The ARP. staff had been more han doubled during the last few months The Government had taken delivery >t 50,000,000 civilian respirators, and containers, and also of 127,000,000 sandbags, made under arrangements in Dundee for the delivery of between 2,000,000 and 4,000,000 sandbags per week, An order had been placed in India for a further 200,000,000 sandbags, and these had been promised within the next few months.
On order were 1,400,000 special devices for the protection of babies, and almost a similar number of respirators for young children. Deliveries of these would be completed within the next few months.
Dealing with a scheme for regional organizations in various parts of the country, Sir John said that nothing sinister lay in the scheme, which was designed simply to guard against the contingency of communications being interrupted by war operations. London presented special civilian defence problems, but the readjustment of the functions between the metropolitan boroughs" and the London County Council had been achieved, and was making for efficiency in the work of rescue and demolition, London, Mar. 2.
The new air estimates published here today show a gross total of £220,626,700 as against £194,409,000 for 1938.
The net amount is £66,561,000 (a decrease of £6,940,000) and is reached after taking into account—the issues to be made from the Defence Loans as appropriations - in - aid, namely, £242,000,000.
Sir Kingsley Wood, Secretary of State for Air, in a memorandum acconipanying the estimates, explains that excluding loan elements, the resulting figure is £205,951,00C, or an increase of over 50 per cent. on the corresponding figure for 1938, when, account is taken of supplementary estimates.
The estimates provide for a subsidy of £2,000,000 for external air services in connection with civil aviation.
Air force personnel is estimated at 118,000 men, or an increase of 22,000 as compared with 1938.
The main items of expenditure are:
199—193 (In £1,000)
Technical stores £124,000 £78,000 15,750 11,760 Fleet Air Arm. 8,000
Sir Kingsley Wood says that by the end of the financial year of 1938, the first line strength of the Royal Air Force at Home will have been expanded to 1,750 aircraft.
Additional plans, he adds, have been laid, which will form the basis for further measures of acceleration and expansion.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.