The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1941-02-27

some form OF Qaytlme unQefclOJneS,
with shoes, overcoat, etc, under the
bed, along with a suitcase packed
with emergency clothing the
bed because anything left in the open
room is liable to be blown out into
the road even if the occupier be left
| behind. Others make do with a mat
| tress on the floor or sleep fully
clothed in a chair Rooms facing the
garden are preferred nowadays, as
the ground outside is so much softer
for bombs to fall well into and there
fore dispense less, and there are less
hard chunks available for the eXplo-
sions to hurl about as missiles.
AS before stated we have been for
tunate in the extreme so far. We are
too near the very dangerous areas in
and near the city to be asked to house
east-end mothers and children. The
! Qiterally) hundreds of barrage bal
looms make a beautiful picture some
times as they CLEAN in the sunshine
thousands of feet above us. There is
still sufficient supply of excellent
food, though we expect soon to have
to make do with a good deal less.
! Chocolates and sweets are rather
scarce and also a few imported non
essentials. All shops, cinemas, etc,
close after dark and few people travel
late if they can help it, and there is
thus practically no evening or might
life in the outer suburbs outside the
home-except perhaps on duty in the
Home Guard.
Many men suffer at least two hard
ships which l do not: very long and
tedious journeys to and from the Of
flee, and living by themselves or in
lodgings because their wife and chill
dren have been sent to greater safety
elsewhere. The children in particular
are better out of it.
Personal
On the personal side, my daughter,
besides driving an ambulance when
required, acts from $3.50 to 100 every
morning and from $50 to 1920 every
evening as honorary private secretary
to the local Home Guard commander
and as general assistant to his quar-
termaster. This not infrequently in
wolves walking home during the bar
rage and on one journey bomb land
ed 40 yards from her and she had
glass splinter in her foot even after
falling prone in almost record time.
Mrs. Cave in her spare time, having
done much welfare work in Cambridge
for children evacuated from London,
now helps Miss Cave with clerical
work Mrs Caves mother, aged 81,
also Mrs. Cave do many hours knit
ting per day for the troops. | am
what is called a zone commander in
the post office Home Guard and have
control (mainly ADMINISTRATIVE over
(censored) volunteers, mostly old sol
diers, divided into (censored) battal-
ions. We are ready to defend the most
important telephone exchanges (cen-
trail offices) and repeater stations,
and as our zone takes some (cen-
sored) miles of the most exposed
coast line in Britain, we are not short
of work and troubles.
The experiences of few of my col
leagues in the region, who have hous-
es or flats in London and its suburbs
will prove that we do have our trou-
bles. The directors house was severe
ly shaken by one bomb, and when the
missing glass had been replaced by
| fabric and the ceilings made safe, an
other bomb wrecked the house COM
pletely but hurt no one. Two col
leagues have a house in southern Lon
don. Each has been rather badly dam
aged when empty. A fourth, having
had his flat damaged, moved into a
hotel on the extreme fringe of outer
northern London. One night, when he
himself was out travelling, the hotel
was completely demolished. My own
house here has escaped with a little
glass and some tiles broken by our
own shell splinters, but the house
lived in at Birmingham when my cas-
signment" was there, and which we
still own and let has been badly
shaken, but there are still hundreds
of houses untouched and eve can take
it," With the continued support of all
the Empire and Of the moral and ma
telial support which America is Civ
ing US in such measure, there can only
be one end-and that will not be the
end of us!
We have all been greatly cheered Of
late by the allied exploits in Greece
and the Mediterranean and at Sid
Barrani. Some reproductions of AM
erican cartoons brighten our lives, as
do British cartoons and current sto-
ries of the Italians. The American
Navy, they say, drinks whisky, the
British Navy rum, but the italian
Navy sticks to port! 1t is said that
the Delphic Oracle told Finite Messo-
leany that he could safely attack
Greece because his army was in good
running order. He wanted something
better than that, and was assured
that his army would win in the long