AMERICAN CONSULATE
 
      Birmingham, December 27, 1940.
 
      
 
 
Walter H. McKinney, Esquire,
 
      American Consul,
 
      American Consulate General,
 
      London, W.I.
 
      
 
 
Dear Mr. McKinney:
 
      
 
 
During the last two months I have been traveling, more or 
      less daily, between Birmingham and a point some five miles south 
      of Leamington, a distance totaling approximately thirtyfive miles. 
      About 50% of the time the travel is accompanied entirely by car. 
      Between Leamington and Birmingham my car is usually fully occupied 
      by workpeople who hail me along the way. These people fall roughly 
      into three categories:
 
      
 
 
(1) Those whose houses have been demolished by bombs;
 
      
 
 
(2) Those whose houses have been rendered unfit for human 
      habitation by bombs;
 
      
 
 
(3) Those whose houses have not been substantially damaged 
      by bomb but who, through fear, have abandoned sleeping in their 
      houses.
 
      
 
 
Naturally, these people have uppermost in their minds the 
      hardships they are undergoing and also naturally they wish to 
      talk about them. What I have been told by these people, and I 
      suppose that I have spoken with as many as 150 of them, Is just 
      about what other drivers whom I knew have been told by similar 
      people.
 
      
 
 
The purpose of this letter is to put down something which 
      will perhaps convey in a general way the effect that air raids 
      are producing among working people in the Birmingham area, and 
      I here hasten to add that all of the people I have picked up 
      havw been working people.
 
      
 
 
In not one instance have I noted any spirit of disloyalty 
      or defeatism among these people but to say that their mental 
      health is not being undermined by bombing is to talk nonsense. 
      It must be realized that the people in question have for years 
      upon end lived on incomes which allowed precious little margin 
      for savings. But such margin as there was has been employed by 
      them to surround themselves with those things without which life 
      would In this country be an exceeding %ly poor thing. I have in 
      mind such articles as bedsteads, mattresses, sheets, tables, 
      and such like. These things have been bought piecemeal or paid 
      for on the installment plan and have been accumulated over a 
      course of years. I also have in mind interest in their houses 
      which have been acquired by weekly or monthly or yearly payments 
      of an extremely small order.
 
      
 
 
Take/