BRITISH MORALE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 21, 5 November 1940, Page 3

BRITISH MORALE

TRIBUTE TO THE WORKERS. “YOU HAVE WON FIRST ROUND.” ‘United Press Association.—Copyright/) LONDON, November 3. Giving what he referred to as his “interim report,” the Minister for Home Security (Mr Herbert Morrison) spoke of Government action to assist the civilian population to carry out their part in the battle of Britain when he broadcast to-day. Although the conflict between the German Air Force and the civilian population was only part of the battle, Mr Morrison emphasised the vital importance of that part and. said that the whole future of the war turned on a successful resistance by the ordinary workaday people of Britain. “You have won the first round—won it hands’ down,” he declared. Mr Morrison emphasised that the Government’s effort could not be concentrated on passive defence, for both active defence and preparations for an offensive would suffer if supplies of steel, cement, and bricks were allocated solely to civilian defence measures. “I have not come,” he continued, “to tell you how to be shut away from the rigour and stress of war as though you were unfit to play your part.” There was neither logic nor humanity in tolerating unnecessary danger or discomfort and the policy of his department was to enable everyone to be safe and sleep as comfortably and live as healthily as the onslaught allows. Mr Morrison disclosed plans for an increase in the supply of Anderson shelters, the provision of more basements properly reinforced, and schemes to take advantage of the strength of modern buildings. Extensions to Tubes. Dealing with the deep shelter controversy, Mr Morrison said that whatever views some people may have held two years ago, the provision of such shelters for the whole or the greater part of the population was now beyond the bounds of practical possibility. However, where a place and circumstances made the construction of deep shelters practicable this would - be undertaken and the London tube shelter would be extended by tunnelting and in places where the slope of the land and the nature of the soil made tunnelling a relatively easy matter, it would be begun. Mr Morrison disclosed that only one in six of London’s population used the ~ public shelters, while the remaining 85 per cent, slept in houses and flats, Anderson, or communal domestic

shelters. “Some people are apt to forget them—the whole 85 per cent, of them,” he said. Mr Morrison concluded: “You have repelled the N!azi attack splendidly. You have had months of it and are still going strong, and ready if need be for more. Men and women of the cities and bombed areas, you are fighting a great fight, in a great cause. You are an inspiration to free men and to men who would be free in all the world. I salute you. lam proud to serve you.”