COLD THE ENEMY

Evening Star, Issue 25994, 8 January 1947, Page 5

COLD THE ENEMY

POORER GERMANS SUFFER BLEAK WINTER IN EUROPE LONDON, January 7. Almost the whole of the United Kingdom is covered with snow. London, with a maximum of 28deg, had its coldest day since January, 1942. To-night the snow is freezing hard, and trains are slowed down and road services curtailed. Reuter's Hamburg correspondent says that ice-breakers are out in the Kiel Canal. The inner harbour of Kiel is also freezing. Thirty-ojne thousand tons of coal are locked up on frozen-in Rhine barges. In Hamburg it has not been so cold since the big frost of 1928. The thermometer dropped to 35deg below freezing point, and all industry has ceased. Places of amusement are closed, and even some British messes are without heat or lighting, • The misery of the poorer Germans is intense. Herded in cellars, Nissen huts, and ruined houses, they have reached a stage of apathy. Children are in rags and shoeless.. In Bremen, however, nurseries with specially heated rooms have been opened as refuges for children up to two years of age. Reuter’s Vienna correspondent says that 31deg of frost were recorded in parts of Austria, with frosts 20 below in Vienna. Numerous cases of frostbite have been admitted to hospital. Rome reports nine deaths from cold, including an escaped prisoner. The first snow since 1942 blanketed Rome.