BRITISH INDUSTRY DEVELOPING OWN CIVIL DEFENCE PROGRAM

BRITISH INDUSTRY DEVELOPING OWN CIVIL DEFENCE PROGRAM

Big Firms Only are Included in Arrangements at Present

EVER since the British Government announced its plans for civil defence in the event of war, industrial and commercial interests upon whom depends the output of the materials required to meet aggression, have been bitterly critical of the lack of guidance as to what their contributions should be to the overall scheme. Because recruits for the local authority set-up in England, Scotland and Wales have not been coming forward (only 137,396 men and women have joined the Civil Defense Corps since November 15, 1949), the Government have been loath to announce an industrial civil defence scheme. Most Britishers prefer to do civil defence training in company of the people from their own offices and factories rather than in the bigger, more impersonal formations under local authority control, but hitherto the official view has been that a plan for industrial civil defence might split preferences thus reducing still further the trickle of recruits to the Civil Defence Corps.