WAR DAY BY DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1940, Page 6

WAR DAY BY DAY

(By Our Special Observer.)

comment on the news AIR RAID PRECAUTIONS

government vindicated

When it became known thnt no argument would count with the Government of Hitler but that of force, three letters in a short time became familiar to the inhabitants of Britain. They were A.R.P., and summarised briefly an organisation that stood for air raid precautions. Fiddled with in 1937, the real task of preparing for a grim ordeal began in earnc ;t when the country was faced with the prospect of war in September, 1938. Serious attention was paid to the matter of air raid shelters. Persons with an income of less than £250 a year were provided with a small steel shelter at no cost to themselves. No fewer than 4,000,000 of these "Anderson" shelters were distributed. The Civil Defence Act of July, 1939, made it compulsory for all firms employing more than 50' persons to provide shelters for their employees. Certain municipalities followed a plan of building deep concrete shelters designed to hold thousands of persons, but governmental advisers opposed this plan, partly because of the danger of large numbers of people assembling at one spot and then hurrying together into shelter. The Government granted substantial financial assistance to builders of shelters following its consistent policy of preferring dispersion to concentration. Government Experts Vindicated The tragic happening in an East London shelter in- which 1000 people were taking refuge emphasises the soundness of the views of the Government experts. They were said to Have based their ideas on experiences gained at Barcelona. It is true that a bomb failing down a ventilator shaft was a fortuitous happening, and that only 14 people were killed was under the circumstances nothing but a blessing, but the effect of the tragedy upon the people who escaped death can he better imagined than described. What would tend to intensify the agonising scenes is that a large proportion of London 's huge foreign population is crowded in the East End of London. Anybody who yritnessed the terror of these people during the comparatively innocuous Zeppelin and Gotha raids of the last war will have memories that he would prefer ndt to revive and apply to such a happening as that of a bomb failing in an air raid shelter. Long Vigil of Preparedness. For the first nine months of the war the personnel of the A.R.P. organisations, who were all prepared for immediate action at the outbreak of hostilities, found themselves fighting a battle against boredom and ennui. But this past weekend has demonstrated the value of their training and the worth of their long vigil of ceaseless preparedness. Fire-fighters, demolition gangs, maintainers of essential services, medical and nursing sections, all worked as they had been always ready to work, and often under conditions of extreme hazard. Total war found a condition of total defence ready to cope with it, and the result of the broadcast incendiary bombs has resulted not in another "Great Fire of London," but in, as an American eyewitness has described it, as "a bad shaving cut on the face of a city the size of London." M. Mandel's Arrest. The arrest of M. Georges' Mandel, foimer French Minister of the Interior, draws attention to not only a most interesting figure in the political life of the Republic, but also to the web of tortuous intrigue that wili be disclosed when the full story of the happenings before the- capitulation of the Bordeaux Government is given to the world. M. Mandel, who was born a Rothschild but changed his name for political purposes, was the leader of one of the small parties in the French Chamber of Deputies. Although he had the support of but 11 members, M. Mandel's influence was very great. He had been secretary to the indomitable Georges Clemenceau during the last war and was said to have something of the "Tiger's" uniquely virile personality. M. Mandel had preferred to use his influence' from outside the French Cabinet until he was induced to join M. Daladier's Government on the fall of the. Blum Government in 1938. From then on, such was the extraordinary state of "unity" in th'e Cabinet, M. Mandel and M. Reynaud worked and often rebelled against the foreign policy 1 0f the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Bonnet. Both were "anti-Munich" and both were thoroughly distrustful— as events have proved they had good reason t0 be— of the Bonnet-Ribbentrop manoeuvres. When Bonnet received Ribbentrop at the time of the FrancoGerman agreement in December, 1938, such was the French Foreigri Minister's regard for his German counterpart s susceptibilities that "non-Aryan" M. Mandel— a fellow Cabinet Minister-was not invited to the reception. Disraeli of France. Whatever sadistic revenge the Lyons Government may take against the man who was once described as the Disraeli of France, nothing can detract from the fact that M. Mandel was implacable in his assertions that France was not conquered and must not break her pledged word. M. Reynaud, it is believed, held this view, but by plain lying and trickery was induced to hand over to Petain on the understanding that a dishonourable armistice would not be accepted, and that there was every intention of moving the Government of Petain to Africa. M. Mandel, the Minister of the Interior, did not trust Pierre Laval and refused to leave him behind at Paris to meet the Germans. Some stories are that he arrested Laval, but soon after Petain assumed office the tables were turned and for a time M. Mandel himself was placed under arrest. His release was ordered by the poor aged Marshal, who patently was not awake to a tithe of what was going on under the cloak of his formerly illustrious name. If any one man could have^ gathered together the shreds of the fighting forces of France M. Mandel could have done had he been given the opportunity. But care was taken that he was not given such a chance. The mission of Mr. Alexander, the First Lord of the Admiraity, and Lord Lloyd, the Colonial Secretary, to France was for 'the purpose of making contact With M. Mandel, but they had to be satisfied with the assurances of M. Baudouin, which proved to be worthless before the British Ministers had reached London on their return journey. M. Mandel's fate will be watched with anxious eyes by those aware of his great services to the Allied cause, who wisn well of one French Minister of ability and integrity.