DEFENCE FROM GAS ATTACKS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21402, 19 February 1935, Page 11

DEFENCE FROM GAS ATTACKS

BRITISH MEASURES EXTENSIVE INSTRUCTIONS TO BE ISSUED RESPONSIBILITY ON LOCAL AUTHORITIES (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHT.) (Received February 19, 12.20 a.m.) LONDON, February 18. The "News-Chronicle" says the Committee of Imperial Defence will shortly issue to local authorities throughout Britain complete plans for the protection of the population in case of gas attacks. Seven years of investigation by the anti-gas subcommittee, on which there are leading scientists and military experts, have-resulted in the drawing-up of a book of instructions of several hundred pages. The population will not be equipped with gas masks, as experiments in gas-proofing houses have shown that one room can be ' made gasproof comparatively simply by chemically-saturated curtains over the doors and windows. It is also not considered necessary to build vast dug-outs as in Germany, where one dug-out shelters 45,000 people. The instructions provide that each local authority will be responsible for its own district. It will form an anti-gas committee, and enrol all municipal workers and thousands of doctors, firemen and policemen. The instructions include a system of alarms to warn the public of an impending attack; the speedy location of the attack and isolation of the affected area; the protection of water and food supplies; the storage 'and protection of anti-gas substances; the establishment of decontamination centres; and the training of school children and the organisation of special ambulance and transport services.