24 MARCH 1939, Page 14

first few hours men and women were actually numbed by

shock. The sunshine stimulus which Downing Street had put out during the week before was suddenly dimmed by a stormy cloud. The accustomed impulses of hope or appre- hension, of selfishness and patriotism, of defiance and defeat- ism, seemed for a few hours to cancel each other out. They disclosed below them a slag-heap of ashes above which bewil- derment and anger flickered as sullen flames.

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