Evening star., 1940-12-01
BY DREW MIDDLETON,
Associated Press Foreign Correspondent.

| Associated Press Foreign correspondent
LONDON, Nov. 30.-The dwarf,
looking like a child in the half
light, came to the shelter entrance
and said:
I'm Mickey Davis; I run this
shelter. Come on down."
I went down the stairs behind
the tiny figure, Mickey Davis is
20, less than feet tall His back
is bumped and misshapen. He is
absolute master of a shelter which
nightly houses $500 to 5000 people
in its labyrinth of corridors and
cubicles.
He is master and policeman, judge,
father -confessor and elder brother
to these thousands of the East End
whose homes and lives have been
wrecked by the terror that flys by
night
He hasn't drawn any pay for it
since he moved in September Is
and found lust plain hell" Run
ming the shelter gives him some
thing to do since the Luftwaffe
blew his mice little opticians shop"
to bits.
1t was 11::30. Twenty feet under
ground, you could hear the rumble
of bombs and the thud-thud of the
anti-aircraft guns. People were
wakeful and restless, chattering in
the narrow brick passageways.
Mickey pulled aside the curtain
at the entrance to cubicle. Fifty
people in there" he said, flashing
his light over rows of hunks, stacked
three high. Two little girls, their
faces whittier than their pillows, lay
in the nearest. They whined fret
fully in their sleep.
Keeper Greeted F0ndly.
People were sitting on their hunks
in another cubicle, gossiping. They
greeted Mickey fondly.
How is everything, momma?" he
asked an old crone.
Pathetically, the people had striven
to make the cubicles homelike with
what is left of their possessions.
Photographs of Ginger Rogers,
Deanna Durbin and Vivien Leigh
smile down in the midst of squalor.
The names of London's swankest
notes.-the Savoy. Dorchester, Ritz,
Grosvenor House - were chalked
above the entrances to the cubicles.
There were figures lying in the
corridors.
1--WE give married folks first call
on the bunks," said Mickey, but
there aren't nearly enough to 60
around. We need another 1000"
A man and his wife were sleeping
with their baby between them on
the cold cement floor. Most single
men had only one blanket. 1t was
damp and chill The air reeked of
disinfectant and other smells.
Just as though it were a country
lane in Hampshire, a boy and girl
stood talking and giggling.
Doctor Tries to Help.
We've got doctor who used to
practice among these people"
Mickey stated. HE isolates people
with skin diseases. He does what
he can, gives the kids gargles and
takes care of the old and sick. He
tries to disinfect the place, but that's
hard, because we haven't got any
real water supply. We've
only had him for week, though.
There's no running water. We
have to go outside with bucket.
Sometimes when it's hot danger
ous) outside we cut cards for it. We
need running water badly. Some of
these people haven't had their
clothes off or had bath in weeks.
Look at that old lady in the Wheel
chair. She's been out of this shelter
only once since September 13.
when I came down here first it
was horrible. People were sitting
up because there wasn't enough
room to lie down. got some young
fellas that had been raising hell
and put them to work. Work was all
they needed. We got some hunks
from the borough and some chemi-
cal toilets. We've been getting some
stuff every week. Not much, not
enough, but some"
He perched on the edge of the