NIGHT SHELTERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 255, 25 September 1940, Page 7

NIGHT SHELTERS.

EXTENSION PROGRAMME,

(British Official "Wireless.) RUGBY, Sept. 23,

The indiscriminate bombing of r the London civilian population has raised in an acute form the problem of night shelters, and the Government’s policy on this question was referred to today by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Security (Mr W. Mabane). Mr Mabane said that the current programme of production of shelters was being accelerated, and there was no shortage of labour for rapid building. Other schemes which he outlined included a substantial increase in the shelters available for the whole of every day, and the opening of basements where these were strong enough, which would be applied to blocks oi flats that were unoccupied and possiblv also to occupied houses. Mr Mabane also said that shelters would be provided with bunks, double and triple banked, so that they could be used as dormitories. A million of these bunks would be made at once. Eirst-aid posts were being established in large shelters. - Speaking of tube stations, many or which have already been used by the public as night shelters, ■Mr Mabane said that this was now being regonised. and. arrangements were being made to provide supervision and adequate sanitary arrangements. . Plans are being considered foi building underground civil and. criminal courts in London, as the air-raid warnings have resulted in a great hold-up in the lists. Two of the four courts with glass roofs ivere promptly closed during the raids, and the Judges of the’Old Bailey, who are at present contending With one of the heaviest calendars for many, months,

have been slightly bewildered for several days. Upward of £IOO,OOO has already been distributed by the Lord Mayor’s London Air: Raid' Distress Fund. Another £75,000 was received' by Mansion, House yesterday, and the fund is now approaching £600,000. Among the latest gifts are £19,801 from the Mayor of Durban, South Africa,' £3OO from J. David Sassoon and Company, Bombay, and £IOOO from Lord Rothschild.