AERIAL BOMBING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1939, Page 7

AERIAL BOMBING

QUESTION OF RESTRICTING INCIDENCE DIRECT APPEAL TO GERMANY SUGGESTED. POSITION OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright LONDON. August 1. Mr Reginald Sorenson (Labour) asked in the House of Commons today whether in view of the waste and suffering involved in aerial warfare the Prime Minister would make an immediate direct appeal to the German Government and people to consider means by which the incidence of aerial bombing in the event of war might be minimised or eliminated. The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Mr Butler, who replied, said: "The views of his Majesty's Government regarding the principle which should form the basis of restriction of aerial warfare were made known at the League of Nations Assembly in September. 1938. and have been restated from time to time: for example, in this House on March 8 last. “In the present circumstances I do not think any useful purpose would be served by any further initiative. His Majesty's Government would, however. be prepared to consider sympathetically any suggestions on the subject.” PROFESSOR’S OFFER TEST OF AIR RAID SHELTERS. (Independent Cable Service.) LONDON. August 1. Professor J. B. S. Haldane declared that he is prepared to sit in a Government steel shelter while a bomb exploded outside, in order to find out what protection the shelters give during air raids. He said he was convinced that the figures of Government experts giving the degree of safety provided by the shelters were all wrong. Professor Haldane, who is professor of biometry at London University College and who has written widely on technical military questions, gave extraordinary evidence in the inquiry on the Thetis submarine tragedy recently, describing an experiment in which he sat in a sealed chamber to test the reactions of the Thetis crew when they were near death through lack of oxygen.