WAR ITEMS

Grey River Argus, 12 October 1944, Page 6

WAR ITEMS

LONDON, October 10. The United' States Army authorities in Paris have announced that -an enemy agent was hanged on Saturday The agent who was a soldier of the’ German Army, was found, last month, dressed in civilian clothes behind the Allied lines. A United States Army military commission convicted the man according to the rules of war. “During 1944 the United States will have received from British Commonwealth sources under reverse lend-lease .an estimated total of 78,000 tons of crude rubber, which is appreciably. more than the anticipated United States imports from all other sources during the year,”, says the British Ministry of Production. “More than two thirds of the rubber output of Ceylon will be shipped to Aimerica this year. Most of the balance will go to Russia, and the rest to Australia and New Zealand.” Two hundred members of the staff of New Zealand blouse received a bonus to defray expenses of bomb damage to their homes, also as a token of the Government’s appreciation of their loypl service during the trying period of blitz and flying bomb attacks. Married men received £25 and other members of the staff £l5. The bonus is payable to those who were on the staff before January 1944. The majority had their homes damaged, one man’s house suffering from blast no fewer than nine times. The decision was made by Cabinet, after Mr. Jordan made a suggestion to Mr. Fraser during the Prime Minister’s recent visit. “Europe’s historic landmarks and works of art have escaped with little damage, but Britain’s churches museums, monuments and libraries suffered severely,” said the Director of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (Mr. Francis Taylor) who has returned from Europe, where he collected data on art works pillaged by the Nazis. He said that in Britain 2800 churches were destroyed and 4000 damaged. All the Wren-designed London churches, including St. Bride’s, St. Giles, Cripplegate, and St Mary le Bow were hard hit,, and some wiped out. St. James, Piccadilly, was virtually destroyed and nearly all Grinling Gibbons’ 17th century wood carving was lost. Exeter Cathedral was very severely bombed. Rare books and documents were stowed away, but many libraries were a total loss. Particularly heavy destruction was done to 18th and 19th century newspaper files and art and archaeology libraries. Many great collections, including famous manuscripts, were lost in the almost complete destruction of Holland House. Virtually all the art treasures in Paris escaped, although there was evidence the Nazis had looted private collections.