RECOVERING FROM THE SHOCK.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14354, 20 July 1917, Page 6

RECOVERING FROM THE SHOCK.

LONDON, July 10. 8 Although London has made a good r.e- . covery from , Saturday's shock, air raids' E are the outstanding subject of interest -, and discussiqn. Vast crowds are visit--5 iing. raided' ar.eas, particularly where, „ through guarded barricades, tottering upper stonework, and pawning craters _„ ai*e visible. .Many badly-damaged shops display notices, "Business as usual." * Australia House was struck by fragL ments of shell, but nobody was injured; 350 girl -clerks! had previously been hustled into the basement. The anxiety of Londoners regarding future raids is intensified by the secret session, which the Times declares to be r ment's defence is that we have not ■ mentss defence, is that we have not enough aeroplanes. The deliberate manoeuvring of the 'Germans over London on -Saturday reyeals that they are fully aware of the weakness of .our air defence. They are treating it with contempt." A sinister feature of Saturday's raid was the number of victims whose skin became bright ochre m color, accompanied by an acutely painful skin disease, through an unknown constituent m ' the bombs: The ' hospitals report that it is impossible to remove the stain. Any attempt to wash it off turns the sufferers blood-red. The rainfall after the raid caused manj- London gutters 'to run redV NEW AIR POLICY NEEDED,. "' ' The demand for reprisals has been intensified. Lloyd's News writes : —"There : was nothing ' yesterday to .excuse the failure of the defence, the raiders ' came leisurely, bombed leisurely, and. seemed to. despise the defence. Their flight over London was so slow, that it looked like, a parade of * London's defencelessness' against aeroplanes." Th* Sunday Times sa^s :— "A new air policy is VneededV' As "shells' was the cry" m 1915, si> "aeroplanes' is" the cry iii 19_7. ■ The Government mAist be compelled ..to realise, that' aeroplanes are a deeding factor iii ' the war, and cjkrry hostilities to German territory." The Observer writes.;:--— "Most of the Gernian machines were Gotha twihengip.ed biplanes, and iv ere comparatively slow. Tliei r'y low .altitude" .ShoAved - their contempt for our a'hti-aircraft batteries; yet "the "marksmanship of the lat- " teif.''iwasi. r_mEirk'_!oly gbticj. Qui* defence „ was inadeqlt-ate as. 'regards; machines,". ',' Tjie Weekly Dispatch comments i-^-'Vif the'i people are Vivvable -to get prbtectioii ; they demand to be '"warned. ' Tlie public is no longer m a mood to endure official obstinacy." „*. , '„- ... . . • Reynolds' Newspaper say. •.—•'lt ; was made obvious that the raid?' was a deliberate operation foi' murder and terrorism when the.;vai'deiVf^w.eiy-cd 'easily yesterday eastward 'of the city.; Londoners are now determined to 'fix .'tlie'.r_sponsi- I bility of- aeroplane "production,, and de- * mand reprisals on Rhenish towns-." Mr Kennedy Jones, who resigned a : few' days agij., froni. the position;, pi . Director-General *.*' of. ; Food. Economy, speaking atifuswell jHill,;, said ! :- "There must: ,bo . no more shjlly-shallying oorn r the question of reprisals. . Tl\o , disquieting ; I reports, that Lord 'French is hampered by other departments' must. -be settled.''