London Engulfed

COMMONWEALTH (British Commonwealth of Nations)

A slow, yellow gas engulfed London, suddenly, one morning last week. It was not poisonous but it made eyes to smart and throats to tickle. Grime laden, it soiled. Dense, it blotted out objects within arm's reach. Translucent, it diffused broad daylight into a dull, enveloping bluish glow. As it must to London, "the worst fog in half a century" had come.

Tourists were edified. They could boast of seeing "linkmen"* going once more about London town, bearing torches before the motorcars and persons of the great. Bus conductors walked ten feet ahead of their busses, connected with them by electric wires on which lamps glowed. When two bus conductors sighted each other they signaled port or starboard to the drivers whose busses did not then bump. At Charing Cross, at every major crossing, huge gasoline torches sent up roaring flames three feet high--barely visible at ten yards.

The Dead. Eight passengers were killed when the famed Scarborough Express collided in the fog with a local train near Hull, wounding 30. Cross Channel Service was suspended for the first time in 50 years. Their Majesties, the King and Queen of the Belgians, in London to open an exhibit of Flemish art, were unable to get back to Belgium by either sea or air until the fog cleared. The loss to steamship concerns exceeded -L-5,000,000 ($24,300,000).

*Men who carry links (torches).