AIR RAID SHELTERS

Evening Star, Issue 23687, 21 September 1940, Page 12

AIR RAID SHELTERS

LONDON S IMMEDIATE PROBLEM USE OF TUBE STATIONS CAUSING DIFFICULTIES (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 19. The morning newspapers draw attention to the growing danger to the transport system by the increasing use of underground stations as shelters. The ‘Daily Telegraph’ says. “The congestion at stations is becoming serious. News that authorities are forbidding the use of underground platforms as shelters has caused a large increase in the nightly migration. Passengers are forced to struggle through lanes of recumbent forms. Hundreds take up positions about 5 p.m and some refugees enter stations at 3 p.m. every day.” The ‘ Daily Express ’ also appeals for “ reduced use of underground stations in order to enable workers to travel This is regarded as a hundredfold more important now that the siege is on. The people’s safety will mean nothing if the city’s work is allowed to slow down or falter. One solution would be to disperse children, the aged and infirm, and also everybody whose labour is not essential.” The Government also faces the problem of shelters in the poorer districts. Many women and children spend night in roofed trenches which are uncomfortable and insanitary and were constructed merely for protection against short raids. It is feared that winter nights in these shelters will result in influenza and pneumonia. It is pathetic to see people queueing up at the West End shelters, many being turned away. Surface shelters in the suburbs are frequently sparsely populated, most of the people believing that their homes are as good. The ‘ Daily Mail' says: “The 'demand for deep shelters must, and will, be met, but it becomes evident for a n umber of reasons that we are not going to have specially-built deep shelters. Sir John Andersou is requisitioning idle basement cellars on a large scale, thereby providing shelter for many thousands. Congestion at underground stations is liable to get out of hand, and it is hoped basements will provide room for all who are denied Ihe use of the underground railways.”