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Hong Kong Builder
THE FUNK-HOLE AGE
by John Gloag.
All photographs used in this article are actual views taken in Canton recently.
HON-MILITARY AREAS BOMBED IN THE CITY OF CANTON
by ten parted tanai. May 28th to June 16th. 525 bombs were dropped on residential and business stens, killing tờu an
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PEARL RIVER
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What was described as scare-mongering five years ago has now become bitter reality. We are all apprehen- -sive spectators of the new armaments race. Seventeen years of lost opportunity have taken us back to 1914, but with this one hopeful difference: few people thought war was possible in 1914. Now, everybody is asking about it, fearing it, taking precautions about protecting themselves from its most terrible features, and the world is all of a twitter, and nobody has any nonsensical illusions about military glory, victory, and all that. But there is one big problem. How is civilisation to be saved if there is another war which involves all Europe?
How are the inhabitants of cities to be protected? London is a fine target from the air, and it is not con- vincing to be told by some experts that it is very difficult for individual objectives to be hit by bombs dropped from a height. A few aeroplanes unloading an assortment of thermite bombs and a sprinkling of mustard gas over the London area could make an unholy mess of things in a very short time.
Now this country is concerned, and other countries too, with protection from air attacks. A body calling themselves the Cambridge Scientists' Anti-War Group has produced an interesting little book, entitled "The Protection of the Public from Aerial Attack." A most impressive collection of names is included in their
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F.R.C.P.'s,
editorial committee: M.A.'s, B.Sc.'s, M.B.'s, F.R.S.'s-BUT, NOT ONE ARCHITECT. I have been reading this book; everybody should. The results of various experiments described therein are instructive as well as alarming. But there is a missing section: by ignoring the existence of the architect, the editors have weakened their work by an omission which nobody interested in protection from air attack can afford to make. Architects could have indicated building methods which would secure some measure of protection.
A few years ago the speculative builder was waking up to the possibilities of the next war; and was exploit- ing a new selling point-namely, concrete bomb-proof dug-outs in gardens. Some years ago, I suggested the use of natural shelters such as the Chislehurst Caves for housing people during air raids. In those days such statements were still classified as scare- mongering. But we have now to look with courage and commonsense at the dark facts confronting us. We are entering upon a new age of architecture: future civilisations may call it the Funk-Hole Age. It may be the prelude to another Dark Age in which our children and grand-children and great-grand-children will live amid ruins, and will be compelled to endure a world shortage, not only of comfort, culture, and every civilised convenience, but a shortage of the bare necessities of
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