY INEFFICIENCIES. From these evils spring many inefficiencies which are apparent in official administrative activity. Evidence is continually cropping up of aloofness in the official services which it is almost impossible for an Australian to understand. It is difficult to obtain an appointment with even the most minor official, and usually before one is obtained it requires the rigmarole of a lunch with him first and a discussion of business later. High-placed officials and Ministers are almost unapproachable. It might be possible to interview one after a week of hard work, string pulling and manoeuvring This creates an entanglement of red tape through which it is almost impossible to penetrate to find out to what degree there is efficiency or inefficiency behind the scenes.

As an illustration of privilege, the following authentic incident may be quoted. A man of extreme importance in the financial world before the war now has military rank. His valetchauffeur was a member of an ago group which was recently called up. His Master immediately applied to have him seconded to him. He is still valet-chauffeur. The only difference is ho wears a private uniform and his master does not have to pay him any wages-. He gets his shilling a day army pay.

this criticism does not in any way hiean that the whole war machine is inefficient. It does moan, however, that with the removal of these disabilities, it could be a great deal more efficient, and that the results which would follow would remove much of the uneasiness that is developing among the mass of the people in England about their leadership, and would help materially in achieving the gigantic effort that is necessary if Nazism is to be overcome and the magnificent courage of the common people of England rewarded.