MODERN EUROPE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 21

MODERN EUROPE

REVEALED AT A -FAIR

GAS-MASKS AND CRADLES

PEAR OF INVASION

An instructive indication of Italy's trend of thought at the present time was given me at the Milan Industrial Fair, writes Sir Percival Phillips in the "Daily Telegraph." This annual display of home and foreign industries is housed in a kind of White City appropriated from one of the residential suburbs. Exhibits much like those at the British Industries Exhibition, but on a smaller scale, are spread in an attractive way over a group of pavilions, with various forms of mild entertainment roundabout for the sightseer when he tires of looking at machinery and the manufacture of macaroni. The man in the street seemed to care little for these things. I followed him into a building guarded by men in uniform who were wearing gas-masks, and found that what interested him most was the object-lessons given there in the preparation for defence against invasion by air. He walked from one depressing display to the next with the look of one who was determined to know all there was to be known about a thoroughly unpleasant subject, but without evincing the slightest sign of cheerfulness. He stood as though fascinated before a model of a populous city, complete with modern flat buildings, stores, churches, and factories. Little coloured lights were flashing at the street corners as an official in uniform, complete with heavy revolver and war ribbons, pressed the levers on a switchboard alongside. "The alarm is sounded so," said the officer. "These lights represent sirens, and these are signals indicating the way to the mobilisation centres." The man in the street studied them intently. Then his gaze was directed to a map on the wall behind with the names of the principal cities in large letters and figures beneath. Below Milan was printed 750,000. He knew what the figures meant, but I did not, and so asked the lecturer to explain them. TO BE EVACUATED. "That is the number of people to be evacuated in case of invasion," he re-plied—"three-fourths of the population. They must leave immediately the order is given, by tram, omnibus, railway, motor-car, or lorry, for destinations which will be assigned them." I suggested that the sudden movement of 750,000 people would entail a certain amount of .congestion and confusion, and asked how it would be accomplished. "All that will be seen to," replied the officer, and went on switching the little lights into action. A little further on in this inspiring place I found a crowd comprising the man in the street and his family watching a cinematograph film which showed various kinds of fires being extinguished by explosive missiles. The lecturer explained that this was a new invention for preventing the destruction of towns by incendiary bombs. The' counter-bomb is filled with a harmless powder which explodes with great force, creating pure gas which blows out the fire. SMOKE BOMBS. He showed them being set oft" when held in the hand, to prove that they were not dangerous in manipulation. Others were affixed to long poles and thrust into a blazing building. Immediately they detonated, the flames were succeeded by dense black smoke which drifted away, leaving the interior free from fire. Next in the array of anti-air raid exhibits were types of bomb-proof shelters for communal use in cities. I entered them by descending steep flights of steps arid found myself in a i series of low chambers, the ceilings of which were' supported by a forest l of heavy wooden supports to take the ; weight of collapsed floors above. A i table was fastened between four of \ these props, and grim-looking chairs j stood against the concrete walls. '. Around the chamber were small port- e able tanks of different sizes labelled ] "filtered air supply for ten people—for c twenty people—for thirty people." j One theatrical model on. the floor above the shelters was a six-storey apartment house in section, with the inmates wearing gas-masks descending * to the bomb-proof basement and sitting * there in orderly rows. Another showed ' an underground station equipped for * protection against aerial bombs, the £ railway employees on guard in masks r and padded uniforms, and passengers I being conducted to their refuges. r FASHIONS IN GAS-MASKS. I Manufacturers of gas-masks display- i ed their wares in a row of booths adja- a cent to these models. The man in the street and his wife spent some tii|ie c in comparing the different types. t It would appear that there is a trend towards fashions even in such li unattractive forms of headgear. I t noticed that the wife paused longer be- T fore the model which had a neat per- i* forated brass cap on what might be s called the snout of the mask, as though P preferring it to one with a less orna- a mental appendage. V Outside the pavilion of "Spiritual f and Material Hesistance to Air Raids" c was a full-size ambulance train of *' four coaches, which the man in the street passed through with an air of a approval. The guards were again " masked, and conversation with them was difficult. t] Not far from the ambulance train I °. discovered another "topical" exhibit— nothing less than the bow half of a *' model showing Italy's latest type of ? cruiser, almost startlingly realistic with f its heavy forward turrets and guns, and but little reduced in size. Blue- ?■, jackets in service kit were on duty at the gangway and piloted admiring s visitors between the .decks of the ?, "cruiser." , Next at hand was a pavilion contain- f ing samples of modern machine-guns, which could be looked at but not touched. The watchful attendant f, raised a warning hand if a visitor }, dared produce pencil and note book. What do you imagine interested the man in the street when he had exhausted the exhibition of armaments e and its side-lines in the structure of ii war? Babies. The demand for babies g and yet more babies. Empty cradles, s rows of them, crying for occupants. A s pavilion bearing on its facade a gigan- e tic banner with the warning, "A nation whose birth-rate is declining is t doomed." t CRADLE OF CENTURIES. £ Just in front of us the Duke of v Bergamo, a Prince of Savoy, was being t, conducted from cradle to cradle by n high Fascists in black shirts and smil- j ing ladies carrying flowers. s This was a really charming display, c The right-angled aisles of the building r were divided into little cubicles, and t in each sat a delightful small girl in one of the costumes of peasant Italy, \ shyly tending a cradle in which lay a s realistic doll. The cradles were accui/ i ate replicas of those used throughout \ the last three centuries by successive c generations of babies in all parts of If the kingdom. There were even cradles jc

purporting to be from other countries —even from Japan—though unhappily none from Great Britain. Such are the outstanding features of the Milan Fair that appeal to the everyday Italian. I found him1 also wandering, but without much enthusiasm, down long avenues lined with heavy machinery and glancing at textile exhibits. He could not fail to notice for himself that the large Italian firms have had to retrench this year, and they are not making such lavish displays as in the past. Fully 30 per cent, of the exhibitors of machinery are German houses. British representation, like that of the Italians themselves, has dwindled, and the British pavilion has disappeared. The fair is the most important presentation of home manufactures in Italy, and in normal times attracts thousands of visitors. The majority of the foreigners to be seen attending this year have been Germans.