SECRET
APPENDIX II
Report on conditions in Barrow-in-Furness following the night raids of April 13-14-15-16
A slightly abbreviated report from the offices of the Ministry of Information, North Western Region, Manchester.
Barrow-in-Furness is in an isolated position on the Lancashire coast and difficult of access from other towns in the North Western Region, and in consequence some anxiety has been felt about provision of adequate services there following any heavy raid. It is a town depending on one industry - the shipbuilding yards, which suffered severe depression between the end of the last war and re-armament. There are strong Left-Wing tendencies in the borough and there have been several Communist meetings recently. From time to time Communist literature is distributed in the town.
Because of its position and the nature of its occupation, the town has little in sympathy with the countryside round about it and tends towards an “isolationist” policy. For example, on the occasion of a recent Royal Visit to the North, Barrow refused to recognise the police passes which were accepted generally in the rest of the Lancashire county and insisted on having its own passes.
In January this year enemy aircraft were reported over Barrow but no bombs were dropped. Again in March machines were over the town. On the night of April 13th-14th a stick of bombs was dropped in a thickly populated area in the centre of the town and there were casualties. The following night the town had another stick of bombs. Altogether there were some thirty-eight killed and probably about three hundred people were homeless. One Rest Centre was opened, and reports show that it was considerably overcrowded. On the 16th a second Rest Centre was opened and conditions improved.
A Manchester Press man who was on holiday and visited relatives in Barrow “just in time for the bombing” made it his business to tell us that conditions in the town were “chaotic”. Nobody knew where to go for anything and there was nobody to tell them where to go. He added that he did not like to think what would happen if the town had a real blitz.
The Chief Labour Agent for the Region, Mr. Wallis, visited the town and said that the Rest Centre first opened was overcrowded. He visited the bombed area with Labour representatives who are a strong faction on the local council. The morale of the people seemed to be splendid, although the damage to their homes was very severe. The houses were of a small cottage type, easily demolished or damaged by blast. He said he thought that members of the council were doing all they could.
The pastor of a popular mission church in the centre of Barrow, who has a high reputation for social work, went out of his way to tell us that conditions in the town had been very bad and he was worried about it. He is a member of our Local Information Committee and one of the two Observers. He said that he felt that if he had to write a report it would be very critical.
The Secretary of our Local Information Committee, Mrs. M.G. Tanner, writes to us “in the interests of the country it would appear to be an undesirable moment for Communist propaganda. Whilst very shaken and frightened, the spirit of the people was one of making the best of their difficulties and troubles.”
Another informant visited Barrow several days after the attack and was obliged to spend some time waiting in the Town Hall. He said that the building seemed to be old-fashioned and inconvenient, and there did not seem to be anything in the nature of a central information bureau. There was a uniformed commissionaire who dealt with callers on the principle that they could not expect to walk into the Town Hall and do as they liked.
The general impression seems to be that there is urgent need for planning of centralisation of services for the public after heavy raids in Barrow and for letting the public know now exactly where these services can be obtained.
It should be pointed out that after the first night's bombing the Town Clerk was rung up from this Regional Office of the Ministry of Information and reminded that if there was any way in which we could be helpful in distributing information to the public we were at his service. He replied that the raid was not very serious and that everything was going quite well. Following the second night's raid the Secretary of our Information Committee was rung up with a similar message and again the reply was that everything seemed to be going quite well.
Since the bombing, enemy machines have been over Barrow again, although there was practically no activity over the whole of the rest of the Region. It seems fairly clear that the Luftwaffe is taking a special interest in the district.
The tendency in Barrow is to assume that the bombing of the town was a mistake and need never have happened. Among the explanations given are - that machines were on their way to Northern Ireland (the attention of the pilots being attracted by anti-aircraft guns opening fire), or that the purple warning was not received and so lights were left on in the shipyard thus attracting the attention of the enemy machines.
Approach on the subject of local services is difficult because of the “isolationism” already mentioned, because of complacency and because of the wartime prosperity of the town which is being enjoyed to the full. People are working long hours and making money and are reluctant to interrupt these activities to attend committee meetings and talk about local administration in any form. In view of the town's past ordeal of depression it is not difficult to understand the outlook.
