AIR-RAID ALARMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 131, 30 November 1939, Page 12

AIR-RAID ALARMS

LONDON EXPERIENCE

NEW ZEALAND DOCTOR

SUSPENDED CLASSES

'■The first time we ran for the shelters, the second time we walked leisurely; and the third time we simply stood out in the streets watching the sky to see what would turn up." Thus Dr. P. R. Skinner, of Dunedin, , a young New Zealand graduate of Dunedin University, described his recent experience of air-raid warnings in London. He has returned to New Zealand after an absence of seven months, having been forced through war conditions to give up his plans to, do postgraduate work in London.

The war had disorganized the medical profession in London/ he added, in an interview with. "The Post," and "post-graduate classes had,been suspended meantime. He put his name down for service with the British Medical Corps, but, faced with a possible wait for anything from six months to a year before he was likely to be called up. he decided to return to New Zealand. , •

"There were about 90 of us from all parts of the Empire staying at, London House, where most of the overseas students . seem to make their Londo.a home, and all in the same boat,'' he said. "Some have stayed on in the hope of obtaining a war job, but many have, like me, decided to go back home. . The war has not interrupted the" studies of undergraduates for medical degrees, except in the case of those who have enlisted and been called up, but post-graduate classes have been suspended meanwhile. We were told that there would be a long wait before we would be called up... for active service and there was a general impression that there would be no big demand for Army doctors until the spring at the earliest. It was not expected that there would be any large military operations in .Europe before then." ": Dr. Skinner'was some four months in London, which he ..left only seven vyeeks ago and so became familiar with wartime life in the Empire Capital with its black-outs, evacuation of women and children, and so on. There were three air-raid warnings while he was there, the first a quarter of an hour after Britain and Germany were at war. He said that had he been alone he would have found life in London deadly slow, but the. medical men at London House provided excellent company. - NO SUBMARINE SCARES. "The ship was 'flat out' all the way, doing about 18 knots," he said, describing the voyage out from London; "and although we maintained a zigzag course we completed the voyage in very little over the normal schedule time. We did not experience any submarine scares, but the Heronspool was torpedoed only a few hours' steam ahead of us in the Atlantic, and we sighted the President Harding, which picked up survivors. We carried a six-inch gun ; and an anti-aircraft gun, ; and there were naval men on board. There were sandbags on the bridge, and, of course, we were blacked out at night all the way to Sydney. We were fortunate in being out of the danger, zone before the Germans started their^ new minecam- v paign. I thought I had sighted a submarine once, but it turned out to be a whale."

Fellow-passengers with Dr. Skinner were Dr. J. T. Bowie, also of Dunedin, and his wife. Dr. Bowie has been retired from practice for some years, and has just returned from a health , trip, during which .he toured extensively in the British Isles. Although they were1 air over Scotland and in many parts. of England they did not experience one air-raid warning.

Dr. Bowie indicated small canvas boxes that he and his wife were .wearing when they arrived in Wellington today. "These are our gas masks," he said. "It is cqmpulsory to carry a gas, mask with you always when you are at Home." ; '

Neither of the two doctors recalled any feeling of nervousness during'their experiences in the danger zones. "I wouldn't mind setting out tomorrow to do the same trip all over again," said Dr. Skinner.