The Lights Go On

On Aug. 3, 1914, Sir Edward Grey of the British Foreign Office, watched London's street lamps being lit. Mused Sir Edward: "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

Sir Edward lived to see the lights come up; died when they flickered in 1933. Others saw the lights blow out again. Europe's darkness this time spread to Africa, Asia, Australia, America; in the universal war, even neutrals had to accept the night. Among the world's blacked-out cities: London, Berlin, Rome, Paris, Bern, Budapest, Helsinki, Honolulu. Dimmed-out cities: Moscow, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Bombay.

Portent. From Egypt last week came a hopeful ray for another dawn: Cairo turned on its lights, first of the war-benighted cities to do so. From Shepherds Hotel, caravansary for restless polyglots, lights blazed out again on the Mid-East mosaic: tanned cosmopolites sipping gin & limes on Shepheard's terrace; rattletrap taxis twisting up dust from the swarming streets; soft-voiced dragomans swishing at flies and barefooted fellahin ignoring them. Dawn's early ray found Cairo unchanged, unchallenging; but the city was free from fear.

In London debate on the blackout flared anew. The United Kingdom was heading toward its fifth black winter. On Aug. 15, the nation cut one hour from its double summer time.

Home Security Minister Herbert Morrison has an uncomplicated reason for continuing the blackout: lights would guide the Luftwaffe, illuminate its targets. Campaigners against the blackout answer with statistics: since war began 15,000 Britons have died on black-out roads, 160,000 have been injured. This winter's toll will be about 4,000 killed and 40,000 injured.

With few exceptions, the British press opposes the blackout. Argued Lord Beaverbrook's Evening Standard: "We shall return to the Dark Ages. . . . The blackout will clog our transport and put fresh brakes on industrial production. ... In 1941 industrial accidents among men rose by 42% over 1938; among women by 192%. . . .In 1940 many citizens accepted the blackout as a grim necessity. . . . 1940 is as remote as 1840 for everybody --except the Government departments which imposed the blackout and on this matter have suffered a mental blackout ever since."

Cracked the Daily Mirror: "Some few mitigations may be allowed in the certainty of relieving depression, discouragement, dismay, accidents, blindness and boredom. Until then, we submissively bow our heads and, as we bow them, crack them into other heads bowed in the opposite direction."

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