“CRISIS SUNDAY”

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 October 1939, Page 8

“CRISIS SUNDAY”

ORDERLY LONDON CROWDS LONDON, August 28. Calm and cheerfulness were the characteristics of the big crowds which filled the West End of London yesterday. “Crisis Sunday” passed without any visible sign of strain or tension among the throngs in the' streets. The popular cafes and restaurants were filled. Long queues formed outside the cinemas for the evening performances. The crowds were largest in Whitehall and Downing-street. They were kept in order —an easy task—by men of the reserve police, 3,000 of whom were recalled to duty last week. Thousands of people swelled the usual Sunday night crowds in the West End. Most of them had come into London seeking news of the crisis. They overflowed from the pavements into the roads and there were numerous traffic hold-ups. Neon light signs and advertisements blazed as usual, and except for men paiirting white stripes on kerbstones and in the centre of the streets, as guides in black-outs, London looked as usual. A procession of pacifists formed in Regent-street shortly before 8 p.m. and marched through Trafalgar-square to Whitehall. Sir Philip Game, the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, was on duty at Scotland Yard throughout the day. All the members of the C.1.D., about 1,900 strong, had also been summoned to duty. Ministries and Government offices were busy. Their staffs were, for the most part, working at full pressure, l’.nd many of them ate picnic lunches at their desks. Furniture, files and other fittings were removed in pantechnicons from some of the Ministries. So great was the crowd in Whitehall that at lunch-time some of the hostelries in the district, temporarily ran short of food and drinks. An Automobile Association official said: “Our road patrols report, that there is very little Io distinguish this from any other Sunday. ‘Everthjng normal’ is the general report.” In carriages on the Southern Railway notices have been posted advising passengers what to do in the event of ail - raids. They are told to keep the carriage blinds' down in the day-time, as well as at night, to minimise the risk from shattered glass, not to alight, should the train stop outside a station, unless ordered to by the guard, and to lie on the floor if bombing is in progress nearby.