By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Southwestern Michigan College President Dr. David M. Mathews returned to London last month for the first time in 10 years.
The Dowagiac resident quickly realized such receptacles had probably been banished to remove a potential hiding place for bombs.
Investigators said they would look for evidence in the debris and in video footage from some 1,800 cameras in London's train stations.
The last time Mathews visited England he was an author of mathematics textbooks putting on workshops at an international conference.
This time, "We were a block from Trafalgar Square," thanks to SMC Foundation member Thomas Swartz of Diamond Lake having a flat in the "prohibitively expensive" area in central London because of a program he directs for the University of Notre Dame.
During their stay they also attended church at Westminster Abbey and took the high-speed train from London to Paris.
Mathews said Trafalgar Square is a small city block that includes a paved park and a large monument to British victory in that naval battle.
At rush hour, as it was when terrorists attacked, "There will be subway trains on the main lines every three to four minutes," Mathews said. "It's not like you're sitting, waiting for a train." If you miss one, another follows along right behind it. "It's easy to see how you would be trapped" in a confined, poorly ventilated place where blast injuries were compounded, like war wounds such as burns and amputations.
Referring to the removal of trash bins, "On the one hand, they've taken some precautions" against terrorist strikes, he said, but on the other hand the relative freedom of movement also aids terrorists.
Mathews' host, Tom Swartz, who returned to Cass County June 19, travels to London three times a year - for weeks for the mid-May-mid-June program, in October to set up new courses and in January to settle housing and make final arrangements.
In January, when there were 39 combat-related killings in Iraq, Detroit experienced 35 homicides.
London "has been a potential target since 9/11. It was just a question of when it was going to happen."
Swartz had been in contact with many people he knows in London and "they are very stoic about this. Their reaction is they are taking this in stride." While compassionate about victims caught up in the attacks, "Londoners will move forward," he said.
Swartz said his flat by Trafalgar Square is perhaps a 25-minute walk to Russell Square, where Underground lines were targeted and a double-decker bus blown apart.
He said his reaction to Thursday morning's new was not shock because "most folks expected another event, and one in London."
While his summer program ended, Swartz said Notre Dame had 35 engineering students in London and law program participants.
Notre Dame has some 20 different international study locations, from the Middle East to the horn of Africa.
Bombings "won't change our program," he said, "but my suspicion is that we will have fewer applicants for slots we have open." He expects the program to continue operating at capacity, with fewer turned away.