BLOOMSBURY LIGHTHOUSE
Sta,—Mr. Brendan Bracken, while he is studying the reasons why the Ministry of Information has failed to win public approval, might consider a point which, though it is only of local importance, is really, unlike most of the Ministry's activities, a matter of life and death. The main German raids on London have shown that the Ministry is an admirable target for bombs (unfortunately, the neighbourhood is more disturbed and destroyed than the Ministry), so it would not be unreasonable to expect of its officials a little extra vigilance in observ- ing the black-out. It might even be good home propaganda, but of course one doesn't expect home propaganda from the Ministry. The truth is that few nights pass without wardens having to com- plain of unobscured lights. Let me take one night last week as typical. At I.3o a.m. lights were seen as far away as the Totten- ham Court Road; on approaching the building we got an impression of almost peace-time festivity. The place was spangled with light: two big windows were completely uncurtained and more windows than we could count let out shafts of gay light. Was a party being held to welcome the new Minister? Perhaps I should add, in case I give an impression that national work was being carried on into the small hours, that nearly all these rooms when inspected were empty: their inhabitants were sleeping in the safe shelters below. (Those who are really working at that hour can, I imagine, be trusted to see that their lights are hidden.)
These gala nights are not the fault of the Ministry's A.R.P. officers, anxious and angry men who find that none of their complaints receives support from their own officials. They long for police action against the offenders, but the police have ceased to issue summonses. Only the first was successful, when one of the most junior members of the junior staff was fined thirty shillings. Since then apparently a senior official has forwarded summonses to Scotland Yard, where they have been cancelled. (I have no reason to doubt the truth of this informa- tion.) Naturally the police wearied of the game. Meanwhile the Ministry issues its complacent appeals to the public—to carry gas- masks or keep mum. Any day from that great, well-lit building, shooting up among the ruins where bombs have gone a little astray, one expects directions to observe the blackout. Little wonder that in the immediate neighbourhood you hear so often friendly appeals to the German Air Force: " just one nice big parachine-bomb, Her- mann—but in the right place."
For disciplinary reasons I must sign myself, HOLBORN WARDEN.
P.S.—One often hears it asked why the building is not camouflaged: several people in the Ministry have told me that this has been for- bidden by the University of London, who don't want their new walls spoilt. As deaths in the immediate neighbourhood have reached three figures, I hope this story is a canard.
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