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26 A.B.A. J. 935 (1940)
London Letter

handle is hein.journals/abaj26 and id is 961 raw text is: THE HONOUEABLE SOCIETY OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE October 10th, 1940. Dear Mr. Lavery, Thank you very much for your kind letter of September 17th, and please for- give the delay in answering it. You will appreciate by the contents of the Lon- don Letter for your December number which I forward herewith, that we have had a fairly hectic time here, and I fear it has interrupted my correspondence a little as I have sundry ARP duties to perform in addition to my usual job of work. The absence of my assistant does not improve matters. I look forward to seeing the October issue of the Journal and, with regard to your very kind offer of spare copies, should like to express my appreciation. May I have half a dozen copies? I pur- posely keep my request moderate as the Import f Goods (Prohibition) (Consolidation) Or- der, 1939 forbids the import of Books and other printed matte, for reading purposes. . . . other than those imported in single copies through the post. It would, there- fore, be necessary for you to send even six copies in separate postal packets, and I do not wish to put you to any expense which can be avoided. I am happy to say that, in spite of these trying times, most of us keep smiling. Those who have lost friends and relatives in the bombings can hardly be expected to smile yet, but if they lack the power, tempor- arily, to smile, their resolution to see the thing through is tre- mendously increased. No due even thinks of stopping till Hitler and all that he stands for, is smashed. With warmest re- gards and best wishes, Sincerely yours, H. A. C. STURGESS, Librarian and Keeper of the Records. London Letter London, October io, 1940 A T the time of writing, the war seems to be occupying the greater part of one's thoughts, and more par- ticularly is this the case among the legal profession, since the Bar and the Inns of Court have received their due share, or perhaps more than their due share, of the result of Nazi hatred, as exemplified by the random bombing of non-military objects in London. Inci- dentally, it may be said that what the enemy hopes to gain by it is beyond the comprehension of anyone in this country. The first bit of frightfulness experi- enced by the Inns of Court was a high- explosive bomb in the garden of Gray's Inn, which did no more damage than Library, Inner Temple. 935 the shattering of windows in chambers around the garden and the making of a large crater in the lawn. Later the Inner Temple Library was hit and the clock-tower, which contained the stair- case leading to the Library, was almost entirely demolished. The staircase itself had completely disappeared and the clock, one face of which was still visible, registered the time of the event as ten minutes to four. Much of what remained of the tower has been taken down as a measure of precaution against further damage. This clock- tower was erected after an ancient tower built of chalk, rubble, and rag- stone, surmounted by a wooden cupola with a bell had been pulled down in 1866. A few books could be seen, after the explosion, lodged precariously on twisted girders high in the tower, and others were found in the ruins below, but it is gratifying to know that little dam- age has been done to the contents of the Library, although two 4 other rooms suffered as a result of flying glass and rubble, It might have been thought that, by the law of averages, the Inner Temple would escape further dam- a-ge, but a few nights later the Temple as a w h o e received an- other visit-this time. unfortunately, attend- ed with more serious results. The beautiful Inner Temple Hall, in which so many mem- bers of the American Bar were entertained on the memorable oc- casion of their visit to this country in 1924, suffered a direct hit by a high-explo- sive bomb. The walls of the building still stand, but much dam- age has been done to the roof and to the interior. Not a piece of the beautiful her- aldic glass remains in the windows, and many of the pictures have suffered. It will

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