§ 34. Mr. Martinasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is now in a position to provide the honourable Member for Southwark, Central, with the information promised to him with regard to the detailed review of the damage to shelters?
§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Security (Miss Wilkinson)As promised in reply to the Question which my hon. Friend asked on 8th October, he has been furnished with such information as is available regarding damage to shelters in London. As has been explained to him, it is not in the public interest that these details should be published at present.
35. Miss Cazaletasked the Home Secretary whether he will see that wherever possible electric heating is installed in all brick surface shelters?
§ Miss WilkinsonInvestigations into the possibilities of heating surface shelters are very actively in progress. These investigations include heating by electricity.
Miss CazaletIs the hon. Lady aware of the great urgency of this question and that thousands of these surface shelters will remain empty during the winter unless some form of heating is installed?
§ Miss WilkinsonWe are taking very active steps in this matter and are very actively concerned with it.
§ Commander Sir Archibald SouthbyDoes the hon. Lady realise that people much prefer deep shelters to brick surface shelters?
36. Miss Cazaletasked the Home Secretary whether he will arrange for the daily inspection of all surface shelters by responsible women supervisors to ensure their complete cleanliness?
§ Miss WilkinsonThe body responsible for the cleaning of public surface shelters is the borough council, and the necessary arrangements as to supervision are made by their usual staff. In the case of brick shelters allocated to individual families, it is expected that responsible women of these families will keep their own shelters clean.
Miss CazaletWill the hon. Lady personally look into this matter a little further and see whether these shelters are being kept in the state in which they should be kept?
§ Miss WilkinsonI have visited a large number of shelters—
§ Miss Wilkinson—every night during the past few weeks. At the moment this is five-sixths of my job. I am aware of the difficulties, but I am surprised how well many women are keeping the shelters.
§ Mr. BrookeIs the hon. Lady not aware that the real problem is to bring the standards of the less good local authorities up to the standards of the best?
39. Mr. Davidsonasked the Home Secretary whether the strutted close-mouth type of air-raid shelter in Glasgow is considered by his Department as a temporary expedient; and, if so, what alternative type of shelter is contemplated?
§ Miss WilkinsonThe use of strutted closes was, and is, considered by our expert advisers to be the best practical means of providing shelter affording approximately standard protection in considerable parts of Glasgow and other Scottish towns.
Mr. DavidsonIs the hon. Lady aware that in tenements in provincial cities those close-mouth shelters are completely open, that the rain blows right through them, and that one simply cannot get the people in the provinces to utilise such places as shelters; and is she further aware that the use of them would cause more sickness and illness among the people than the German bombs would cause casualties?
§ Miss WilkinsonWe have not had a large number of complaints from Scotland, but as my hon. Friend has brought the matter to my notice, I will bring it to the notice of the Regional Commissioner.
Mr. DavidsonWill the hon. Lady ask her right hon. Friend to try to spare someone from the Home Office to take an interest in the provincial shelters?
§ Miss WilkinsonMy right hon. Friend has just returned from an extensive tour of the provinces.
§ Mr. McGovernIs my hon. Friend aware that the strutted close-mouth shelters, in the event of bombing in Glasgow, would be a complete death trap and that it is an illusion to assume, with the experience in London, that there would be anything of a protective nature in them for the inhabitants of Glasgow?
§ Miss WilkinsonI am not making this statement on the basis of experience in London, but as a result of the advice of expert advisers in Scotland, to whom I would gladly introduce the hon. Member.
§ Mr. McGovernIs the hon. Lady aware that I have knowledge of the buildings and know what I am talking about?