AIR RAIDS AND THE PUBLIC
By A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
WHILE the Home Secretary and the local authorities are still arguing about who shall pay the cost of anti- air-raid measures the common citizen is forgetting what he was told a year or eighteen months ego, and in most cases today has no more than the 'vaguest idea of what is expected of him, both as an individual and as a member of a community in which a certain measure of common action is needed. Actually a good deal has been done officially, though London is far behind such capitals as Paris or Berlin, and many provincial cities in this country are behind London.
What in fact has been done, and what still remains to be done, in regard respectively to central, local and individual 'action ? The Air Raid Precautions Department of the Home Office which was set up in 1935 is the central organisation or executive. Under its control is the Government gas-mask factory at Blackburn, opened in January of this year, where are assembled the constituent parts of the gas masks, the manufacture of which has been contracted out to a number of firms throughout the country. Half a million are being turned out each week. Thirteen regional gas-mask stores, each holding 13,000,000 gas masks, have been created at convenient, places for easy distribution, i.e., London (3) Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Cambridge, &c. These stores are at the moment in process of being filled. In any given local area there will be a number of main depots, supplied from the regional store, and, subsistent upon each of these will be half a dozen local distributing centres holding each some 6,000 masks, from which the individual citizen will be supplied. So far about five regional stores have been filled, but distribution to the individual will anyhow not take place until an emergency has definitely arisen. Under the auspices of the department a special fire-fighting service is being organised, for which it is hoped to obtain a voluntary auxiliary of 200,000 men. A new type of fire engine has been designed by the Department and its trials have apparently proved most successful. It is much more mobile than the present red engines, capable of being placed on a lorry or a barge and of turning around in narrow streets. It possesses a greater pumping velocity—more than t,000 gallons a minute—and, if mass produced, will cost but half that of the present ones. The cost of this service—it will be substantial—is to be borne by the Government.
The A.R.P. Department acts as a research institute and clearing-house for all information on the problem. It has issued a number of pamphlets, all of which may be pur- chased by the public, summarising information obtained on the various aspects of the question and recommending to local authorities methods of organising local schemes. " First Aid for Gas Casualties," " Decontamination of Materials," " Organisation of Air Raid Casualties Service," and " Air Raid Wardens " are the titles of some of these. " A Householders Handbook." is also under-preparation. For ,obvious reasons it falls to local authorities to act as agents for the Government in preparing and undertaking the organisation of schemes for the protection of the civil population against air attack. All local authorities, with the exception of Barnsley, are willing to undertake this, but they are not, on the other hand, prepared to undertake any of the cost. The Government has recently offered to contribute 90 percent. of the expenses incurred by local authorities, but it is still uncertain whether this arrangement will be accepted. It should be remembered that the work of local authorities on air-raid precautions is entirely volun- tary. It is indeed uncertain to what extent they are legally capable of undertaking such work at all. The Government, however, is shortly to introduce a Bill into Parliament to define the powers of the local authorities and to give effect to the financial arrangements which may be agreed upon.
Local authorities are charged with the responsibility of recruiting, training and organising volunteeri for the posts of air-raid wardens. These wardens, who should play an important part in time of air raids, will be required to have a general knowledge of the local air-raid precautitins organisa- tion—the localities of the gas-mask distributing centre and casualty stations, &c.—and a knowledge of anti-gas pre- cautions, and should be of a responsible character, capable of leadership and over thirty years of age. Their functions will be allied to those of the police—generally, though not necessarily they will be organised under police control— and certain simple powers (not that of arrest) will be vested in them. They should be capable of rendering general assistance to the bewildered citizen in the certain confusion of an air raid, and of allaying the spread of panic by their example of coolness and control. In any residential area wardens' posts should be allotted approximately on the basis of one per 5oo inhabitants, and a minimum of two wardens to each post. So far as possible wardens will be allocated to posts near their own homes or place of work. Theirs will be responsible and important yet fairly simple work and volunteers are urgently needed. Many cities already have substantial numbers of wardens already trained ; for instance, Glasgow has 7,000, Caterham 1,500 and Liverpool 3,500, but against this it is reported that Man- chester has only Soo, whereas it probably requires nearer 5,000.
Individual instruction in air-raid precautions is also carried out at the Government Anti-Gas School at Falfield, Glouces- tershire. A second school is to be opened at the end of the year near York. The function of the school is to train instructors—generally police, firemen and public utility and first aid personnel—who will return to their own districts and instruct their colleagues and, if necessary, the public in general. The course takes twelve days and covers the whole range of anti-gas precautions. In addition, sixteen qualified medical practitioners have been appointed by the Secretary of State and trained at the school in order to instruct the medical profession in anti-gas treatment. So many have already profited from the training of this school that it was claimed in Manchester a few days ago that every serving police- man and fireman had now completed his course of training.
Local authorities also arrange for lecturers on anti-gas training to be available for the public. The work of the local authorities has not, however, progressed very far yet, nor will it until the financial difficulties have definitely been resolved. However, before anti-gas training can be provided on a national scale and each individual citizen informed of the measures he should take in the event of air attack, the local authorities must first themselves become fully acquainted with air-raid precautions and have their own local schemes properly organised. It is to be hoped that this work will make more substantial progress when the projected Bill is through Parliament. So far much too little has been done. At the moment the ordinary householder is most closely approached by the useful anti-gas and air-raid precautions demonstrations which are being organised with the assistance of the A.R.P. Department all over the country. Here he is able to learn the first elements of air-raid precautions, to try on a gas mask and to become confident of its efficacy and to witness the effect of incendiary bombs and the methods of mitigating their effect. A fleet of forty gas vans have been provided by the Home Office, which are stationed at towns all over the country, and in which practical experience in the wearing of gas masks can be obtained.
The possibility of personally being involved in an air raid is so appalling that most people will prefer not to contemplate it—to put the whole subject from their minds. But while this possibility even remotely exists—and who with certainty can deny that today it does exist ?—that Government would be seriously neglecting its responsibilities which failed to provide its citizens with the necessary precautions against aerial attack.
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