Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-09-11
Supreme Nerve Test
Met by British as
Work Goes On
English Continue to
Operate in Bombines
With Unshuken Zeal
BY VINCENT SHEEAN.

LONDON, Sept. IL (NAN.A0.-
The supreme nerve test, which be-
gan Saturday, seems to have been
met by all the English people with
whom I have talked. This does not
mean they are not afraid of bombs.
They are Everybody is.
But essential service and, even
now, essential work are not seriously
interrupted except during the actual
bombing hours. All civilian services
such as, most notably, the auxiliary
fire service, first aid and repair work,
have operated throughout these days
and nights with unshaken zeal.
Yesterday I saw a good deal of
what might be called the privileged
class suffering and damage. All en-
phasis has been placed on the de-
molition and suffering in the East
End among the very poor, partly be-
cause the sight itself is so pitiful.
Within rules it can be said a
great many houses of middle and
upper class people also have been
demolished during the bombings
since Saturday I visited some of
them yesterday morning and saw
an entire row of old houses knocked
out by single bomb.
Walls Remain on Some.
Well-built houses 40 not fall into
rubbish heaps as do the houses of
the vevy poor. Their walls seem to
remain, and, very often, even their
floors, although the whole inside
has been blasted away.
In one block of what were once
comfortable houses | stood beside
the police and watched repair work
being done on the gas main. All the
houses were blown out and never
will be habitable again, yet by some
freak the telephone wiring was in
tact, and in one of the ruined homes
a bell shrilled necessarily.
Some distance away, in the shop
ping center, I saw a shop which
had been followed out by a blast
60 that no sign Of its window-glass
On frame or contents could be dis
cerned. But a sign, ITO Let" hung
by a wire across a hole where all
those things had been.
wish it were possible to tell eX-
ectly which of London's famous
landmarks have suffered from the
incursionS of the last four days.
The greater part Of yesterday I
spend in Feudal Park, not far away,
which has been converted into
school for guerilla warfare. Local
defense volunteers from over all
England visit this place to take les
sons in crawling. stalling the enemy,
bombing and anti-tank defense from
veterans of the Spanish civil war.
Strange Commentary.
Their Instructors are two former
officers of the International Brigade
and three Spaniards. one of whom
is Catalan, the other two being
Asturians. To see the Spaniards
crawling across the park, with Eng
lishmen of all ages initiating them,
is a strange commentary upon times
revenges.
This school, which. believe,
originally was frowned upon by the
War once. has now been adopted
offlcially, effective next Monday.
Like the local defense volunteers
themselves, it was of spontaneous
origin and only lately received at
tention from the higher powers.
In yesterdays work. punctuated by
three air raid banSheeS. there was
the regular army as well as home
guardsmen. Ten wearers of the
Military Cross, won in the last World
War, were among them.
The city awaits its nightly raids
with something almost like Stoicism.
The German raiders arrive here be-
tween 8 and $50 and prowl in the
sky all night long, dropping bombs
whenever the spirit moves them.
Last night they were late-it was
$40 before they arrived.