Evening star., 1940-12-25
Many British Young
Get YuIe Presents
In Strange Homes
Most Of London Children
Evacuated Get Packages
Mailed Weeks Ago
By w. l.. WHITE.

LONDON, Dec. Is (N.A.N .A.-By
Radio) Remember Christmas
for the children's sake" read a sign
over the toy department of Lon
don'S leading department store.
Ano if it were not for the children.
Christmas, 1870, in London might
be a day like any other.
Many of the little stockings
which went up in England last
night were hung from strange
mantelpieces, for most of London's
children have been evacuated TO
the safety of the country and the
packages CT toys and candy which
filled them were mailed by their
pal ents weeks ago.
Homes also are broken BY the
fact that England is taking no
chances over the Christmas holi-
days, and many fathers are at sea
or with their regiments and squad
rons, for the threat of a German
invasion has dampened the holiday
spirit.
Scarcity Of Some Foods.
Food, however, is ample, even If
there is a scarcity of some items.
Turkeys, most of which come from
Ireland, are scarce, scrawny and
expensive. Oranges are almost
non-eXistent. Christmas trees, most
of which were formerly imported
from Norway, are rare, although
few tiny ones from the Scotch
highlands are available for mantel-
pieces.
The London stores are teeming
with toys, most of them con-
spicuously marked British made"
and there are number of new items
on the shelves. You can buy for
a few ShillingS a child'S size helmet
which is an exact replica of the
military steel one, complete with
an elastic strap adjustable to a
5-year-old'S chin. The child'S model
is more than toy, as the salesgirl
points out that it is made of tough
fiber which will ward off anything
but a very large piece of shrapnel.
On the whole, however, the chill
dren do not like war or anything
that reminds them of it; Mother
Goose, Little Red Riding Hood and
Walt Disney's fairy stories are out
selling lead soldiers in the toy shops.
Yet these brown helmets like
daddy wears are popular with the
children, who catch on surprisingly
quickly to the meaning of war. A
little girl, 81 years old, will be
sleeping quietly in her crib. And
then start whimpering in her sleep
as the faraway muffled rumble of
an approaching bomber comes
through the heavily draped
windows.
Yule Spirit Penetrates Shelters.
BY the time it is overhead she
is sitting up, crying bitterly for
you to come and tell her that
everything is all right, that it is
not going to hurt her and that
presently she will hear the roar
of the guns which will cause the
bomber away. When, finally, the
guns Thunder out and the noise of
eAAS SoAAoSi lCNC0CS, oliC SCtOlCS UdCh
on her pillow to sleep again.
Yet somehow, in spite of the
blackout and the hum of planes,
something of the spirit of Christ
mas penetrates into the deepest
shelters. I saw it in the eyes of
two slum children lying on an old
quilt on the cement floor of a deep
underground platform, as they
listened to group of carol singers
making the rounds of tube shelters
singing 20 Little Star of Bethle-
hem and Silent Night, Holy
Night And yet I had doubt
that the quilt on the grimy floor
of the subway platform, where its
edges are trodden by passengers
hurrying to trains, is as soft or
as safe for child as the bed of
hay in the manger. No, almost
1000 years later, we still have a
long way to 90.