LONDON SHOPS

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 September 1940, Page 8

LONDON SHOPS

BUSINESS AS USUAL. [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] RUGBY, September 21. „ The slogan “Business as Usual” appears on most business premises in all parts of London which have been damaged by enemy bombing. In particular, shops partially wrecked in the early part of this week are carrying on, they having been temporarily refurnished and restored. Windows blown in by blasts are replaced by wooden shutters and other makeshift material, and workmen are busily engaged replenishing fittings destroyed. A minimum of interference has occurred in the premises not entirely destroyed by blast or by fire. Even in Oxford Street, where some big stores suffered severely from the bombing, most of the shops will open again on Monday, and in some of them fresh window displays on newly-erected shelves and stands were already attracting customers on Saturday. Wreckage has been almost entirely cleared from streets in the most popular thoroughfares. Arrangements have been made, with the sanction of the Board of Trade, whereby wholesalers may distribute stocks that at present are concentrated in warehouses, by placing them, for storage, with retailers. This plan has been adopted at the instance of certain trade organisations, in order to minimise the risk of damage from air raids. NEWSPAPER DIFFICULTIES. RUGBY, September 21. The assistant manager of “The Times” newspaper, Mr. F. P. Bishop, in a broadcast, gave a description of the production of. a newspaper under the conditions created by the German air force’s terroristic night bombing of London. After explaining ways in which the public had been assured of receiving its morning papers, if sometimes a little late, he said: “Newspapers are small just now, as well as late, but, after all, these are comparatively minor disadvantages. What the reader gets for his "penny or twopence is still something that no German or Italian could buy at any price—an independent paper, free to give real news to the best of its ability, and free to comment' on news to the best of its judgment.”