DUAL-PURPOSE CAMPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 59, 11 March 1939, Page 8

DUAL-PURPOSE CAMPS

PEACETIME AND WARTIME

SCHEME FOR GREAT BRITAIN

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, February 16.

Fifty camps, to b^. used for evacuation in war-time and as school camps in peace-time, are part of a £1,000,000 plan which Sir John. Anderson, Lord Privy Seal, has announced in Parliament. Each camp will accommodate 350 people, and a Bill is to be introduced soon so that the programme can begin. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has agreed to make the money available if Parliament ■ agrees, and the Bill will provide for the establishment of profit-barred public corporations—one for England and Wales and one for Scotland—with power to construct and manage the camps.

Sir John Anderson stated: "They would be hutted camps and would be a useful supplement to billeting under any evacuation scheme in the event of war. Their main peace-time purpose would be to serve as school camps, taking children from urban areas in relays. The corporations will be required to aim at recovering for the peace-time use of the camps 50 per cent, of the capital—in addition to meeting all their maintenance charges." While the new Bill is being drafted preliminary steps are being taken to select suitable sites.