LIGHTS SHOWING IN BLACK-OUT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21784, 14 October 1940, Page 6

LIGHTS SHOWING IN BLACK-OUT

Fault In Many Bombed Areas ARRANGEMENTS MOSTLY EXCELLENT “On the whole the black-out arrangements are excellent and very weh kept, and it is fortunate that it is so, for when anything comes down, there often seems to have been a light at fault,” states a letter received by a Timaru resident from a friend in England. “We have been most fortunate that nothing has dropped nearer than four miles away. That was recently, and no harm was done at all. A silly ass of a contractor was working a tractor at 10.30 p.m. with the headlights full on and with flares going—an irresistible target. This place has also been lucky in an exactly similar way and again it was lighting at fault when it did happen. “My spare time is limited to a matter of hours per week nowadays; not that I am always so frightfully busy all the time because quite often it is a matter of ‘standing by’ in the control room for hours on end during the night with nothing to do but to be ‘on duty.’ I can assure you that our tails are very well up, and what damage as has been done has been slight everywhere. There may be one or two cases where a row of houses has ‘caught a packet,’ but even so the damage, apart from glass and the actual property which sustained a direct hit, has been negligible, and in several cases the casualties have been nil, so wonderful are the Anderson air raid shelters as a protection. Being connected with A.R.P. work and in an executive position I have had opportunities to develop what my friends call my ‘nosey parker’ habits with advantage, and I can assure you that anyone who tells you that the Old Country is having a bad time is quite wrong, and if we are Invaded, and I for one think Hitler is bound to have a try after all his boasting, we are ready for him to a man, and woman, and nearly thirsting to prove to the world that he cannot down the British Empire that way, or any other. “To me it Is just wonderful to see and hear how the average ‘man in the street’ is reacting to it—never a grouser. Most of them work all sorts of hours without a murmur. The war has had a tonic effect on the genera! morale of nearly all, and I doubt if there are many Fifth Columnists left. They will get lynched if they try monkey tricks and they know it. Having heard several tales of folk ‘down under’ being provided with incorrect pictures of conditions here, I want you to know the truth. Food is plentiful, by the way, and our rations are more than ample in every instance.”