GENERAL

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 6492, 20 September 1915, Page 5

GENERAL

. .. _, .. ...... _____ — ZEPPELIN RAID ON LONDON DISTRICT.

Private Property Destroyed and Non-Combatants Killed.

Rec Sept 19, 2.30 p.m. L«r.don, Sept 17. The Press Bureau, at ihe request of Sir John Simon. Secretary of State for Home Affair*, describes the effect of the last Zeppelin raits on the London district. Sir J. Simon bays the total casualties in the air raids were in all cases correctly stated. The description carefully avoids details regarding the route followed by the raiders and the places bombed. The description states that expononcs last week, combined with G*-r;r:un (ifiicinl reports thereon, de aonstrates i that the commandfrj of the aircraft I often made gross errors in movement i a r.d had no means whatever of estimating the effect of their promiscuous bombardments. Everywhere only private property suffered and in most cases this was of the small residential kind. 'Almost all the unfortunates killed were non-combatants —hitherto exempt from attack in accordance with the honourable practice of civilised warfare—that is w.men, children, small ■ shopkeeperi and workingmen. Futility of Raids. The futility of the raids can be imagined when it is remembered that the London district ia seven huvdred mile? square. The enemy professed that he has accomplished an important military purpose by hastily dropping explosives and incendiary material at random over this enonnoas surface. In point of fact no public institution was hit. It is true that two hospitals narrowly escaped, but it is only fair to say that the army which had done its beßt to destroy cathedrals in Belgium and Prance only succeeded in hitting one church. Complete Failure. From Berlin's standpoint the moral effect is complete, failure. If Count Zeppelin accompanied the raiders, as reported, he will be disappointed to learn that only the minority of the vast population of London was aware ! of the presence of airships. The feelings of those who heard gunfire and saw the Zeppelins were of interest and curiosity rather than of fear. The fact is that the Lcndon suhurba faced calmly the murderous efforts of unmitigated, callous, purposeless, brutal raids and tragedies involve^ here. Pictures of Effects of Raids. There are a few pictures of the effects of the London raid. Outside a public house a man and a woman were talking. The woman departed to buy supper. A bomb fell at the man's feet, killing him outright, and blew in the hotel front, reducing the. stock-to a.-mass of broken glass., A twisted ironbedstead injured a sleeping woman. How conceivably can this action contribute to the progress of the war.

A bomb was dropped on a block of workmen's dwellings, nightly crowded with children. On the topmost flat four children were sleeping. Two surreptitiously rose to make tea in an adjoining room and escaped miraculously, but the sleeping children were killed instantly.\

That is what occurred when Couns Zeppelin professed to tfiink he wat visiting the docks ancbvitally damaging part of them.

A bomb was dropped in a stable and fired a motor car. The stableman and his wife rescued eleven horses, a dog, and a cage bird, the only casualty being a bantam cock. The utility of the attack is ridiculous.

Elsewhere a^omb was dropped on a block of flats. Two girls, who were sleeping, vanished with the room, their bodies being found two days later under the debris. The parents were sleeping, when the partition wall was blown out. They searched for the remaining three .children. An eight-year-old boy ran tor safety to tne staircase, which was demolished, and he fell in the hole where his sisters were buried in the ruins. Two out of three children belonging to another family on the. first floor were missing. Their bodies were recovered.

The worst effect of the explosion was on the ground floor, where a widow and her daughter lodged. Part of the latter's body was found 150 yards distant.

A bomb dropped in a street, blew in a shop window and spent its - main force in a passing motor bus. Twenty persons were aboard and nine were killed and eleven injured. These incidents account for nearly half the deaths and suffice to show the real measure of the nature of the raiders' success. Net Results. The net result of the weeks' raids to life and limb in the London district were that 3.8 persons were killed or died of wounds and 124 injured. Two policemen and one army service man were among the casualties. Otherwise nobody in uniform was injured.