More A.R.P. Delays The weakest element in Great Britain's war-footing,
the known Achilles heel which lowers her authority in peace and might entail her destruction if war came, is her vulner- ability to air attacks and her backwardness, indeed her almost total deficiency, in the main precautions for meeting them. Yet weeks and months pass with little progress. It was held up in 1937 for nearly a year by the Gilbertian squabble between the Treasury and the local authorities, as to which of them should pay. It is now being held up by an uncertainty almost more Gilbertian still, as to whether a householder or company, that has constructed an under- ground shelter, shall be compelled to pay additional rates and taxes on the value of the shelter. At the present moment the timely multiplication of such shelters by private enterprise at its own expense is a matter of clear and urgent public interest. Yet, as the law stands, we are going to penalise everyone who does it. The Treasury and other Departments are " considering " the matter. Unfortunately the present head of the Treasury, Sir John Simon, is the same Minister under whose regime of inaction at the Home Office the country drifted to the pass in which it finds itself today.
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