Evening star., 1940-10-27
Loss Of Life Smaller
Than Expected in
Raids on London
Corrugated Iron Shelters
Prove Worth; Housing
Greatest Problem
BY H. J. ]. SARGENT.

Hloiltlls, dIlu IL lllsIlI uc teleollllS
to try to draw up balance sheet of
the results.
On the credit side the facts
emerge very clearly The spirit of
the people is as sound as ever and
the commercial and industrial ac-
tivity of the metropolis remains
:unimpaired.
On the debit side We have had
heavy material damage. Many
buildings of every kind have been
demolished and thousands of people
.have been rendered homeless, but
fortunately the loss of life has been
much smaller than was anticipated.
In one way the government has
earned the gratitude of the people.
1t pushed its policy of AFRAID
shelters, particularly of Anderson
shelters. that look like nothing so
much as large boxes made of cor
.rugated iron. Many people criticized
them at first and foretold their use
lessness in an emergency, but they
were wrong. The shelters turned
out to be a definite success, and
.where the toll of dead may be
counted in thousands it would with
out those shelters have had to be
counted in tens of thousands.
Slow Providing New Homes.
So far so good. The administra-
ton, however, was caught on the
hop as far as providing new homes
for the homeless was concerned
The sudden intensive bombardment
Of the enemy fell on the capital; the
machinery for rehousing turned out
to be inadequate and incomplete.
Malcolm Macdonald. the Minister
of Health, said as much the other
day, and promised rapid amend
ment. AS result of experience and
criticism, he declared. arrangements
were being pushed ahead for in
creasing the staffs who have to
handle people suddenly rendered
homeless.
,- To those who have never seen a
row of houses or a district suddenly
made uninhabitable it is difficult to
convey the sense of helplessness
which first overtakes bombed
neighborhood The people are in no
way scared or downhearted, but they
are completely at a loss to know
where to go. 1t is then that trained
helpers are most useful.
These helpers are organized in
rest CenterS, and the homeless are
first collected in the centers: from
there they are distributed to houses
made ready to accommodate them.
Debris Quickly Cleared.
This system of centers has been
largely expanded, and it is hoped
we shall not see any more the
pathetic professions of people going
from one street to another. looking
for a place to sleep after they have
been bombed out of their own
homes. From my own observation
would say the rehousing machinery
Is beginning 10 work fairly well
The government does not hesitate to
use drastic powers to commander
houses which are empty or where
there is plenty of room available in
order to accommodate AFRAID
victims.
One thing which is worrying peo-
pie IS the difficulty of getting to and
from their work. Here I want to
digress for a moment to pay trib-
ute to two sets of public servants,
the London Fire Brigade, with its
associated volunteer organizations
known as the Auxiliary Fire Service
and the so-called rescue. snoring
and demolition squads, called R. S.
D., which do Just what their title
suggests. The Fire Brigade has got
the better of incendiary bombs. We
have fires in London, but they never
spread and they are almost imme-
riiately put under control. We have
wrecked houses and wrecked streets
with all kinds of complications like
bursting water mains and gas pipes
and electricity cables cut. but the
r. S. D. people are masters of their
jobs. repair damage and sweep away
the debris in an almost uncanny
manner.
All the same, the diversion of
traffic from its regular routes is
nuisance and it does interfere with
work. In my own case it usually
takes about 20 minutes for me to
reach my Office from my home. I
now have to reckon at least three
quarters of an hour if not an hour
for the journey, and I live in what
Is practically central London. What
happens with people who live in
the outer suburbs can be easily
Imagined. The situation is not one
for which a remedy can be readily
suggested and if it were not for the
r. S. D. men and for those who
repair railway lines we should be
far worse off.
Incendiary Bomb Fires House.
Recently the Germans dropped
three or four high explosive bombs
and one oil bomb on row of houses
iust across the road from where I
hive. There we're four houses alto
gether and the three hit by high
explosive were in a lamentable state.
The road in front of them, too, had
been chewed up. and a crater had
been made about 20 feet across in
which there was about 3 feet of
water from burst main. The house
struck by the incendiary bomb
blazed like a torch and was utterly
consumed, but the fire brigade was
able to prevent the flames from
spreading beyond the borders OF the
house. There were three women IN
the house, one of whom afterwards
died in hospital.
Within eight hours all that fam
tastic debris had been cleared away.
the crater had been filed. the water
main had been repaired and the
road reopened to traffic. I cannot
describe the mess and devastation
caused by those bombs. but was
there with other wardens, looking
for people who might have been
pinned under the wreckage. I can
swear that it was awful. The demo-