NOW IN THIRD PLACE

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21036, 12 February 1940, Page 3

NOW IN THIRD PLACE

LONDON’S POPULATION FALLS RESULTS OF EVACUATION (Times Air Mail Service.) LONDON, Jan. 3. London is no longer the biggest city in the world. Before the war the populations of the world’s largest cities were: London 3,202,818, New York 6,930,446, Tokyo 6,000,000, Berlin 4,250,000. Now, it is calculated, evacuation >f mothers and children, office staffs, 'rovernment officials, and private individuals, together with mobilisation, as reduced the population of Lon.on by more than three million. This rings it down to third place among he great capitals. Sir David Milne-Watson, governor >f the Gas Light and Coke Company, •ecently estimated that there had >een a decrease of 1,500,000 custom•rs in London since the war began. Taking an average of only two people o a home, this fully accounted for hree million people. The official ration, however, is an average of three and a-half people to a home; so although a considerable number of people has returned to London recently, the population is still estimated at three million short. Here are examples of depopulation from some London districts:— Twelve thousand people have moved from Purley since the war, 15,000 from Wandsworth, and 18,000 from Ilford. Some boroughs report that half

the houses that were evacuated filled up again over Christmas, but they do not yet know how many of the returned evacuees will stay. There are still 464,092 mothers and children from London living in country areas. And the Government is doing its best to make London still smaller. Despite protests, it is carrying on with its policy of sending civil servants to provincial towns.