BOMBED CENTRES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 28, 3 February 1941, Page 7

BOMBED CENTRES

TOUR OF MIDLANDS

LONDON, February 2.

Enthusiastic crowds greeted Mr. Wendell Willkie when he visited Coventry and Birmingham today. At Birmingham any attempt at a formal reception had to be given up because the crowds stormed Mr. Willkie's car and were anxious to shake his hand or pat him oh the back. "Send us all the help you can, Mr. Willkie; do what you can for us, Mr. Willkie," Or 'Tell them that we can take it, Mr. Willkie,'* were among the good-natured remarks shouted from the crowd. Mr. Willkie grinned through it all and he must have shaken hands with hundreds.

At Coventry he saw the ruins of the cathedral and walked through the devastated main shopping centre. He said the description given to the American papers of the indiscriminate bombing of the city had not been exaggerated.

He was surprised at the extent of the damage at Birmingham, but the reconstruction he had seen was' a perfect example of how a city could recover. Without the moral courage and steadfastness which he had seen everywhere such reconstruction and recovery could not have been accomplished. He said he was very impressed with the organisation and production of the factories he had visited and with the calm determination with which the people were carrying on. Mr. Willkie is also visiting Manchester and Liverpool.