evacuation

The B.s, who only came up to London a few weeks ago and have seen nothing of the blitz, say that they find Londoners very much changed, everyone very hysterical, talking in much louder tones, etc., etc.  If this is so, it is something that happens gradually and that one does not notice while in the middle of it, as with the growth of a child.  The only change I have definitely noticed since the air-raids began is that people are much more ready to speak to strangers in the street. . . .  The Tube stations don’t now stink to any extent, the new metal bunks are quite good[1], and the people one sees there are reasonably well found as to bedding and seem contented and normal in all ways – but this just what disquiets me.  What is one to think of people who go on living this subhuman life night after night for months, including periods of a week or more when no aeroplane has come near London? . . .  It is appalling to see children still in all the Tube stations, taking it all for granted and having great fun riding round and round the Inner Circle.  A little while back D. J. [2] was coming to London from Cheltenham, and in the train was a young woman with her two children who had been evacuated to somewhere in the West Country and whom she was now bringing back.  As the train neared London an air-raid began and the woman spent the rest of the journey in tears.  What had decided her to come back was the fact that at that time there had been no raid on London for a week or more, and so she had concluded that “it was all right now”.  What is one to think of the mentality of such people?

Read the rest of this entry »