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nounced effects in this district again the population, having once
adapted themselves to spending their nights in their own homes,
will continue to feel secure there and not feel the need for that
additional sense of security that must, it seems, be one, if not the
chief of the benefits derived from occupancy of these shelters,
and which seems to be derived, in the main, from the companionship
obtained there. Mere massing together of people by itself does
nothing to reduce the risk to which as individuals they are subjected.
If the shelters were so much less liable to damage than are their
houses there would be some justification in householders running
the risks inherent of such herding in such conditions. As things
are, however, they would seem to be running greater, if unappreciated
risks in order to minimise though probably only slightly an
obvious hazard.
The district not being one of those designated a reception
area under the national scheme for evacuation of certain sections
of the population from evacuation areas, the local authority was
not called upon to make arrangements for billeting. In the spring,
the threat of the over-running of some of the smaller countries
across the Channel necessitated provision being made for the
reception of foreign refugees. The Middlesex County Council
were the responsible authority, though the District Council were,
of course, to co-operate. The proposals envisaged those refugees
allocated to the county being received at two large reception
stations where they would be medically examined. Any hospital
or infectious cases were to be sent to hospital, and unaccompanied
children or other persons who, not being suitable for billeting in
private or empty houses, would be sent to special institutions.
The remainder after being fed, having their personal clothing made
good, their registration numbers taken and identity cards issued,
would then be distributed throughout the county. The county's
proposals envisaged the temporary housing of large numbers of
persons in suitable halls and other buildings, possibly for some
three or four weeks, pending the arrangements for their being
placed in private billets or empty houses. Such an arrangement,
while it is appreciated might in certain circumstances not be
avoidable, was, it was considered, fraught with too much risk of
the spread of communicable infections. Having regard to the
hardships and exposures to which the refugees would have been
subjected for some days before they actually arrived in the district,
it seemed urgently necessary that herding should be avoided and
dispersal practised as far as possible. For this reason it was
decided, if at all possible, to avoid congregating the refugees
received from the reception centres for longer than was necessary
and to endeavour to pass them straight on to their billets. Had
it been necessary to billet any numbers temporarily in halls the
County Council had made arrangements for the medical attention
of any sick persons through their public assistance machinery.