BOMB DAMAGE

Evening Star, Issue 23745, 28 November 1940, Page 9

BOMB DAMAGE

THE TROTH URGED CENSORSHIP DANGEROUS TO BRITISH CAUSE PEOPLE READY TO FACE, FACTS Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, November 26. Criticism of the British censorship, which has not been heard for many months, is increasingly evident in. United States newspapers. The chief of the London bureau of the * New York Times,’ reporting the raids on November 23, said: “It is doubtful whether they did as much damage to the British cause as the censorship now in the full bloom of the silly season. Things have reached such a pass that British newspapers are printing the German communiques to make a pretence of telling their readers what is going on in England. It is defeating its own purpose, because in trying to fool the enemy it is only fooling its best friends. Britain wants greater supplies from the United States. The best hope of obtaining them is'to let the United States know the extremity of the need, but the censorship refuses. ‘ It is becoming as ominously oppressive at France’s before the collapse.” The Associated Press correspondent, Mr Drew Middleton, writing from Lon* don, says: “The British capacity for understatement is working overtime, partly through patriotism and partly through propaganda. Complacency, distortion, and reluctance to admit the truth are perhaps as dangerous to the British cause as the nightly bombings. German night raiders have dropped tens of thousands of tons of bombs, and yet one is asked to believe that no damage has been done to military objectives. Are the bombers that hit Buckingham Palace unable to hit the sprawling factories in the Midlands? Believe it, if you can, that the Germans have killed thousands of civilians without damaging morale and have damaged shipping and railroads without demoralising the war efjort. - Londoners are cheerful and stubborn,, and have tried to shelter in conditions which are still an abominable menace to health and more dangerous potentially than the Nazi bombs. In other, cities the people . are less cheerful* They grumble that London is more greatly protected and say that tha propaganda which says that London is unhurt is causing the Nazis to change their strategy and hammer Coventry, Liverpool, Birmingham, . Bristol, and Southampton. The people are more ready to face the brutal truth than tha newspapers or the 8.8. C.” The Associated Press, New York, commenting on this despatch, says: “ It is significant because it has passed the censorship, which until now has. frowned on such statements. It may mean that the British have changed their attitude and believe that a dark picture of danger will arouse more sympathy in the United States than the confident optimism displayed hitherto.”-

INDUSTRIAL CENTRES SUFFER NOTABLE BUILDINGS DAMAGED LONDON, November 27. It is now revealed that Birmingham, Southampton, and Bristol were recently; bombed. Many of Birmingham’s notable buildings were severely damaged, including the art gallery and the Arcade. Shops in the centre of the 1 city were wrecked. The Bristol raid was also severe, but it was not nearly so heavy as that oa Coventry. Shops and old buildings chiefly suffered, also churches and cinemas. Many fires occurred in the three cities, but these were quickly controlled. Six firemen were killed ati Southampton, on which thousands of incendiaries were dropped.

“CRAZY BRITISH”

DEFYING PRIMARY LAW DF LOGIC GERMANY BOASTS HERSELF UNCONQUERABLE BERLIN, November 27. (Received November 28, at noon.) The Nazi Party news sheet, in an an* tide under the title ‘Crazy complains that the British are continue ing the war contrary to all the rules of logic. No sensible person,” it says, “ can follow the acrobatics of British thought. Nobody possessing normal mental faculties doubts that Germany is unconquerable, but the directors of British policy decline to recognise this primary law of human logic. “ British policy since 1933 has heed suffering from an acute hallucination, in which are mental delusions on the internal situation in Germany, Russian* German relations, and German rearmament. There are also hallucinations ii» tho R.A.P. and loss of memory in the Press and about the speeches by leading politicians. The problem of finding a solution to this war is therefore not a problem of politics, but of psychology.” '