AIR RAIDS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 103, 25 January 1939, Page 7

AIR RAIDS

Problem Of Protection From Them

WHAT EUROPE’S CRISIS REVEALED

Since the dramatic days of the European crisis. Britain lias, not’ unnaturally, been engaged in introspection : and our organization for active and passive defence against aerial attack has attracted a considerable amount of public discussion. Every good citizen has an instinctive feeling against revealing the country's weakness to possible enemies. But he cannot be sure that remedies will be applied if the weaknesses are not exposed. That, indeed, is one of the advantages of democracy ; weaknesses can be hidden from nations governed by dictatorships, in the long run to the disadvantage of the nation, but it is not so easy for incompetence to hide itself in Parliamentary democracies, wrote Mr. Herbert Morrison. London County Council leader, and chairman of the Air Baids Precautions Committee, in the "Sunday Times” recently.

The Air Raid Precautions Act was not passed until the end of 1937. Less than a year tigo. That fact must be remembered in judging the effort of the local authorities. Generally speaking, the co-operation of the local authorities with the State was forthcoming. It may be that some were slower in getting off the mark than others, and that in a certain number of cases there was a lack of drive amt comprehensiveness of otillook. but. although there were arguments between Whitehall and the local authorities as to t,he wisdom of particular expenditures, and although some local authorities complained of their inability to get decisions from the Home Office quickly enough, I think it will be agreed by the Home Secretary that there has been little or no ill-will or mischievous obstruction on the part of local authorities.

Stress has been laid on the general shortage of volunteers for A.R.P. services when the critical days commenced. -From the point of view of training and preparation, it would, of course, have been much better had the vast number of volunteers required responded immediately after the first appeals so that their training could be completed by -the time we were in trouble. But there was every sign in the days of the crisis itself that the required numbers would be forthcoming. We should have used them, untrained though they were.

Problem of Training. That willingness to come forward in time of trouble is of great value, and should be noted by foreign Powers. 11 is true that their lack of training would have involved us in considerable difficulties, but we had better not get this aspect of the matter out of proportion. I again remind my readers that the Act was not passed until the end of last .rear. You can no more build up a vast A.R.P. personnel in five minutes than you can a territorial army or even a professional army. Moreover, even if volunteers had been forthcoming at the beginning of this year, Whitehall must. 1 think, admit that its own organization wtts too modest and not sufficiently comprehensive to permit of the adequate absorption of the volunteers by the local authorities. For the training of air raid wardens in anti-gas work, there must be a sufficient number of competent teachers. and these teachers cannot be obtained unless the national training organization is adequate. It was not adequate. It seems to me that the Home Oilice organisation was much too modest. It appears to have been based on the assumption that the department was faced with a long-term rather than a short-term task. The ' time for stall expansion was. in many respects, at the beginning rather than at the end, and I am afraid that the whole story of Whitehall and A.R.P. is the other way

about. The stalling of the A.R.P. department in the early days was ridiculously small. We must remember that A.R.P. first engaged the attention of Government as long ago as 1930! The facts about volunteers for the L.C.C. Auxiliary Fire Service and Ambulance Service have been published: we declined to hide oar shortage: not that the deficiency was our fault, for we had made appeal after appeal. It is the fact, however, that the number of auxiliaries completely trained, or sufficiently trained to enable them to operate efficiently, exceeded considerably the number of auxiliary appliances at the council's disposal. And the Home Office was responsible for acquiring and supplying the additional fire appliances and most of the equipment. Supplies to local authorities were gravely deficient even in the days- of the crisis itself. Shelters and Basements. The two principal things in A.R.P. policy were shelters and evaluation. It is, I think, true to say that neither problem had been examined.and settled by Ministers, even at the time the crisis broke. Yet not only for reasons of humanity but. for reaso: of military strategy, they were the two most vital issues in the whole business. For the safer the population the ’ ss yon need fear a "knock-out blow.”

The State, it seems to me, ought to have contemplated shelter, tunnel, and trench construction on a large scale. In parks 'and other open spaces trench construction was begun in a rus and without sufficient preparation. But 11 large proportion of the people do not live sufficiently. near to- an o*ea spa.?. I know that shelters and tunnelling are expensive propositions, but il prolonged aerial warfare has to be con-tem-lated it is of vita) national importance that the ••mlation should be made as safe as possible and should be jriven real reason to believe it. Moreover, such work would mean work for the unemployed. We must, so long as war is possible, regard A.R.P. as a form of State activity that is not less important than any of the defence services. To expect small local authoiities, many of them with severely limited' financial and engineering resources, to tackle successfully Ihe problem of slu Iters is absurd. This matter need not be one of party iwlitics. 1 have been critical of the Government not because I am seeking to score points, but iieeanse I believe it to be in the national interest that weaknesses should be revealed and rectified, and because 1 am a great believer in orderly and efficient public administration. I have tried to write as a good citizen rather than as a party politician, and 1 ask the reader l.imself to consider the matter in that spirit.