AERIAL ATTACK DEFENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1933, Page 5

AERIAL ATTACK DEFENCE

ELABORATE BERLIN PLANS

SHELTERS FOR THE PEOPLE

ACTIVITIES RAISE FEARS

NAZIS’ ECONOMIC POLICY

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright

Berlin, Aug. 15.

Defence against aerial attack is being prepared with extraordinary thoroughness by the Reich Air Defence League. Under the auspices of the military police and the civil authorities the organisation operates throughout the country, affecting every household where fire-fighting and first-aid teams under the leadership of a carefully selected house warden must be formed. Special shelters must be prepared in cellars, while every house in Berlin has been ordered to remove from attacks material likely to be inflammable. Thus tens of thousands of apartment houses where large lofts afford communal washing rooms and store rooms are subjected to the scrutiny of the police, who are ordering the removal of old bedsteads and furniture. The inhabitants are uneasy, asking whether' there is a danger of war. Though the Nazi leaders continually declare that trade is improving and unemployment is evaporating, prices on the German stock exchanges are sinking steadily owing to uneasiness about Nazi methods of financing schemes dealing with unemployment. Plans already approved involve an outlay of £100,000,000. The Government thus far has raised £20,000,000 by the only method possible, namely, the sale of Treasury bills bearing 6 per cent, interest. Bills are rtow quoted at between £7O and £BO. The Nazi drive against “corruption in high palces” was intensified with the arrest of 21 mayors on charges of embezzling public money. Five relatives of Herr Scheidmann, the ex-Chancellor, have been released.