15 SEPTEMBER 1917, Page 2

In our opinion, the time has corm for organizing more

regularly the means of shelter in London against moonlight raids. These raids are likely to be repeated, in spite of the fact that they have done comparatively insignificant damage in the past, and that their only effect upon the feelings of the population has been the excellent one, from our point of view, of hardening determination to beat the Germans into final submission. The moral of a civil population is all a matter of confidence. To increase confidence is to insure the maintenance of civil moral whatever may happen. If all people in every district knew exactly where they could find a safe retreat at a moment's notice, London would smile unconcernedly even if the Germans could—which they probably could not—send over many times the number of aeroplanes that came on the last moon- light night. Districts where the tube railways run have of course the most perfect dug-outs. in the world. We have read of German dug-outs at .a depth.of forty feet below the surface, but they are not "in it" with subterranean corridors which lie at a depth of a hundred feet. People in the mass do not think for themselves, and thus they run wholly unnecessary risks. Precise methods of safety should be laid before them.