PROTECTION IN AIR RAIDS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22592, 23 December 1938, Page 9

PROTECTION IN AIR RAIDS

BRITISH PLAN FOR SHELTERS

LARGE SUM TO BE SPENT BY GOVERNMENT

PROVISION FOR FLATS AND PRIVATE HOMES

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Receiver December 22, 2 p.m.) RUGBY, December 21. The Government’s plans for the provision of air raid shelters for the civilian population were disclosed in the House of Commons by the Minister in Charge of Air Raid Precautions (Sir John Anderson), who revealed that the Government would undertake the responsibility of accumulating the equipment at a cost of £20,000,000, mainly for providing a special type of steel shelters. “Our preparations against gas are more advanced than other aspects of the air raid precautions, and are ahead of all other countries,” declared Sir John. “If the risk of gas attack seemed less than it did it might be due to the thoroughness of these preparations. Preparations against the incendiary bomb and the high explosive bomb must now be brought to the same state of preparedness. “In regard to the former, a plan has been worked out for augmenting the fire services in an emergency, and the recruitment and training of the personnel and the provision of the equipment required are being pressed forward.”

Requirements of Shelters

The Minister said a practical shelter policy offering protection against the danger of a high explosive bomb must satisfy three conditions:—

(1) In areas vulnerable to attack protection must be given in or near the homes of the residents or their places of employment. (2) Shelters proof against a direct hit are not practicable. Apart from the difficulties and delays involved in any extensive scheme for deep bombproof shelters, he did not think the public was prepared to adapt its whole civilisation so as to compel a large proportion of the population to live and maintain their productive capacity in a troglodyte existence underground. What they must provide was adequate protection against splinter and blast and the fall of debris.

(3) Protection for everybody at the public expense could not be provided.

All who could afford it would be expected to arrange for their own protection, but the Government would see that all the necessary advice and guidance would be available.

- Legislation to be passed after the Christmas recess would impose certain obligations on trade and industry to protect employees while at work. For those overtaken by an air raid in the street, communal shelters would be available either in trenches or in other forms. Shelters would also be provided by the local authorities, and he instanced, in this connexion, the strengthening of large basements in warehouses and offices and the provision of underground car parks. The main problem, however, was providing protection for the ordinary citizen close to his own home. This type of protection must vary according to the type of building, and arrangements were being made to produce standardised fittings for basements. Surveys would be conducted to see to which houses this method could profitably be applied.

Central Purchasing Plan

In blocks of flats the most satisfactory course would be to provide structural support, either in the basement or ground floor of a building, and in those where an exceptionally large area can be strengthened in this way, others besides the residents would be accommodated. For houses without basements and not very s-Jidly constructed, a special type of steel shelter in sections and easily put together had been devised to be placed outside the house, close to the wall, and sunk about two feet in the ground, the displaced earth being piled up on top of the steel frame. “The provision of these shelters calls for central purchasing, and the Government proposes to take the responsibility for accumulating the necessary steel and equipment of these private shelters, and bear the whole cost of the material,” declared the Minister.

The Government would proceed immediately to place orders for a very large quantity of steel and equipment. A supply of special steel shelters, sufficient to afford protection for 10,000,000 people, would be arranged for the smallest type of house, and material for strengthening private basements would be accumulated progressively as the survey advanced. The cost of providing all this material, which was to be borne entirely by the Exchequer, was £20,000,000, and would lead immediately to increased employment in the part of industry where there'was at present considerable unemployment, and if, happily, it was unused for the purpose for which it was intended, all the steel left in the hands of the Government would have a residual value, while the special shelters designed for the smaller type of house would have considerable resale value.

The duty of providing public shelters for people caught in the streets, and those who cannot be sheltered in their homes remained with the local authorities, but the Exchequer’s contribution towards the cost of these public shelters would amount to several millions, and the whole programme had been designed to provide protection for nearly 20,000,000 people.