GAS ATTACKS

Grey River Argus, 19 February 1935, Page 5

GAS ATTACKS

AGAINST BRITAIN Plans for Protection (Aus. ami N.Z. Carle Assn.) LONDON, February 17. “Reynolds News” says that the Government is constructing, experimentally, vast bomb-proof shelters at strategic points on the coast, which the Air Force will shortly bomb. If the shelters prove effective, more will be built close to towns. Plans are also preparing for a shelter large enough to house an entire .•quadiou anti on a. .sire prcoably near London. It is believed that fhe tests reveal the shelters are imperetrable to any L'mh yet produced. (Received Februarv 18 at 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, February 18. The “News Chronicle’’ says: “The Committee of Imperial Defence will shortly be issuing to the local authorities throughout Britain complete plans for the protection of the population in the case of gas attacks. There has been for seven years an investigation carried on by an AntiGas Sub-Committee, on which there have been leading scientists and military experts. It has resulted in the drawing up of a book of instructions comprising seven hundred pages.

‘‘The population will not be equipped with gas masks, as experiments in the making of houses gas-proof has shown that one room can be made gas-proof comparatively simply by means of chemically saturated curtains being placed over the doors and windows.

“It also is not considered io be necessary to build vast dugouts, like those in Germany, whore one dugout shelters forty-five thousand people. The instructions provide that each local authority shall be responsible for its own district. It will form an Anti-Gas Committee, and will enrol all of the municipal Workers, and also thousands of doctors, firemen and policemen. “'T’he instructions include the following:— “Firstly: A system of alarms to warn the public of an impending attack. “Secondly: The speedv location of the attack, and the isolation of the affected area. “Thirdlv: The protection of the water and food supplies. “Fourthly: The storage and protection of the anti-gas substances. “Fifthly: The establishment of decontamination censers.

“Sixthly: The. training of the schoolchildren and the organisation of special ambulance transport services. ’ ’