This artery is used by all sorts of motor vehicle leaving 
      the city center to points south. But it has been blocked ever 
      since the bomb exploded in it. The passer-by frequently sees 
      a few workmen warming their hands before a brazier close to the 
      crater. Less frequently, he sees some of them doing this or that 
      towards repairing the damage. In any event, puzzled drivers still 
      do a comparatively long detour to get around the blocked passage 
      and still wonder why a small body of idle soldiers is not put 
      to work with picks and shovels made quickly to remedy situation 
      which is worsening, much caustic criticism and the waste of much 
      valuable time and precious petrol.
 
      
 
 
Added to the delay and confusion brought about by transportation 
      breakdowns and dislocations are delay and confusion brought about 
      by breakdowns and dislocations in the field of communications.
 
      
 
 
For some weeks it has been next to impossible for any ordinary 
      day telephone call to be put through from Birmingham to London 
      as the lines have been reserved for priority few private persons 
      seem to know. Business people, or at least some of them, are 
      able finally to get through, provided they can convince telephone 
      super-visors that delay will hold p work of national importance. 
      But even in such cases, a wait of from one to three hours is 
      common.
 
      Yesterday, a private subscriber at Birmingham learned that he 
      could dial TEL (telegrams) and let the system function for as 
      many as three hours without obtaining a reply from the message 
      taking section.
 
      
 
 
A little better success attends dialing TOL (tolls) during 
      both business and the early evening hours, but calls even in 
      the TOL category are often either abandoned or put through only 
      after an exasperatingly long wait.
 
      
 
 
Local calls on the dial system during the day may or may not 
      go through, depending upon a variety of circumstances in the 
      first place, some letter exchanges, VIO (Victoria), for example, 
      are and have been operating defectively for several days. In % 
      the second place, the busy tone is much more frequently encountered 
      than is usual for the simple reason that so many people fruitlessly 
      have their receivers off apparatuses trying to get through to 
      some other subscriber. In the third place, the dial system breaks 
      down or does not function well when an abnormally large number 
      of subscribers is simultaneously endeavoring to use the service. 
      It is now no uncommon thing for Birmingham housewives to spend 
      large parts of their time uselessly trying to call shops or friends.
 
      
 
 
The combined effect of transport and communications breakdowns 
      end dislocations is felt at all hours and in all walks of life. 
      Every day people not arriving on time or not being able quickly 
      cause thousands upon thousands of hold-ups in productive processes 
      and operations