BRITISH CIVILIANS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 90, 15 March 1941, Page 6

BRITISH CIVILIANS.

UNQUENCHABLE SPIRIT. Touching ou the life of the people in England, a letter received by Mr W. \V. Wilsher, of Edgeware Roadj which was written by a relative in November, gives interesting sidelights on the life of the civilian population at that time. The letter comments on the wondenul help the people of England are receiving from many quarters, and proceeds: "So far our town has. been very fortunate in the air raids, for. which we are very thankful. Last Friday night was our worst night of the war and we had quit* a number of bombs very .near. We had to take cover on the cellar steps three times and had to get up once in the night, tor one route taken by the raiders passes over our way and they can either go into North London or turn to the right tor the Midlands. The night they raided Coventry they came in every two or three minutes for hours and last night they raided the Midlands fairly badly and many planes passed over us, from about 8 p.m. to midnight, continuously. London has certainly had to take it, but the right spirit prevails and the people seem determined that business shall be as usual, even if all the windows and doors have gone. We arrived one morning to find our offices fairly badly damaged. A bomb had dropped next door; we had hardly any windows left and it took us several hours to clear up sufficiently to be -able to work there again. None of our records was damaged, and so we were able to carry on, but it was a bit cold for several days with no windows and no water for heating purposes. Our window places are now boarded up with asbestos fireproof boards, as it is no use replacing the windows. Hardly any shop windows remain in our part of London and, if anything, the East End has had it more severely than the West End. •

"It seems a strange city nowadays; only about one theatre open for part of the day and very few cinemas. Everyone is anxious to get home and we all leave offices, etc., early. We now leave at 4.30 p.m. and make the journey to the station by one of the firm's vans as the congestion and travelling by the tube is very bad, and so many people get down on to the tube stations early in the afternoon to take shelter there until the next morning. The platforms are, divided into two sections; one part where the people can take up their places at 4.30 p.m. and another for those who go down a bit later and can settle themselves down for the night at about 7 o'clock. Quite a number of people in the outer districts of London have their own shelters in gardens and are making them quite comfortable with bunks, heating and lighting."