LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must be accompanied by the name and address of the author, which will be treated as confidential.—Ed. THE SPECTATOR] A.R.P.
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]
Sut,—In a public park in a large industrial city of the Midlands there is a Government A.R.P. steel shelter.
The lower part of this shelter, which is sunk barely a couple of feet (though it stands upon high and dry ground) is banked up with a few very sparing shovelfuls of earth. The upper part of it is uncovered and the gaping entrance is completely unprotected. For several weeks it has proved a great attrac- tion to children, but as an A.R.P. shelter it is both ludicrous and dangerous—dangerous because it is a misleading example which would prove a death-trap in certain circumstances ; yet it is only one of many ludicrous A.R.P. measures which I have noticed since returning from Spain, where, in the course of a year, I personally experienced more than 200 air-raids.
If this shelter was erected under the supervision of a quali- fied warden or Government expert, what must we think of the wardens and experts who are responsible for A.R.P.? If it was NOT erected under official supervision, then why not?
I do not propose to add to the volume of destructive criti- cism of the Government's A.R.P. policy (or lack of it) which there has been, but I would say that I have not yet met any- body with experience of air-raids in Spain who is satisfied—I do not refer to those " experts " who paid very fleeting visits to Spain and returned with a wealth of unassimilated data and conflicting opinions, but to those to whom A.R.P. became second nature through repeated practical experience of "the real thing." They find that some of the lessons they learnt in Spain are ignored over here.
There are quite a few Englishmen with considerable experi-
ence of air-raids in Spain—among them officers and men of the International Brigade (not all of whom are "dangerous anarchists "), journalists (though one knows that in official circles they are classed with hawkers and circulars), and at least one retired British Regular officer with many years' mili- tary service behind him. Their services as regional con- sultants for the erection of A.R.P. shelters should be valuable ; but they are ignored by the central authorities—or referred to their local A.R.P. Committees, where they meet inexperienced wardens who are too jealous of their new dignities and pet theories to listen to outsiders with mere practical experience. Why are they ignored? Is it that prejudice has gone so far that the Home Office officials, bemused by propaganda put out (to quote the National Review) "for the benefit of mugs here and elsewhere," believe that nobody could learn anything by association with "those Reds," or is it now thought that a deal of theory is better than experience?
The report (many months overdue) of the Lord Privy Seal's Conference on air-raid shelters sets forth various wise 'con- clusions, but these had been reached nearly a year ago by those with experience in Spain. It is satisfactory that the report emphasises the need for dispersed shelters and brings out the important fact that the problem of A.R.P. varies with each district, town, or even street—for generalisations are dan- gerous. But all this is theory, however sound. There is no more time to be lost in the clouds of theory. The varied problems of A.R.P. must be tackled on the spot, under the supervision of those who have developed an "air-raid sense" and an "eye for ground" in that sense.
And is it not time that the apathy engendered by the slip- shod methods of the central A.R.P. authorities should give way before a realisation, thrust home by propaganda with a punch in it, that if those engaged in vital industries are adequately protected and know that their families are pro- tected too, an enemy will find much less purpose in bombing us? With so many unemployed in the country there is no shortage of labour for the construction of A.R.P. shelters, upon which the lives of thousands may shortly depend.-1 am, Sir, (lately Reuter's chief correspondent with
the Republican forces in Spain). • Royal Societies Club, 63 St. lames's Street, S.W. 1.
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