The Landmarks Fall

History received its most mortal wounds in London last week. The Mother of Parliaments, Westminster Abbey, the British Museum were all hit in one night of explosion even more desecrating than the City bombing of last December.

The House of Commons Chamber, where Disraeli argued with Gladstone in the days when the Empire was being completed, where Prime Minister Herbert Asquith told the members of Parliament that World War I had begun, was gutted by seven high-explosive bombs just 72 hours after Winston Churchill had there spun one of his finest fabrics of oratory. Big Ben, whose broadcast chimes had become a symbol of empire, had his face blackened and cut, but in a few hours the huge clock was running again. The exquisite timber roof of 900-year-old Westminster Hall, under which Charles I, Guy Fawkes and Warren Hastings were tried, caved in.

Westminster Abbey, Britain's foremost receptacle of memories, had its lantern roof, the central part of the Abbey directly over the crossing of the nave and transept, burned out. Tons of debris fell on the spot where King George VI and Queen Elizabeth--and many monarchs before them--were crowned. The Henry VII Chapel was damaged, but the Unknown Warrior in his tomb and the poets in their Corner were not disturbed.

Most of the richest treasures had been removed from the British Museum, but incendiaries hit and gutted its library, one of the world's greatest. Ironically, while Egypt lay under the Nazi threat, the museum's Egyptian section was almost demolished. But if sentiments were wrung by these noble ruins, far more hearts were broken and lives were taken in less historic spots.

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