Civil Defence
Predicting the character of a new war is as erratic a pastime as estimating when it will break out ; nevertheless, we must do both as best we can. It is possible that the full horrors of atomic and bacteriological warfare, combined with gas and projected missiles,. would descend on Britain if we became involved in a new war. Possible, but not certain. In the last war, in spite of the atomic bomb, the ingenuity of scientists had progressed far beyond the limits imposed by the political and military chiefs. The same restrictions might be placed on our enemies' technique in a future war. The Government, to judge by the declarations in the House of Commons on Monday, is obviously trying to make the best job it can of civil defence without knowing the answer to any of the questions on which a civil defence policy could be based. It is not preparing wide schemes for the dispersal of industry or the con- struction of radiation-proof shelters, because it hopes that this will not be necessary ; it is not dismantling the deep shelters remaining and is rebuilding the nucleus of a civil defence force because it fears they may be needed. But to prepare a defence for the worst kind of warfare this country might experience would be enormously costly, would be liable to panic the population and might be out- dated by the time a war came. Therefore we are apparently pre- paring our plans more or less on the lines at which the end of the war left them, with an increased emphasis on mobility, local unity of command, and military co-operation, necessitated by the increased destructive power of modern missiles. This is at best a slow, scrappy, hand-to-mouth way of proceeding, but the civil population is probably unprepared for anything more thoroughgoing.
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