The New Anti-Fire Code
The great fires which the Germans caused in the City of London on the night of Sunday, December 29th, made White- hall abruptly aware of the gaps in our preparation against this particular danger. Within forty-eight hours Mr. Morrison was broadcasting a whole new code of duties for the owners and occupants of houses, shops, warehouses, offices and other build- ings; with a new sort of personal conscription held in reserve behind it. While the principle of the new crusade deserves cordial support, it is difficult not to regard many of its details as imperfectly thought-out. Take two points only. What is needed to protect areas like the City of London is that in every building there should be somebody who will spend the night awake and dressed, and ready to go on the roof or the upper floors and extinguish fire-bombs. But Mr. Morrison appears to enjoin something like that for the whole of the country, or, at any rate, of London and other large towns. That would require a personnel far too large to be forthcoming; and the first step towards getting any solution into practice is to scale it down to what is practicable. Again, it is urged that all rooms in all premises shall be made easy of access from outside at night. Excellent, on one condition—that there were no burglars. Is there not at this stage much to be said for interning (not imprisoning) all known ex-burglars and ex- housebreakers for the duration? They are far more dangerous than most interned aliens, and far less numerous. There is little risk of being hard on first offenders. Burglary is never a first offence, and housebreaking scarcely ever. Both are the practices of inured criminals.
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