MOCK RAID ON LONDON

Southland Times, Issue 24055, 20 February 1940, Page 5

MOCK RAID ON LONDON

Realistic Test Of Defences 400 “KILLED” BY BOMBS (United Press Assn.— Telegraph Copyright) (Received February 19, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, February 18. The world’s biggest air-raid precaution test was carried out in London and regional areas where 60,000 workers were engaged. Explosives shattered masonry and fires ignited derelict houses. Stretcher parties carried casualties to first-aid posts, while steel-helmeted girls drove ambulances through the streets. The exercises were introduced by successive waves of bombing aeroplanes which fighters and anti-aircraft units broke up. Bombs numbering 250 were dropped on 50 boroughs, “killing” 400 and “wounding” 5000 in 150 centres of Greater London, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey and Suffolk. The realism culminated when an imitation German aeroplane crashed in King’s Cross, exploding its cargo of bombs in a prepared excavation, causing 227 “casualties.” Only the silence of the sirens differentiated the exercises from an actual attack. Bodies were extricated from the debris by 360 rescue squads, after which came the routine of identification and disposal of the “dead.” NEUTRALS BUY MORE FROM U.S. LEAKS SUSPECTED IN BLOCKADE (Received February 19, 7.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, February 18. The Washington correspondent of The New York Times says that sharp advances in United States shipments since the war to five neutrals accessible to Germany have provoked a suspicion here of “sizeable leaks in the British blockade system.” The Commerce Department figures for the month of January 1939 and 1940 show that Italy and the Netherlands have doubled, Norway has trebled and Switzerland has quadrupled their United States imports, mostly of products useful for war. The diversion of normal trade routes to neutral countries is a factor in these figures, but it is nevertheless an “open secret” in trade and diplomatic circles here that one price which the Allies are paying for Signor Mussolini’s neutrality is increased commerce. “BRINGING GERMANS TO THEIR SENSES” BRITISH LABOUR PARTY’S PEACE AIMS (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, February 18. Addressing a conference of 400 delegates who met in Newcastle to discuss Labour’s peace aims, Mrs Ayrton Goult, Labour Party chairman, said similar conferences would be called all over the country because full peace preparations must be made while the war was being Waged. “We do not want to bring the German people to their knees but to their senses,” she said. Everybody wanted an honourable peace, but a peace with Herr Hitler was impossible because he could not be trusted, and until Hitlerism was destroyed a lasting peace could not be built. ANSWER TO GERMAN CAMPAIGN BIG RISES IN IMPORTS AND EXPORTS (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, February 18. An excellent answer to Germany’s claims to a successful U-boat campaign is given in the Board of Trade returns for January. Imports for the month show a large rise, compared with January 1939, in practically all categories. The biggest rise is in manufactured oils, fats and resin, which show an increase of nearly £5,000,000. Food, drink and tobacco imports aggregate a jump of more than £11,000,000. Falls are recorded in animal feeding stuffs. Exports show an increase of £1,500,000, which is accounted for by a rise in manufactured articles, the export figures for raw materials showing a slight decrease.