§ Mr. Wallaceasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can now make a statement with regard to the restoration of the air-raid warning system.
§ Mr. de FreitasThe Home Office, working in close collaboration with the other Departments concerned, has made considerable progress in the study of this problem. A start has been made with the recruitment of volunteers as warning officers and with the restoration of the net-work of communications. Experiments are being carried out on our behalf by the General Post Office in new methods of communication. If these are successful, the distribution of messages should be speeded up and, at the same time, manpower should be saved.
A preliminary census of sirens remaining from World War II was made last
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§ Mr. EdeThe increase is due to further recruitment to meet the serious deficiency in the staffs of the prisons and Borstals which has persisted since the end of the war. There has been a rise in the prison population from less than 11,000 to over 21,000.