Hong Kong Builder
life. We have an obligation to consider and to prepare national schemes of some kind which will enable at least a nucleus of civilisation to be preserved in the event of a general breakdown. Is it too fantastic to suggest that we should create special shelter cities, either adjacent to existing cities, or situated in different parts of the country, so that the inhabitants of our open and exposed towns could be drained into those protected spots during the air raids which could only have as their objective the shattering of all social organisation, until countries are morally cowed and physically incapable of resistance.
No plans appear to have been made for such places; and the book issued by the Cambridge Scientists' Anti- War Group is concerned with showing that attempts to make existing houses gas-proof and bomb-proof would be difficult, if not impossible. If the architectural profession and the building industry were given the problem of designing and carrying out these shelter cities, then the best brains and latest methods in the country would be employed in what could be described
defence. the most unprovocative form of
The provision of such cities would be a definite part of our re-armament programme; sums should be allocated for this great work of building. It would vastly reduce
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grim probability that it is surprising to have seen no reference whatever to it in the recent discussions about the defence of our land. I am referring to "displace- ment of population.' This phrase was used by Cecily Hamilton in a book that was published early in the nineteen-twenties, called "Theodore Savage." The book was re-issued a few years later, under the title of "Lest Ye Die." It was a depressing book, convincingly written, difficult to forget. It described (as many other fantastic novels have described) the breakdown of civilisation after a large-scale modern war. Actually, the population of this country, after the war described in the book, was worse off than their remote, Neolithic ancestors. Devastation was produced by "displacement of population." Cities were made uninhabitable by gas and fire. Simultaneous air raids were carried out on various cities, and the escaping population, streaming over roads and fields and lanes, was directed by special air attack, so that the fugitives met at certain points, and fought and trampled each other to death in their panic. It was a horrible book; extremely likely. Scare- mongering, of course; but how close we have got to it.
What is there against shelter cities?
(1) They would cost immense sums of money.
unemployment. It would be a logical accompaniment to our increasing powers of attack in the air, on the sea, and on land.
The whole of the re-armament programme appears to be devoted to giving us weapons; but nothing more than weapons.
Modern weapons cannot be used with- out direction; the smashing of military headquarters; the wrecking of large cities; the overrunning of the country by suffering, injured, and terrified people would so embarrass any Government in the conduct of a defensive war
(because it is unthinkable that this country would ever indulge in anything but a purely defensive war), that it would be impossible to conduct a defence for long. It is silly to make confident assertions about the character of the next war; but it is certain to be quite unlike anything that professional soldiers and sailors foresee; also it is unlikely to resemble any of the forecasts made by specialists in fantasy. Only one writer since the War has indicated the growth of a new military weapon which has, in the light of recent developments, such an element of