The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-04-09
CIVILIANS TO BE
 WAR TARGETS
(Continued from Page D

tribution to the Reich Air Protection league.
 1 Every owner of a house in London is urged by the government to dig a trench in his back yard where the family can crouch and avoid flying fragments during the next air raid Gas Masks $3.50
 Gas masks now sell for as little as $350 in Rome.
 And so it goes in every nation, Fear of death from the air covers Europe like blight. Every man knows that within 24 hours after war is declared his home and his family may be under an attack as deadly as that being rained on front line troops.
 The average European living in a large city must be prepared when war comes to leave his home, aban- don his possessions and go on an hours notice to some distant village. Decentralization of populations dur ing air-raids figures in the defense plans of almost every nation. France is widening and improving the high ways that lead from the gates of Paris.
 The English, crowded together on a small island and remembering how the zeppelins came over in the World War, have made the most elaborate anti-air raid preparations. All of mans ingenuity has failed to improve upon the ancient caves in the seaside cliffs as 8 protection against enemy aircraft and that is where the residents of Brighton, Margate, Dover and Southend are planning to go when the sirens scream.
 London Is Vulnerable
 London, most vulnerable air tar get of all the great cities, is busy preparing her defenses. The gov- ernment is trying to enroll 100000 persons in the lair raid precautions" organization. From them will be chosen air raid wardens, each of whom will be responsible for sev- eral hundred families. The wardens must see that every person has 8 gas mask that fits-masks are made in several sizes to fit children as young as two years. Babies will be placed in bags out of which will lead tubes attached to pumps. Mothers, wear ing their own masks, will sit beside the bags and pump air through fllt- CTS and into their children'S lungs. The home office announced the other day that Great Britain now has 30,000,000 gas masks in storage and eventually will have 50,000, ,000.
 Almost every nation has some sort of organization to protect non-com- batants. In Poland 1t is called the 'Lopp," which was formed three years ago and now has 3,500,000 members. 'Lopp" has an official in almost every household in Poland, who is responsible for the construc- tion of a bomb shelter and for in- structing the members of the house. hold in the use of gas masks.
 Berlin Problem Acute
 Berlin's problem is acute because 1t would be impossible to shelter civilians in the subway system dur ing an air raid. Subways there are too close to the surface to provide adequate protection. Last Septem- Der Germany had a dress re- hearsap for an air raid. Sirens shrieked, lights were darkened and grim-faced men in overalls moved through the streets clearing away debris and extinguishing fires, real and imaginary. Imaginary dead and wounded were carried away and any person who refused to join in the game was threatened with fine or imprisonment. The Germans took it seriously because they know an air attack would be a serious thing in a nation where 65 per cent of the population lives in large cities.
 Italy, committed to the theory that the best defense against air raids is a strong offensive by Italian planes, has installed anti-aerial sounding equipment which would warn Mussolini's air force that the enemy was on the wing and from which direction it was coming.
 Even Holland, which escaped un- scathed in the World War, has sent out instructions on how and when to darken cities and the government has placed orders for enough gas masks to outfit every person in the ne {v,A 1nL