A certain number of critics, he had noticed, were declaring very vigorous-y that since the steel shelter which'
were providing at a cost of 4000. did not give protection a direct hit, they should be ed and that, instead, they should provide shelters so deep underground that they would not be affected: by any bomb; but a moment's refection would show it was not so simple as that. They must consider whether it was possible to get into such a deep shelter without a panic rush. A direct hit on the entrance would result in heavy casualties.
The Government, the Prime Minister continued, had come to. no final [conclusion yet on these deep bombproof shelters, but, in the meantime, surely it might get on with splinterproof shelters, which were close at hand, which could quickly be made, and from which it was easy to escape when raids were over.
Mr. Chamberlain thanked the patriotic men and women who had already come forward to participate in the Volunteer National Service. They were, he said, helping the country in three ways by showing the world that we here can count upon voluntary service to make compulsion unnecessary; by inspiring the people with confidence that, if trouble came, we should know how to meet it; and by actually helping to prevent war, because the better prepared we are, the less likely is it that anyone will ever attack us."
There were, however, still gaps to fill, and he would like to make a fresh appeal for more volunteers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.