AIR DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 49, 26 August 1939, Page 11

AIR DEFENCE

BRITAIN PREPARED

PRECAUTIONS DEVELOPED

SUPPLY OF SHELTERS

(Specially Written for "The Post.")

LONDON, August 3

Four years ago a voluntary staff of nine commenced Great Britain's work in A.R.P. (air raids precautions). Since then a vast organisation, comprising many departments and functioning through various Ministries and local authorities, has come into being, and so rapid has been the progress made in civil defence that today Great Britain's precautions against aerial attack are the most advanced in the world. The biggest strides have been in the last year. At the time of the September crisis there were feverish scenes of trench-digging in the London parks and the placing of sandbags against the walls of buildings. Since then enormous shelters have been provided in many places in London and elsewhere, and the distribution of individual shelters for the householder is well advanced. The Lord Privy Seal (Sir John Anderson) is responsible for the whole of civil defence,' which goes, of course. a great deal further than precautions against" air raids. In practice, it has been found impossible to haye1, centralised control of A.R.P. work throughout the country, so a great deal of power has been vested in local authorities. From southern England to the north of Scotland, much has been done to make the inhabitants of every town safe against, attack from the air. There are four types of shelters: large underground structures capable of holding several thousand people at a time; reinforced basement shelters in large factories or business premises; steel shelters in the gardens of private houses; and special shelters in the basements of houses. . SOME SHELTERS FREE. Shelters are provided free of cost to householders whose income is less than . £5 a week and this class comprises by far the greater part of the' working population of Great Britain. In other cases loans may be made by local authorities to owners of houses to enable shelters to be constructed, the . amount to be repaid, with interest, • within ten years. Where the occupier of any premises has been provided with materials for an air-raid shelter, the local authority shall give advice as to the position in which the shelter shall be erected. The shelter may be erected by the owner or the local authoriy. The distribution of the first shelters to householders was not made until March. Since then 978,152 shelters have been distributed throughout the coun- . try, providing accommodation for nearly 6,000,000 people. It is' hoped that from now on between 55,000 and 60,000 shelters will be distributed every week to householders. The work would have gone ahead even more rapidly but for the fact that local bodies have had to carry out surveys of houses and attend to structural alterations. Although the construction of shelters on a nationwide scale is a comparatively recent .manifestation of these critical times, many householders have had air-raid .^shelters for a; number of years, the first "being built about the lime of the Abyssinian crisis. GAS MASKS DISTRIBUTED. A sufficient number of gas masks has been distributed to serve the total population of Great Britain in time of emergency. Most householders already have their masks, but" in certain districts local bodies have been storing them because of lack of room in the poorer type of dwelling. Within the past few weeks, however, local bodies have been requested by the central authorities to complete the distribution of masks. The reason for this is not so much that an emergency is feared but that protective helmets for babies and respirators for children between the ages of two and five are being distributed to local authorities in case an emergency arises and all the storage room available will be needed. The protective apparatus for children is to be distributed only as a crisis arises. In practically every street in Britain there is an appeal for volunteers for A.R.P, work. So far, 915,541 men and 568,488 women have volunteered for duty ih addition to which there are 179,661 men and 10,466 women in the auxiliary fire service. It is expected that there will soon be more than 2.000,000 volunteers in the country. The A.R.P. officer who carries out the type of work which, brings him in contact with the general public is the warden. Then there are specialised duties —demolition squads, decontamination squads, messengers, auxiliary fire-fighters, stretcher-bearers, ambu- ■ lance drivers, nurses, and others. An outline of the work of A.R.P. volunteers' was given in a film, "The Warning," which has been shown in cinemas throughout Great Britain. When this film was first shown it was greeted with laughter, for some of the uniforms, particularly that of the decontamination squad, are rather weird; but at the time of the last crisis in March the temper of the nation had changed and the film was applauded. There was certainly no laughter. Since then tens of thousands of volunteers- have come forward to offer their services. The vacancies still remaining for volunteers are in the firefighting, nursing, first-aid, and ambulance sections. PLANS FOR EVACUATION. Plans have been prepared for evacuating children from the large cities to areas where they can proceed with their schooling and other normal activities. The number of persons to go to each area in the country has been fixed by the Government. The Government, the law courts, and other administrative bodies have made plans for carrying on their activities outside London. Large firms have secured accommodation in districts where the risk of bombing is not so great as in London. Practically all the London hospitals would be cleared of patients in a time of emergency, and would become mainly casualty clearing stations. The great art treasures of the nation will not be allowed to remain where there is any risk of bombing. At the time of the September crisis the pictures in the most important national galleries were packed ready for dispatch to some quieter part of the country. PLANS FOR ANY CRISIS. There is no doubt that Great Britain: is ready for any emergency, and it is impossible to go anywhere in the country, particularly in the late summer, without being reminded of this fact. Reservists are on duty in the parks in tisa larger cities with anti-aircraft guns trained on approaching aircraft; balloon barrages float over, London, Glasgow, and other danger points; territorials are in camp in greater numbers than at any time since the Great War; women volunteers are highly trained to work on the land and to carry out many other important duties; and the Royal Navy, including the reserve fleet, is carrying out the most extensive

manoeuvres for many years past. AI great deal of publicity is at present] being given to the first batch of militiamen (twenty-years-old) who are under-] going training; from now on youths of this age will be called up as a matter of course.

Camouflaged aerodromes and munitions factories are comparatively common and, what is more significant, factories and works of no - military importance are being painted to make them less conspicuous from the air. Plans for the rationing of food, petrol, and other necessaries, and the proposed issue of identification cards, are other aspects of lite in Great Britain which serve to remind the inhabitants that they live in trUUbled times.