CHILDREN STILL IN LONDON

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23132, 23 September 1940, Page 7

CHILDREN STILL IN LONDON

“EVACUATION MUST

BE SPEEDED UP^

MORE SHELTERS MADE

AVAILABLE

(totted PE ess association—copyright.)

(Received September 22, 8 p.m.)

LONDON, September 21. The “Daily Mail” says: “The slogan, ‘Get the children out,’ should be pinned up in every ‘Ministry in Whitehall. Night after night thousands of children in the danger areas are suffering the terrors of constant bombing. Hundreds are being killed. Some have seen their parents slaughtered and have watched their world crumble.

“The search for safety is a pilgrimage of misery. Children are condemned to sleep in the humid atmosphere of stations which are unhealthy, and there is no sanitation. “These dreadful ordeals must be spared to the generation to which we look to build a brave new world after the war. Evacuation must be speeded up. Something mor§ vigorous is needed than the Government gently urging parents to let children go. “A lot of nonsense is written about the wise-cracking Cockney joking about the horrors around him. These horrors are not jokes. The average Cockney does not think them funny.” As thousands began to stream to the tube stations last evening, it was announced that the authorities were converting a large section of the Piccadilly line into an air raid shelter. The section is 563 yards long and varies in depth from 95 to 133 feet. The conversion should be simple. The tracks will be boarded over. The section is already well lit, although improved ventilation will be necessary. Meanwhile London’s shelter problem is receiving increased prominence. The conditions in many of the poorer districts are pitiable. With insufficient sanitation and seating accommodation, thousands are forced to stand for hours. The Ministry for Home Security intends to speed up the work of shelter improvement throughout London. While the conversion of tubes was under discussion thousands again took matters into their own hands and settled down on the platforms for the night. Overcrowding was acute and the atmosphere most unpleasant. Many resorted to sleeping on the steps of escalators.

The chief new measure is understood to involve the adaptation of daytime shelters for night use by the provision of shelter marshals, sanitary arrangements, and possibly sleeping facilities. Many basements not already requisitioned will be equipped for “round the clock" use as well as those already adapted for day use only. Plans for transporting people from the more vulnerable areas where shelter provision is insufficient are understood to include the division of night evacuation areas into groufis of streets, each group having its allotted shelters in another area. From each group private cpaches and buses will leave at a fixed time in the evening and return the people to their homes in the morning. Experiments will first have to be made, however. The use of tube stations as shelters is expected to be restricted to those without alternative accommodation.

“BRITAIN IS NOT BELEAGUERED”

LONDON’S LORD MAYOR SPEAKS TO U.S.

(BRITISH OFFICIAL VURELLSS.)

RUGBY, September 21

A spirited repudiation of the suggestion that Britain is S beleaguered fortress was made in a broadcast address to America by the Lord Mayor of London (Sir William Coxen). The address was spoken in his absence because of a slight cold by a former Lord Mayor, Sir George Broadbridge. He said: “Just look for a moment dt this England of ours. It is the home of men and women resolutely preparing themselves for the supreme task in British history. Night by night there flies out from this island the spearhead of our attack on Na-zi Germany, That spearhead is the Royal Air Force, whose heroic exploits are known to all the world, but even these brave men of the air could not give us command of the seas. If the British Fleet did not hold the ocean round our shores against all comers hope and freedom in the world would die.

“Who except Goebbels could suggest that Britain is besieged to-day, when our ships bring us daily and in safety the food we eat, and the steel, copper, oil, and cotton we need for our effort in the war? We are daily revictualled and replenished from the granaries and arsenals of the world, and week by week our export trade is carried out over the seven seas, ■‘‘This is no idle boast. It is the plain, honest truth. But do not imagine we can keep our seaports open to receive the rich cargoes of the outer world without paying a price, and a very heavy price. Patrols of the Royal Navy are guarding not only the shores of Britain but the security of the whole world.

“We stand to-day facing the greatest crisis in our history, looking to a victory surq and complete with our banner bearing our. ancient motto, 'Domine Dirige Nos’.”

Referring to the preset trials London is undergoing, the Lord Mayor said: “London has known in the past moments when all she most valued was at stake, but never in her long annals has she been called on to face any ordeal so cruel and so searching. "Her long-established traditions of safe, settled ways have been assaulted as never before. Her peaceful citizens have been subjected to the ruthless cruelty of an embittered foe bent on her destruction. To-day London stands as the very bulwark of civilisation and freedom as we know it, “It is the greatest responsibility the world has ever known. This red earth of our countryside, these paved streets or my city built on Roman foundations shall and will be defended to the last. London city has sometimes in history been attacked, but never sacked.”

R.A.F. Pilots May Train In U.S.—The ‘New York Daily News” states that the chairman of the American section of the United Stafes-Canadian Defence Board (Mr F. H. La Guardia), is planning to grant to Canada airport facilities to train cadets in Florida when snow prevents the use of aerodromes in Canada.—New York, September 20. Spanish Ship Torpedoed.—The 6000ton Spanish freighter Tortosa has been torpedoed off Cape Finisterre.—Bilboa., September 20.