CO129-580-9 Air Raid precautions- supply of equipment 14-2-1939 - 24-11-1939 — Page 41

6.

is justified in accepting the risk of spreading this

item of expenditure over two years. I shall be most

grateful for your advice on this point.

11.

41

Very slight provision has been made for

protective clothing for the Essential Services. Taking into combined consideration the presumed improbability

of mustard gas attacks, the probable short life of such

material, the fact that even a physically fit man cannot

endure such clothing for more than half an hour in this

climate, and the high cost entailed I am of the opinion

that the most that should be done is to equip and train

a few small mobile bodies of men for decontamination

work and that no attempt should be made so to clothe

all the personnel of the Essential Services.

12.

You will also observe that there is no

provision for respirators for the general public. It

must, I fear, be taken as certain that it would not be

possible to train the great majority of the local urban

population in the use of these respirators. That

majority consists of deeply ignorant persons, is for the

most part of a fluctuating character and lives in densely

crowded slums. On the other hand there are large numbers

of European and Asiatic race who would be prepared to buy

respirators at cost price and I propose in due course to

make arrangements accordingly: this, however, should

cost the tax payer nothing as cost price will include

storage cost. I can see no other solution of this

problem of providing respirators for the general public:

if free distribution were to be undertaken it would be

necessary to provide for the whole population, a very

expensive operation and a waste of money so far as the

greater number are concerned: on the other hand I fail

to see how a line could be drawn between those to be

given respirators free of charge and those to be refused.

13.

There remains for consideration the

6