DEFENSIVE MEASURES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25589, 17 July 1944, Page 5

DEFENSIVE MEASURES

IMPORTANT SUCCESS GAINED LONDON, July 14.

Defensive measures now being taken were having an important measure of success against flying bombs and were making a most appreciable difference to the weight of the attack, said the Home Secretary, Mr Herbert Morrison, in an interview.

“ The flying bombs cannot affect the outcome of the war,” he said, “ except to give us a reminder that the Nazi regime is a foul and beastly thing to be wiped off the face of the earth. But for the R.A.F. activities the attacks would have been very much heavier, and might have affected the war effort. I think it likely that the Germans are genuinely surprised to find that the total killed and injured is not larger in view of the weight of the attack which they expected to launch and believed they had launched. No doubt those who have no definite work to do or families to care for are better off away from London.

“ I know very well that this sort of thing will not weaken the. inflexible determination of the people of London to wipe out the Nazis, but will strengthen and harden them,” said Mr Morrison. “ Let us remember that this is one of the Nazis’ last desperate throws. They can only have in mind a chance of Winning a compromise peace. We are all looking forward to the day when the flying bomb is mastered, but it would be foolish and unkind of me to, encourage people to count on (his as an early achievement. I think the wise course is to act on the assumption that we may have to put up with quite a bit of it yet, despite everything our airmen and armies can do to defeat it and everything the Government can do to minimise its effects.” “By July 15 169,383 women and children will have left London in the biggest single evacuation of the war,” states the News Chronicle. “This is greater even than for the whole blitz period, when from September, 1940, to March, 1941, 169,000 women and children were evacuated.” The paper adds: "These figures do not include the thousands who are making their own arrangements, but the Ministry of Health and the London County Council are breaking all records in the collection and removal of official parties. Removal of the coastal ban has resulted in a rush to those areas.”