ARP Bombed

Mass bombing, probably by night, is a spectre that has overhung Great Britain for ten solid weeks. Every Briton has spotted the hole that he will go to when it comes. Every one supposes that, with all the time there has been to make ready, Air Raid Precautions will save the civilian population from such horrors as were seen in Barcelona and Madrid.

Yet last week--of all weeks--with every one expecting Adolf Hitler's death rain to begin momentarily, perhaps from closer bases in The Netherlands, out spoke six-foot Professor John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, one of Britain's most outspoken and respected scientists. He saw Madrid and Barcelona bombed. Predicting indiscriminate bombing if and when the bombers come, in London last week he said:

"About one-sixth of Barcelona's population had safe shelters and more than 50% had much better protection than anything that now exists in Britain.

"There is not a public bombproof shelter in London. A minimum of safety is provided by six feet of concrete covered with earth, yet the London public shelters have only about six inches of concrete. They would not protect against five-pound bombs, let alone 500-pounders.

"There won't be any adequate shelters provided until there is a change of policy after the first raid. Probably there will be 500 or more dead. That would be nothing in an indiscriminate bombing of 5,000,000 persons."

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