AGAINST AIR RAIDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 June 1938, Page 8

AGAINST AIR RAIDS

MEASURES OF PRECAUTION IN LONDON STATEMENT BY THE HOME SECRETARY. EXTENSIVE PLANS SHAPED. (Recd This Day, 1.43 p.m.) LONDON, June 1. The House of Commons discussed air raid precautions this evening, when Sir Samuel Hoare (Home Secretary) reported on the progress of preparations. He said surveys of basement accommodation in several London boroughs, and of open spaces available for trenches and dugouts, yielded surprisingly encouraging results. Points mentioned were that open spaces in London would provide trench and dugout - accommodation for about a million and a half persons, that an order for 275 million sand-bags had been given, that new Government buildings would in future be provided with additional protection against air attack, and that plans for the safety of members of the

Houses of Parliament were well advanced. Finally, he spoke of the necessity of effective precautions to ensure the working of the Government machine in air raid emergencies. After a reference to 1J million persons outside the London County Council area, where 58 acres of open spaces could be used in an emergency, Sir Samuel Hoare said the Government had already accumulated thirty-two million sand-bags. Referring to Parliament, he said the rooms and corridors on the ground floor, facing the Terrace, were considered the safest. Sand-bagging would be used where necessary. Rescue clearance and decontamination parties would be raised from the Parliamentary staff.