The King went to Southampton recently see how it was faring afler the raid. He stood a not impossible. chance of being bombed himself, "A. fight suddenly began right over his car between a British and a German plane, but presently' the latter was driven off- The King had watched the fight unconcernedly from his ear. He talked with two very brave women who had retried on all through the raid—Mrs. Frances Hartley, fan ambulance driver, once her ambulance was blown right on to the pavement by. a bomb, but it was not overturned and Mrs-Hartley drove on; and Miss F. eyrer Ryland an APS, driver who told the King that she for sie of going down on hands and knees and. so continued driving, steering skilfully between the bomb craters," Mise Ryland won medals in the last war for service both in France and Salonika, All feel justly proud of the way it has bbohaved both through and since a raid of the cruellest description that went on for eight mortal hours. As usual the Germans bothered little about the docks and factories {0 concentrate on shops and private houses They are stil labouring under the delusion that in this way they can brea out spirit and stir up a "Slop the wax" revolution.
Hundteds of people have managed salvage more than they expected and have been at work again with undaunted spit. Except for the misfortune of the people involved there is much at Southampton the destruction of which 1 could contemplate with more than resignation. The Civic Centre for instance, perhaps the most fright {ul building of its kind in England; and all the tawdry, garish untidy streets that have afrown up about west through Redbridge and Old Millbrook. At Coventry where houses wore wrecked or badly damaged, they are {allking of the grand opportunity thus given to plan end rebuild on really dignified line More opportunities of a similar kind will probably occur before the war is over. 'The experts agree that Hitler is now beginning third plan to subjugate us from the air. 'The frst was the attempt to smash our Air Force by massed daylight' attacks (the Germans have always maintained that daylight bombing is more effective than night). But the "horse blew first;" the RAAF. broke up the attacks: Then came the bombing of London, for its psychological value, Tha "100, fatled, though no doubt it will be tried:
in. So now they have been concentrating ight after night on. big provincial towns, He is a persistent beast, the Hun.
spite of preoccupations nearer home, the Government is following events in the Far East very closely, and specially that of Japan's penetration into Indo-China.
Britain, a welter says, is particularly' anxious 40 increase the economic pressure on Japan. In London it is understood that Gen, Chiang Kai-shek needs at this moment all the help can be given, both financial and materia and would like' the United States to take similar' action. seems certain that the railways will demand a further rise in fares in 1941, inspire of having got an extra 10 per cent: Jast May and another 6% in December. If they do, the public will kick very hard indeed, but under the existing agreement with the Government, there seems nothing to stop the railways from getting it By this agreement the railways are guaranteed '£40,000,000 a year, the whole of any profit up to £43% millions, and half of any profit above that up to £56 millions, Beyond that, don't know what happens, but as this figure has never been even nearly reached it need not be discussed, Not the least obnoxious part of the agree ment is that it obviously encourages. the: railways to do things as much on the cheap as possible, In fact trams are badly over~ crowded apparently for lack of extra carriages, and they run painfully slowly. The journey to and from London, normally. 'a matter of 35 to 40 minutes is never accom~ plished now under the hour, frequently it 4s much longer. Yet there has been no in~ terruption by bombs for some weeks. On ong distance journeys things are worse. A gentleman recently came from Edinburgh by the night train, which ought to have reached London approximately at 8 azn. Tt got in at 245 pin. Col, Moore-Brabazon, Minister of Transport, said frankly in the House recently that the more he examined the ageeement, the less he liked it. He is said to have planned a new one, but its nature cannot be revealed until the Government's scheme of insurance against rail damage is completed.
'The railway question really links up with the whole question of wages and prices, and through them to our economic warfare, Our' Government now has powers as wide as any! Soctalist ever dreamt of (hence perhaps Mr. Joseph Kennedy's alleged remarks about. democracy being done for in England) but there is an uneasy feeling that they are not yet being used to the fullest advantage.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.