NOTES AND COMMENTS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 260, 1 August 1942, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

It would appear from recent discussions on the subject of city firewatching that one of the principal, basic difficulties is individual apathy fostered by inaction while on duty. Those who begin fire-watching with a full sense of responsibility, and in many cases with real eagerness and enthusiasm, are apt to slack after they become familiar with what is in so many cases a dull routine. Such slackness spreads fast and can lead to the sort of general inefficiency of which a percentage of city groups stand accused by the Fire Protection Organizer. Yet there are many useful, and even essential, branches of E.P.S. training in which fire-watchers as a group remain in ignorance. Portion of their time on duty might well be devoted to training and/or .study in "blitz aid." first aid. .fire-fighting and methods of emergency communication. Not only would this make foi greater individual efficiency ami versatility (tlie latter a major need in E.P.S. service today) but it might well introduce a new interest and spirit into the fire-watching service.

It may seem like stretching tilings too far to suggest a link lietween the advocacy of dried meat and vegetables and the construction of 80don aircraft, but they are connected. The largest, and also the fastest, shipbuilder in the United States, the man who has created records in the construction of merchant vessels, is the earnest advocate of plans to change the shipyards over to the construction of giant aircraft for the carriage of food and other essential supplies overseas. It has been realized that the nutritional value rather than the actual quantity of the supplies is what really matters most. Recently. for example, an American vessel landed at a British port a cargo specially selected for its concentrated nutritional value The quantity of meat that any aircraft could deliver would be comparatively small, but what it could carry in the form of dried meat would not be negligible. Similarly witli dried vegetables, and dried fiuit, the deliveries would be of immense importance. The process ol concentrating food is already being adopted on a vast scale. It has been reportec that this year the American output of canned meat will show an increase of 54 per cent, on the total of last year. Tinned fish will be increased by 29 per cent, and tinned milk by 27 per cent. The Department of Agriculture at Washington is conducting a drive for canned tomatoes, peas, beans and corn, and if tin supplies are insufficient then glass containers are to be used. The practice of carrying bones in meat is opposed, and apparently the water content of foods is also to be dealt with. Food in a concentlated, and yet nourishing.and attractive form, is to be the order of the day, thus relieving the demand for shipping and possibly introducing the transpceanjc..freigh air service.