The Wilmington morning star., 1940-12-22
LONDON Boobies
IN FRONT LINE
Duties Doubled, They En-
force Blackout, Aid
Bomb Victims
Ry GODFREY H. P. ANDERSON


NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF the
Associated Press)-The LONDON boo-
-bv is front-line soldier OF the alf
blitz On the empires capital.
He familiar high helmet is re-
n,aced nv q flat steel shrapnel nat
with The white-painted word ''PO-
IJCE,' and d khaki gasmask hahgS
on his chest.
He ctill commands the diminished
+,..ffic in his old lordly Way-sM
feet something of impressive plue-
clad stolidity-finds time 10 direct pe-
vildered foreigners and tell small
bovs the time. But he never knows
when the buildings on his beat may
crumple to dust with a deatenlng
roar. when bleeding and mangled
bodies may lie waiting to be torn
from the ruins, when he may himself
have a date with death.
Fifty-four Boobies already have
fallen with thousands of their tel-
low-Londoners to Hitler's bombs.
Some 372 lie, silent and bandaged,
in the city's hospitals.
Yet every moment OF every day ana
every night, the familiar tall police
men stroll slowly along their battered
beats ready to aid the citizen IN
his distress.
War has provided a host OF new
problems for London's famed Scot
land yard. Sir Philip Game, slight,
thin-faced, 64-year-old commissioner
Of metropolitan police, began putting
his force on a basis for possible war
almost as soon as he had flnlshed
with the eXhaustlng problems set py
King Georges coronation.
Auxiliary police were enrolled IN
the special constabulary and a new
war reserve force. Old officers, VINO
had retired on pension, were recalled.
Bv this means the strength OF the
force was increased from its peace
time $4,000 to about $4,000 on the
outbreak of war.
A new department was set up at
Scotland Yard to deal with the hun
dreds of anxious inquiries received
after each nights bombing from peo-
ple who had lost their fathers, Their
mothers, their children, their friends.
Casualty lists are carefully COM
piled and printed on the yards own
printing press for circulation to local
police stations where, after bad
night, there may be poignant scenes
as the lists are posteu.
Then again, it is a policeman who
pulls the lever which sets off the
screaming electric sirens to give the
air raid warning or the raiders
passed signal.
Police have to enforce the strln-
gent regulations against aliens, to
see that they do not own an automo-
bile or a bicycle, that they are not
on the streets after midnight without
a special curfew permit, that they
do not possess q camera or take pho
tographs.
There are often whole streets to
be roped off because Of unexploded
bombs, houses to be evacuated, dam
aged property to be protected.
When Britain lived in fear of hour
ly invasion after the French col
lapse, the police removed all direc-
ton signs from the streets and
rounded up the hundreds of enemy
aliens who suffered internment as
fifth column" suspects.
Then old ladies in scores tripped
from the boarding houses of Ke~-
sington and Bayswater to tell the
local police that they were sure their
neighbor was a German spy. The
most worthy and innocent citizens
found themselves denounced. One
woman even swore her neighbor was
spellin. out messages to German air.
craft bv the way she hung he- wash
ing on the line!
Some spies were found. But
pseudo-refugees and servant .-irl;
seemed to have replaced the elabor
ate blonde beauties who tempted
wasp-waisted cavalry officers of for
mer wars.