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33
THE WAR YEARS.
Introduction.
The vital statistics of this district compare very favourably with
those of the rest of the country. Part of the explanation for the lowered
death rate is to be found in the age constitution of the population, a
factor associated with the growing community. Apart from this aspect,
though, the district possesses many natural advantages which help to
promote healthy conditions. The general standard of housing is good ;
atmospheric pollution is not marked, while of course the district shares
with the rest of the southern counties the milder climatic conditions
not enjoyed by some parts of the country. In the same way the district
has been fortunate during the war in that it has been spared, where it
has not escaped entirely, the vicissitudes to which other districts have
been exposed. In the early days it was not an evacuation area and
in fact it even became a reception area, but there was neither the outpouring
nor at any time an overwhelming influx of population.
Although provision was made for the reception of refugees at the time
of the overrunning of the low countries, and for the reception of persons
from the coastal towns, in point of fact'few came and of those who did
most were here only a short time. Larger numbers arrived later,
following enemy action on different parts of the country. Not until
the August of 1944 was evacuation encouraged, and then most of it
was of a few weeks' duration only. Admittedly the district did not
escape the results of enemy activity and can point to the effects of bombing,
of the attention of flying bombs and of rockets, but in each case only
on a small scale. Perhaps because of the lightness of the attack here
comparatively few crowded into the shelters. At no time were these
used by more than 5,000 while they had the accommodation for over
30,000, and only for a period of a few weeks was there any question at all
of the occupancy of these shelters and the herding of large numbers in
unhygienic surroundings becoming a public health problem. The very
general fears of epidemics which might be started by the herding of vast
numbers of people in shelters which were damp, cold, ill-ventilated and
with deficient sanitation and never designed for persons to sleep in
proved entirely unfounded. Even the slight increase in the incidence
of impetigo and scabies which were apparently more prevalent in the
autumn of 1940 was short-lived. The district then suffered nothing
peculiar to itself, was affected by that which was common to the whole
country, and escaped rather lightly from those troubles to which it was,
together with most of the rest of the country, exposed.
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