COULD FIND BOMBS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 9 May 1939, Page 8

COULD FIND BOMBS

WOMAN DIVINER’S CLAIM TO HELP POLICE FIGIIT TERRORISTS I B.v Air Mail —Special Correspondent 1 LONDON. 15th April. In their search for the secret arsenals of the I R A. bomb terrorists, the English police were this week offered the help of dowsers, the diviners of water and metal Mrs G. Barraclough. a London water diviner, who addressed the Astrologers' Convention at Harrogate, this week said: "The divining rod could guide dowsers to the arsenals. There is no reason why every illegal bomb dump should not be traced very quickly. Only prejudice has stopped our services being employed. The Germans found aowsers of immense use during the last Mrs Barraclough told the convention that in wartime dowsers could be used to locate enemy dumps of ammunition j and mines She said that dowsers could also gauge the direction in which areoplanes are living and indicate the position of metals and oil springs. She told how she had "divined” her son s toy aeroplane when he lost it in a cornfield Many dowsers claim the power of which Mrs Barraclough spoke. Some say they would need to fly over the j ammunition dump in an aeroplane, i Radiations sent out by the large quantity of metal in the dump would affect the diviner’s nervous system, causing the hazel or whalebone twig to tremble in his hand Other dowsers say that they could detect an ammunition dump simply b.v holding a pendulum over a large-scale map of ilie area in which it lay. The War Office has already on one occasion made use of the services of a woman dowser The occasion was in 1934. when the diviner was employed to find hidden springs on Salisbury Plain She found springs first by using War Department maps then went to the spot and “divined” how deep the springs ! were. When a bore was made the [springs were found where she had stated they would be.