LONDON IN WARTIME

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22850, 25 October 1939, Page 13

LONDON IN WARTIME

“ENGLISH PEOPLE ARE WONDERFUL” VISITOR IMPRESSED BY CALM AND ORGANISATION (FSZXg ASSOCIATION TKUCORAU.) AUCKLAND, October 24. “English people are wonderful,” said Mr F. H. Gifford, Auckland manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company, who returned from a tour of Britain and the Continent. He was in London when war was declared, and was astonished at the courage, spirit, and organisation evident in the crisis. The absence 'of panic demonstrated the wonderful training of the British population for defence. “Every person appeared to know his place, obeying instructions immediately,’’ he said. He said he was living in a large block of fiats which housed 800 persons. Immediately war was declared the occupants volunteered to assist in the work of protecting the building with sandbags and converting a portion of the space into a temporary hospital. Men and women assisted in building a wall of sandbags 20 feet high, which • took nearly a week “I cannot speak too highly of some of the women who took part in this task, the men filling the bags and the women tying them, some working until their hands were chafed and severely cut with string. In all parts of London the women were toiling in this way.’’