SHELTER COMFORT

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1940, Page 8

SHELTER COMFORT

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright

hgmes beneath ground LONDONEBS GOING BELOW

'Rec. 6.30 p.m. London, Sept. 28. The Minister of Horae Security, Sir John Anderson, to-day announced a regulation empowering local authorities to order the opening of any premises by day or night for public use as a shelter. Several London authorities signed the regulation in advance for the purpose of implementing it without delay. London boroughs similarly are expeditiously installing shelter bunks. Some shelters are being divided into compartments, providing family underground homes with double-decker bunks. Sir John Anderson announced he would retain the Lord Horder committee to give advice regarding shelter and health problems. A member of the_ committee, Mrs. Creswick Atkinson, said the division of shelters into compartments was most important, particularly for children, to prevent the risk of infection which would be bound to be prevalent in the larger shelters. m A demonstration of "shelter comfort was given at Stoke Newington, where Mrs. Atkinson showed how public shelters, many of which are divided into four 12 feet compartments, can be fitted with two tiers of wooden bunks and made mto a comfortable, self -contained, family sleeping space. Confining each compartment to two tiers, only enough space is obtained to allow a family of at least four sufficient room to sit and sleep m comfort. It is suggested that keys be civen to residents of houses nearby. ° Heating of shelters is being carefully considered, but in this regard the fact that there is already inadequate ventilation is a serious difficulty. The Under-Secretary for Food, Mr. R. J. Boothby, to-day made a _ two-hour dawn pilgrimage of shelters, investigating the need for emergency feeding, and to -night the Minister for Food, Lord Woolton, told local authorities they should arrange for adequate feeding "m the event of disasters such as are being inflicted on London."