§ Sir AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN(by Private Notice) asked the Prime Minister whether he can make any further statement as to the steps which the Govern-men are taking to provide defence against aerial bombing?
§ The PRIME MINISTERHis Majesty's Government are not content to assume that there can be no protection against bombing except counter-bombing. As the House knows, a small Committee of very eminent scientific men was appointed some time ago by the Air Ministry and has already made concrete proposals for a promising line of research for which the necessary funds have been made available and preliminary experiments already started.
The Government have always recognised, however, that the inquiry requires the co-operation of all the defence departments and of civil departments and may necessitate at any moment the services of other public institutions. We have, therefore, decided to appoint also a special sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence through which the Air Ministry Committee will report to the Committee of Imperial Defence itself. This sub-committee will have the direction and control of the whole inquiry, and the necessary funds to carry out experiments and to make researches approved by this committee will be made available.