The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-10-05
Fires Ire At Britain Fades, But Neutrality Still Is Grimly Guarded
BY TOM WOLF NEA Stan Correspondent

NEN~-@@ T~"N"
 Dublin, Oct 4--rts q strange and incredible feeling to step from a world of war across the hairline of a tnan-rnade boundary and Into world at peace
 Here in Dublin, about the only sign of war is. the lack of automo- piles, due to the gasoline shortage. There are far fewer cars on the streets here than in London, where official traffic still clogs many of the narrow lanes Everyone here travels either by horse. drawn vehi- cle- Haunting car, trap, coach or gig LOT on a bicycle. A thoroughfare damned with cyclists is a sure cure for jaywalkers.
 There is some rationing here, primarily of clothes This is off, set by the fact that almost any of the thousands of garnins who cavort along O'Connell Street (the main drag) will beg you to buy clothing coupons from them. No one seems to object to the small fry black-marketeering.
 These few signs of war are lost in the overwhelming atmosphere of peace: the street lights burning bright all night; the lack of uni- forms; the absence of defenses, shelters, barbed wire, barrage balloons No throbbing of plane motors breaks the peace That alone is bliss, for across the nar- row Irish Sea every vibrant drone of planes brings a seconds qualm an ever-present reminder of the potential danger.
 PLENTY OF FOOD
 Here there is food aplenty = ice cream, fat juicy sirloins as often as you can eat them, oranges and \ other fruits = all the things you'd give your right arm for in Eng land, all in profusion.
 You don't realize the degree of strain under which every one in England is living until you get to place like this, where peace is the norm. Like nine out of ten visitors from war countries, succumbed to two rnaladies of peace; an acute case of jitters due to the relaxing of nervous tension at the start of my visit, and Q beautiful case of hives, from over-eating.
 Dublin is pretty tame for any spy conscious American who has read too many detective stories. I was thoroughly disappointed not to be furtively approached by some swarthy stranger offering to loosen my tongue with Irish whiskey. There were no potted palms in my hotel to conceal microphones or spies. So war as know, my baggage was not searched, my phone was not tap ped. All very disappointing Gen. eral opinion is that Dublin no longer is the spy center 1t was reputed to be earlier in the war.
 ENEMY SIGHTED
 To the best of my knowledge I ran into only one of the enemy. I had thought of all sorts of em- barrassing questions to ask Nazi should the occasion arise. But, as luck would have 1t, didn't recog- nize the adversary until too late.
 Going down to dinner one eve- ming, I arrived at the elevator to find a man already waiting. judged him to he in his sos and was, therefore, surprised when the elevator arrived and he stood aside and bowed me in ahead of him. But at the bottom, he pushed past me, rudely and roughly. and rushed out first.
 It was only then that I realized what happened: His unusual defer ence to me, @ younger man, at the top of the elevator was the good old German system of overpoliteness to neutrals-as he supposed me to be. When I thanked him, my unmistak- ably American accent gave me away. WILL KEEP PEACE
 It only takes Q few days here before you feel sure you can answer the question: Is there any likeli- hood that Fire will part with her neutrality? The answer is "no."
 There are certainly far more people in Erie today hoping for British victory than there were at the be- ginning of the war. As one Irish editor told me: "At the start oi the war, 1t wasn't so much that we wanted the Germans to win as that we wanted to see John Bull take a l