Westminister Hall and Abbey Damaged London, May 12.
The Houses of Parliament and Westminster Hall (which has played its part in the history of England for nearly a thousand years) were both hit and seriously damaged in Saturday night's heavy raid on London, which the German High Command announces as a reprisal for the British bombing of "residential quarters" of various German towns, including Berlin, during the last few nights.
Parliament's world- famed clock. "Big Ben." whose chimes have been heard in all corners of the earth through the B.B.C. was also hit.
Westminster Abbey opposite was also set on fire. dri the House of Commons the debating chamber has been wrecked. and it is feared that it can never be used again until it has been rebuilt. In the House of Lords the resident superintendent is understood to have been killed while assisting fire- fight ing operations, and three other persons are feared to have perished also.
Other members of the staff who worked right through the night extinguishing lames and salvaging valuable records and relics had remarkable escapes when bombs fell. Bombs also smashed the famous members lobby which had already been hit in previous raids and was shored up by elaborate scaffolding.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.