CHRISTMAS IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22594, 27 December 1938, Page 9

CHRISTMAS IN BRITAIN

COUNTRY UNDER SNOW

THE KING AND QUEEN AT SANDRINGHAM

WEATHER INTERFERES WITH TRANSPORT (mriTSD PRKS9 ASSOCIATION— COPYRIGHT.) (Received December 26, 9.35 p.m.) LONDON, December 25. London awoke on Christmas morning to find roofs still covered in snow and a temperature of 32 degrees. With the country under snow, Britain had the first “white Christmas” for years. Twenty-three men broke the ice on the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park. They dived in for a “token swim” in connexion with the competition for the Peter Pan Cup which was again postponed because of too much ice. The event has been postponed 20 times since the club was formed 75 years ago. Six days of freezing temperatures laid a coating of ice over the roads and road and rail transport was held up, interfering with food and fuel distribution throughout Britain. A milk and vegetable shortage was threatened. Emergency measures are costing the London Transport Board £ 10,000 a day and metropolitan municipalities have spent £50,000 on clearing snow.

The King and Queen held a large family party at Sandringham, where they distributed presents to 200 employees on the Royal estate, at a feast for which eight bullocks were roasted.

In London all the leading hotels were booked out. There were more than 60,000 overseas visitors. A British Official Wireless message says that Christmas shopping activities in London suffered serious disorganisation by the severe weather of the last few days, and with further heavy falls of snow on Thursday night street traffic was very congested in the West End as well as in the outer districts. The thaw which set in on Thursday continued in the north and west of England, but temperatures in the south fell again late on Thursday, and reached freezing point in the London area in the early hours of the morning. Delays still occurred on the London underground system on Friday, but there was a marked improvement on the previous day. Other railway systems were also subject to delays, and in many parts of the country the roads were impassable.

The cold weather resulted in a record load on the national electric “grid” system and in a record gas consumption. Last Tuesday the total load on the generating stations associated with the grid system reached 6,714,000 kilowatts, an increase of 30 per cent, over the Tuesday of the previous week and the highest figure ever recorded.

GERMANS HOLD TO TRADITION

HITLER’S CHRISTMAS PARTY FOR NAZIS

(Received December 26, 9.30 p.m.) BERLIN, December 25. While Dr. Goebbels was in bed, attended by several doctors, Herr Hitler gave a Christmas Eve party to Nazi pioneers and 1300 Brown-shirts at the Lowenbrau cellar in Munich. Herr Hitler then went to Berchtesgaden to entertain his personal staff.

In defiance of the official discouragement, nine out of 10 homes celebrated Christmas in the traditional manner. Five and a half million parcels of food were distributed throughout Germany from the Winter Relief Fund. Nine hundred Jews arrested in the recent pogroms were released from the Dachau Concentration Camp as a Christmas gesture.

CHRISTMAS IN THE HOLY LAND

“TRUCE” BROKEN BY KILLING OF ARAB

(Received December 26, 11.10 p.m.)

JERUSALEM, December 25

Twenty thousand troops kept the peace in Palestine. British regiments, including the Black Watch and the Coldstream Guards, paraded irv Jerusalem, and were reviewed by Major-General Haining. Men not on patrol duty participated in Christmas celebrations at the Young Men’s Christian Association.

However, the so-called Christmas truce was violated when an Arab corporal was shot dead in the Old City.

The smallest crowd for years attended the Christmas ceremony in the Manger square in Bethlehem.

PARISIANS LEAVE FOR RIVIERA

PARIS, December 23

Thousands are going to the Riviera to escape the city’s arctic weather, and the traditional Christmas Eve in the restaurants is certain to be robbed of much of its gaiety. There is no rush for bookings, largely because the prices are nearly doubled, a result of the financial decrees.