I s Your C.D. Committee Really Necessary?
If the Coventry City Council's melodramatic announcement that it. is "a waste of public time and money to carry on with the civil defence committee" made the Home Secretary think a, gain about the Government's policy on civil defence, it was lust worth while. Certainly the wording of the resolution was Unfortunate. Did the -city fathers really imagine that their pro- tes, t. would "strengthen the hands of international statesmen in tae,ir efforts to outlaw the bomb "? If so, it would be inter- esting to know just how they think the bomb can be " out- lawed." But if there was some woolly emotionalism in the oral of the resolution there was some sound sense buried in !he content. There is a widespread belief (reflected recently M the Blue Book which seemed to irritate the Home Secretary considerably) that the Government's civil defence arrangements are thoroughly inadequate and not far short indeed of a "waste Of public time and money." It is neither defeatist nor alarmist 19 take the existence of atomic and hydrogen weapons into account and to suppose that they would be used in the event ro war. It is not outrageous to come to the conclusion that cal civil defence organisations trained and equipped to operate tuider " conventional " high-explosive and incendiary attack and it is still on this that the main emphasis of the Govern- ment's policy is placed) may have learned their lessons for nothing. If the Government were taking the question seriously it would be ensuring that there was adequate shelter !,ccommodation in the great centres of population, and • ueveloping the organisation of mobile columns which could Bo at once to the rescue of bombed cities.
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