AN AMAZING CHANGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 81, 3 October 1938, Page 9

AN AMAZING CHANGE

SCENE IN LONDON

CITY PLACID AGAIN

COST OF DEFENCES

LONDON, October 1. Not even the most case-hardened can be insensible to the amazing change in the London scene. The sense of relief which was momentarily demonstrative yesterday is a mute yet eloquent thing expressed in looks, demeanour, and buoyancy of gait rather than in words. London seems placid again. Tomorrow the extra hour of summer time will be lost, the surest reminder of the grey days, fogs, and snow ahead, but it is the reflection of nearly every Londoner that this time winter discontent will be made endurable by the thought of how near it was to a winter of muddy battlefields, aerial horrors, and constant suspense. For a time there were portents of an. uneasy weekend through Polish impetuosity, but official circles were of the opinion that even if the Czechs were not accommodating in their attitude the Poles had been sufficiently warned by the nation against stultifying their case by unreasonableness. However, at 12.30 p.m. there came the news of the Czechs' acceptance of the demands, so for the first time for a month there is a real hope that the weekend will be free of alarms. Among the indications of slackening tension is the announcement that their Majesties are going to Balmoral on Sunday to resume their holiday. DEMOBILISATION BEGUN. The demobilisation of Royal Navy reservists has begun. Other naval,' military, air force, and police preparations have been relaxed. i The War Office reckons that the total direct cost of the recent defence arrangements to the Government will be at least £30,000,000. The Admiralty alone is understood to have expended from £8,000,000 to £12,000,000. The bill for gas masks was £5,000,000, and for trenches £2,000,000, while the purchase and filling of 100,000,000 sandbags accounts for £3,000,000. | It is estimated that in the past fortnight the cost to the local government authorities was £16,000,000. Re-armament costs are reflected in the Exchequer returns for the financial half-year ended September 30. Expenditure was £166,000,000 higher than revenue, compared with a deficit of only £98,000,000 at September 30, 1937. The half-year's revenue totalled £306,000,000, a decrease of £2,600,000. Mr. Bernard Docker, chairman of Westminster Hospital, has made a gift of £1000 for the endowment of a bed in the new hospital as a peace gesture. Wreaths have been laid on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Berlin and in the British war cemetery, Stahnsdorf, "from the Imperial War Graves Commission, representing a million dead of the British Commonwealth, in humble gratitude to Almighty God, October 1, 1938." Mr. William Parkinson, a Blackpool sportsman, has offered to build and present to the municipality 12 houses to be occupied by ex-servicemen or their families rent free, to commemorate Mr. Chamberlain's peace. All churches are devoting tomorrow to thanksgiving.