DEFENCE OF BRITAIN

Grey River Argus, 5 December 1938, Page 10

DEFENCE OF BRITAIN

AVIATION AND MEDICAL PROVISION. RUGBY, December 2. The debt which the Air Ministry owes to science was commented on by Sir C. Kingsley Wood at the 267th anniversary dinner of the Royal Society. ‘ He said the Ministry was proud to know that no fewer than forty-four Fellows of the Society, were members of the committees appointed by. the Ministry, or in which the Ministry was closely interested. The scientific staff at the Air Ministri' has been trebled in the last two or three years, and there were still vacancies to be filled. It was almost impossible to estimate what the scientists and Research workers might achieve in relation to the menace of the air to-day. One of the greatest contributions to peace, and the happiness of mankind, will be the conquest of the bombing aeroplane ,and he did not despair of that being achieved. The biggest test of air raid warning signals in Britain will be made on December 8, when a hundred sirens installed at selected police stations,, in Greater London, will be sounded simultaneously . The object of the test is to determine whether or not the sirens give adequate warning to take cover within the area.

Speaking in the Commons debate on medical services in’ civil defence, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Health, described the plans for expansion on a great scale in wartime. At the outbreak of war, the best place for the doctor will be with his own patients, and thereafter he would be directed to where the need was greatest. A central register of the nurses and nursing auxiliaries was being established. The Ministry had surveyed the hospital accommodation of the country, covering four hundred thousand beds available for air raid casualties, and at the end of a fortnight, an additional hundred thousand beds. First aid posts etcetera we rebeing circulated, and measures were taken to. ensure they would be properly complementary to the hospital services. Large quantities of equipment were being delivered and more were on order, and there were large stocks in the country. Referring to the clearing of hospir tals, he said that during the crisis, the hospital evacuation scheme tor London could have been put into action at 12 hours’ notice. j