Th io the respite from attack from the air which we have so far enjoyed, our defences have been consolidated and our great cities, towns and industrial centres should have a system of civil defence which is likely to prove fully effective. When I say effective, I mean effective, provided every individual plays his part promptly and intelligently when the air-raid warning is given and we hear the sirens wail Civil Defence, or A.R.P, has come to stay, and when one considers the vast amount of capital and labour expended on it one is inclined to ask a few questions about this costly and not very glamorous business.
Long before this war the present Home Secretary, Sir John Anderson, was lecture ing to the Imperial defence, the war and staff colleges on A.R.P. Men with foresight, and women too, began to think of the future safety of England, and that means Britannia with all the 500,000,000 people who rely upon her shield. And so Cinderella, the new baby of National Defence, was born. Unlike the beautiful Cinderella of the fairy-tale, she was a very ugly and unwanted baby, and when her forebears tried to tell us Britons how welcome she should be in our defence household, many of us were not interested, and some of us even now seem doubtful how we should receive her.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.