BRITAIN'S GAS PERIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23080, 5 January 1937, Page 2

BRITAIN'S GAS PERIL

PROBLEM OF SHELTER Anxiety is growing in Britain over the perilous inadequacy of the Government's measures for the protection of the population against gas attacks from the air. Experts declare it essential that, if 45,000,000 people ,are to have a chance of safety, large numbers of big gasproof and bomb-proof shelters must be erected all over the country. Such shelters will, of course, cost a great deal of money, but their construction will provide work for large numbers of the unemployed. They will take time to build, and will probably change the face of Britain. They will be Britain's one chance against a disaster of inconceivable horror if and when war comes again. Several firms have submitted plans for the erection of 20 large kinemas. each with a fully-equipped air-raid shelter, in provincial cities. In the opinion of the experts this enterprise must be multiplied in other directions hundreds of thousands of times. And the Government must take the lead. Lord Strabolgi, formerly Commander Kenworthy, an authority on defence, said recently:— " Instructions have been issued to civilians on how to render their homes immune from poison gas. But to make the ordinary dwelling house immune is impossible." The Government is leaving local authorities to prepare their own plans—and, largely, to spend their own money. Most authorities resent this. One, Portland (Dorset) Council, recently, as a protest, diverted £IOO frpm the airraid precautions fund to the publicity fund.