CHILDRENUNDER AIRRAIDS

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23318, 2 May 1941, Page 6

CHILDRENUNDER AIRRAIDS

* BEffAVIOim PRAISED LETTER DESCRIBES LIFE NEAR LONDON The fearlessness of children under air raids is ond of tßef mathimpressions df life lit fihglaiid given to A letter received by Mr 3. Becconsall, of Christchurch, from a friend living at Soltthall, a fetv miles from London "One has to be really in the thick of it to understand that no. praise is too high for all our people, service members aftd civilians alike,” says the letter; “But especially I would like to mention the kiddies. They are absoItitely wonderful. They don’t seem .to know What fear is. When the old ‘moaning Minnie* s«unds they just look round and say, ‘There she goe§ again,’ and then go on spinning their tops or playing any other game they are enjoying at the time. “Life is practically normal here, the only really big change being that we don’t go upstairs to bed. We ourselves have not slept in a real bed since last September. But we do sleep, and quite well, to©; We just go to bed at our ordinary times, raid or no raid, and just wake up during the night to hear perhaps a warning or an all-clear sounding—or else perhaps extra heavy .gunfire or a near-by explosion may Wake Us up,. I really believe we are all keeping ertir nerves Strong because We all of us insist on getting as much sleep as we Can, instead of sitting Up to see what is going to happen. Why, if we had done that in the four months before Christmas, we shouldn’t have had any rest at all “Don't worry about London. You seem to think there is not much of it left standing. If Only you Gould drop In On it just,now, what a Wonderful surprise you 1 would have! Do you knoW that you could walk right from Marble Arch to Tottenham Court road, and hardly see any difference at all; and that holds for a lot of it. Certainly the heart of the city where the fire was, and the East End, are pretty bad, but the greater part of London still stands, and believe me, it is going to take a lot of knocking down. . . . "Business goes on the same as usual, and if a firm is blown sky-high one week, we hear within a very short time that .they are opening somewhere else. And that is the thing that Hitler has to break—not houses and monuments—and, believe me, he’ll never do it. We are all absolutely confident of that.

"We are getting plenty of food. Certainly there are shortages of certain articles at times, but there is always something else to take their place. Perhaps, we have to get out early in the mornings to do our shopping, but we aye still able to sit down to four good meals a day. So why worry because- we can’t get, say, an egg this week or cheese next week. They make their appearance again before very long. Than perhaps when We can get these two things we can't get syrup, and so it goes on. . ,