HEAVY TRAVEL

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 152, 26 December 1945, Page 5

HEAVY TRAVEL

CHRISTMAS IN BRITAIN

SPIRIT OF GAIETY

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

LONDON, December 25.

This morning saw London's streets wet with rain and almost empty as people stayed indoors and prepared for Christmas dinner. On the southeast coast, however, the sun was "shining after the recent gales. The exodus from London has been the greatest Christmas rush since 1938, with long-distance trains running three or more hours late. Trains throughout the weekend pulled out jammed to the doors with passengers and sacks of mails and parcels, leaving many more luckless passengers stranded waiting for later trains. There was a spirit of gaiety throughout the country in anticipation of Christmas. Most householders contrived somehow to get hold of turkeys or a bird of some sort, also spirits, wines, and toys, which, though in very short supply, were not as difficult to obtain as was expected. Carol singers during the weekend made the traditional rounds, despite rain which fell over most parts of the United Kingdom. A crowd resembling those in prewar days gathered at Sandringham to watch the Royal Family make its way to church on Sunday. On Saturday night the Royal Family visited West Newton Church, where a special Christmas carol service was held, with tableaux depicting carols which were sung by children. Britain's biggest liners, the Queen Elizabeth, taking 12,000 Canadian troops home, and the Queen Mary, exchanged Christmas greetings with lamps as they passed each other oft Bishop's Rock, Land's End. Cheering passengers crammed the rails. Floodlights illuminated the funnels as the ships turned on all available lighting. The Queen Mary shortly afterwards docked at Southampton with 1500 passengers, including 200 ex-prisoners of war from the Pacific just home in time for Christmas. Five thousand servicemen from India, hoping to spend their first Christmas with their families far many years, were greatly disappointed when the Atlantic gale slowed down the troopship Georgic, which lost a vital day. Street hawkers at Eastbourne did a roaring trade with attractive bouquets of large coloured berries for decorations. Purchasers found that the berries, when put in vases, gave off.a strange aroma. They turned out to be painted onions. German prisoners of war in a camp near Leicester turned ever to the camp authorities 200 toys which they had made by hand from waste. Great crowds packed the famous Petticoat Lane in a last-minute search for presents. Many families cancelled plans for spending Christmas at the seaside as the Channel gales increased the mine menace to south coast towns.