WAR CABINET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24834, 6 February 1942, Page 4

WAR CABINET

PROVISION FOR SAFETY SHELTER UNDER PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS (F.0.P.R.) WELLINGTON. Feb. 5; With a roof of concrete five feet thick and massive walls, the air-raid shelter under Parliament Buildings for use by only the War Cabinet, the chiefs of the service staffs and civil servants engaged on vital war communications, is nearing completion. There has been much speculation as to the cost of the shelter, and inquirers have been assured that members of the Cabinet have not been consulted on its construction. Like the staff. employed in Parliament Buildings, Ministers will be required to take shelter outside the buildings if an alarm is sounded. The shelter has been built under contract, and the estimates are that 200 tons of steel have been used and that the cost has run into many thousands.

Although substantial in construction, the shelter will be plainly furnished with forms and a table in the main cramped room, and will be reached by tunnels divided by steel doors. A strip of lighting has been installed, and a ventilating system is constantly working. A stand-by electrical plant is installed. The outlet from the shelter is by a big pipe line under the now disfigured lawns and gardens in front of Parliament Buildings. The main ventilating shaft, tall and inelegant when erected, has been removed to under the main steps and replaced by a smaller chimney. When an alarm is sounded the big shaft will be refitted. Three concrete shelters, each to accommodate 50 workers, are being built on the grass plot at the back of Parliament Buildings and at the foot of Sydney street. The first one has the appearance of a concrete blockhouse standing more than nine feet above a shallow excavation. No slit trenches, however, have been built for the residents nearby, but the employees of one Government department located in Sydney street have dug a trench for themselves.