THE EVE OF WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 70, 20 September 1939, Page 8

THE EVE OF WAR

LOMDON PREPARED

BARRICADES AND SHELTERS

A CITY OF SANDBAGS

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London

Representative.)

LONDON, August 31

Sandbagged and boarded basement windows, white-faced pavements and white-lined streets, shaded traffic lights, blue lights in underground entrances, steel pill-boxes for sentries outside Royal residences, and a much greater number of military uniforms mingling in the crowds are the chief visible reactions in London to the crisis. In the parks giant rings of sandbags surround anti-aircraft guns and searchlights; silver barrage balloons 101 lat ease in parks, commons, and squares. "When the balloon goes up" is now more than a colloquialism. It will mean that war has begun. Every soldier carries his gas mask, i and numbers of policemen have beenj issued with blue tin helmets, gas masks, and iron rations. Occasional lorryloads of soldiers and sometimes sailors are seen moving rapidly through the streets. Over 100 excavators are scooping out earth in various parks to fill sandbags; one acre of ground dug to a depth of three feet fills 250.000 bags. It is estimated that defence works have already used up 200,000,000 bags; 600,000,000 more are on order. Market prices of bags vary from 3d to 6§d. In Hyde Park, hundreds of tons of sand dumped after the Great' Exhibition of 1851 are being tapped. WORK AT HOSPITALS. On the Terrace of the Houses of Parliament, where many New Zealanders have sipped tea and watched the flurry of boats on the Thames, every window is hidden by a pile of bags. Westminster, Guy's, and the other great London hospitals are similarly barricaded; students in shorts, and sometimes nurses in uniform, are steadily completing the work. Fire alarms, too, are sandbagged. Edwardes Square, Kensington, haunt of artists, j is crowded with tents and soldiers. The work of removing valuable records and relics goes on. A number of the oldest and most valuable effigies on the Royal tombs in Westminster Abbey are being taken to places of safety outside London. Tombs and marble effigies and statues which cannot'be removed are being sandbagged. Among the figures removed are those of Lady Margaret Beaufort from the Henry VII Chapel, Eleanor of Castille, Henry 111 and Edward 111 and Richard II and his Queen. The portrait of Richard ll—the oldest Royal portrait in England—which hangs in the Nave, has also been taken away. The work of sandbagging and protecting the Abbey treasures will be carried on methodically and the Royal chapels will remain closed to ' the public. The Abbey has its own A.R.P. staff fully trained and ready for action and one of the, strongest bomb-proof shelters in London for the Dean, Chapter, and Abbey staff —a shelter which in peace time can be used as a garage. PRECIOUS FILMS STORED. • The National Film Library of the British Film Institute sent into Sussex for safety nearly 2,000,000 feet of films, of priceless historical value, dating from the earliest days in 1895 to the day. They include the full-length film of the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, .the Coronation procession of King George V, the funerals of Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, troops going out to the Boer War and the Great War, and the historic Canadian and American tour of the King and Queen in the early summer. Government records in Somerset House were transferred to a tug in the Thames and taken' to a place of, safety. It is possible that' all sections at Somerset House, headquarters of the Board of Inland Revenue, the Probate Registry, and the Registrar General may be moved into the country. There is a great demand for premises in Bristol and the west of England by London firms who contemplate moving. The valuable oil paintings of cricket scenes and celebrities have also been taken down from the walls of the Long Room at Lord's for removal to a place of safety, together with other relics of the game. FROM DAY TO DAY. Government instructions are issued from day to day on the various steps to be taken in the event of war. A request has been made that only normal supplies of food should be bought, the reason being that in the first few days of the crisis people who had neglected to take in the week's supply urged previously by the Government were making a run on the shops. It was pointed out that the request did not mean that there was a shortage of food, but that the object was simply to prevent an abnormal demand being made on shops. One announcement stated that plans have been prepared by the National Council of Social Service during the past few months for setting up titizens' advice bureaux in London and the larger cities and towns throughout the country in time of wai. with the full knowledge and approval of the Ministry of Health and the Lord Privy Seal. At these bureaux it will be possible to get advice about the family and personal problems and difficulties which will face people in time of war. The bureaux will give personal interviews to applicants, but their main purpose will be to advise them' as to which national or local government departments or which voluntary organisations they should apply in thenparticular difficulty. Although the bureaux will not oe centres of information about A.R.P. or the preliminary evacuation schema, it is expected that the local and national authorities will find the bureaux lof great value as centres to which they can refer cases- of difficulty needing advice or help from voluntary sources. While, therefore, the bureaux will act mainly as clearing houses, they will, where necessary, try to take action themselves to meet applicants' needs. PLACES OF ENTERTAINMENT. Details have been issued of the Home Office instructions with regard to the closing of all theatres, music halls, cinemas, and other places of en - tertainment during a war. Owners and managers must be prepared lo close down at short notice on receipt of instructions from the police. The public would be notified through Press and broadcast anonuncements. While the closing would, at the outset, be universal, it is. contemplated that when experience had been gained of the nature and extent of any air attacks, it might be possible to permit places of entertainment to reopen; at any rate in those districts which were found to be least exposed to the risk of attack. The local authorities would have power to make reopening subject co conditions; for example, that the performances should be held only in daylight or that the number of the audience should be restricted. Facilities for audiences to reach shelter, on receipt of an air warning, would have lo be taken into account. The Emergency Powers (Defence)

Act gives the Minister of Agriculture far-reaching powers in order to increase home food production. In the event of an emergency the regulations giving him the necessary authority will be issued immediately. Certain of the powers will be delegated in wartime to County War Agricultural Executive Committees and the chair-men-designate of these committees have been asked to stand by to receive further instructions.