GAS MASKS FOR ALL

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22593, 24 December 1938, Page 24

GAS MASKS FOR ALL

* PREPARATIONS IN BRITAIN DELIVERY TO PROVINCES HASTENED STORAGE IN AIR-TIGHT CONTAINERS Ctbom otra own corhespokdest.) LONDON, September 19. Practically every leading provincial newspaper makes some reference to the storage of consignments of gas masks for the civilian population. The “Scotsman,” anticipating the receipt of 20,000 for the Colinton district, refers to the receipt of 6000 at Juniper Green School from Galashiels. These masks were in metal boxes about the size of a biscuit tin, and were received by a number of police officers. The masks in storage form are split up into four parts—the face piece, band, valve, and container. A classroom has been specially adapted to store them, and in it the hermetically sealed containers will be duly indexed and placed in racks. If they should be required, the 20,000 could be in the public’s hands within eight hours, the time required for assembly and distribution to homes. The masks can be kept for 20 years, if need be, in the hermetically sealed containers. The rubber fittings will not perish, as they are kept in an inert gas. It was revealed at a meeting of the Newcastle Air Raid Precautions Committee that the chief constable and all senior police officials spent one night supervising the transference of 278.000 gas masks from a depot outside Newcastle to the city. Forty-eight fitting depots have been established on hired premises, including private houses, church halls, hotels, cinemas, vicarages, and missions. The chairman of the watch committee said that the move had been made suddenly in view of the international situation, but it should not be interpreted as cause for panic. “This morning we have in the city a gas mask for every citizen,” he said, “and I doubt whether any other city in England can say the same. Inside 24 hours 278,000 gas masks were moved from the Government stores for the area into Newcastle.”

Precautions in Manchester At a hastily-convened meeting, the air raid precautions committee of the Manchester City Council approved of plans for protection against air attack, and authorised some £250,000 of expenditure, which will enable officials to proceed without delay with all the essential work and to provide for the purchase of materials and the leasing of premises. Although 800,000 gas masks will be needed in Manchester, no more than 458,000 have been delivered, and it was decided to take steps to secure delivery of the remaining 342,000 without delay. The business of “fitting” has already started in the D Division of the Police Force. Manchester telephone subscribers and kiosk users who asked for “Telegrams” dictated their messages to girls in gas masks, and heard them read over for confirmation through microphones fitted into the masks, while press representatives and photographers looked on. The masks, which were of th-> heavy-duty civilian type, caused no apparent discomfort to the operators during the 15 minutes’ test which completed their air raid precautions training, though they would not be able to wear them for much longer periods without finding the thick, clinging rubber unpleasantly hot.