Hong Kong Builder
51
if war came, that for a time mankind would have to adapt itself temporarily to a different form of life; but these cities, lying beneath their thick domes of concrete, would preserve civilisation, and would keep the fabric of society unshattered, and enable life to be carried on until all men realised that almost any solution of a problem was better than war.
Millions would be needed; but would any price be too high for preserving something which cannot be bought, which can only be grown gradually, century by century Civilisation?
Would the presence of these vast, concrete domes in the countryside ruin England? If they were left as
plain surfaces rising like smooth chalk mounds from the level of the fields and woodlands, they would still be less offensive than the squalor that accompanies industry and the muddle that follows residential develop- ment. But they need not be left bare. They could be covered with a thickness of good earth on which corps could be grown, hedges and trees planted, and the tons
of soil taken from the initial excavation could be partly
distributed in this way.
Is this a dream? I prefer it to the nightmare alternatve-gas-soaked cities and "displacement of popu-
lation."
-"Building"
Aerial photograph of Canton with Shameen in the middle foreground. Taken at a low altitude, this photograph illustrates the extreme difficulty hostile aircraft would have in picking out objectives while travelling at a high altitude and at a high speed.