The BBC's decision not to show The War Game, a television documentary depicting conditions after a nuclear war, is yet a further indication of official reticence. They do not wish the British people to be aware of the very grave dangers inherent in the country's nuclear alliances, the risk of near-total annihilation that we run every day. That is why the Home Office brought pressure on to the BBC not to show this filme Moreover, it is a graphic illustration of the continuity on these matters between Tory and Labour Governmentse Both, essentially had the same aimss to continue the charade of civil defence, a pretence of providing protection for the civilian populations; to maintain and improve highly elaborate underground shelters for VIPs; and, finally, to suppress information about the real plans for a nuclear wars It is only possible to guess what Peter Watson included in The War Game, the things that gave Home Office officials cold feet. But her are the points they would dearly like to keep secrets . (1) That, when nuclear war is imminent, hospital patients in what are designated likely target areas are written off as dead and left unattended, The medical staff are evacuated, sent to places that are considered safer, because their skill and knowledge must, if possible, be preserved. With a tremendous mass of suffering humanity,even if every doctor were alive it would be insufficient to cope with the immense number of casualties a nuclear war would inevitably cause. So, on the eve of destruction, the policy is "save the doctor, leave the patient." (2) That places on the edge of conurbations and lerge towns, which can easily be dug by mechanical means, have already been earmarked as mass burial grounds. It must be remembered: megaton bombs result in megacorpses =~ millions of dead, The problem of disposing of bodies would be an urgent problem since they would constitute a health-hazard to the few survivors, For the same reason, the German firm that manufactured crematoria for Hitler's concentration camps, has continued, since the end of the war, to maintain full production for civil defence purposes. Ordinary crematoria, used in nornal circumstances, can only cope with forty bodies a day, going flat outs whereas Hitler's, as we know, disposed six million Jews in a compar tively short space of time. (3) That, in the immediate pre-nuclear attack period, soldiers with fixed > bayonets will close certain roads to the public and shoot any unauthorised person using them. This arrangement is to assist VIPs scurrying to their deep underground shelters. It is assumed, probably realistically, that impending destruction will create panic among the general public. People in their millions will dash into their cars, rushing sround the country to places they consider are likely to be safest. In this pandemonium, troops will shoot men who attempt to take their families to where they have most chance of survival - the deep underground shelters. The "Spies for Peace" pamphlet, by publicising the location of Regional Seats of Government, created a problem for civil defence authorities. They saw that it increased the likelihood of large numbers of desperate men -=- with no faith in buckets of water, sand, whitewash, and all the other panaceas for nuclear war, which C.D. promulgates for civilian population - struggling ferociously to gain admittance to the deep underground bunkers, For this reason, the Labour Government, quietly end unobtrugély, has continued to make fresh underground shelters for VIPs and re-siting the Regional
The BBC's war game continued/
Seats of Government. Doubtless this would be denied by a Home Office ine
spokesman if questioned in the House, But this would merely be continuing
a long tradition of official deception, Well before the "Spies for Peace"
pamphlet, I gained access to a confidential plan for an underground shelter,
Consequently, I contacted my local Member of Parliament, Stephen Swingler,
As a result, he asked in Parliament, on February 6, 1958: "What steps have
been taken to construct or renovate deep underground shelters as part of the
civil defence programme? At what cost? And for whose use? Replying for
the Home Office, Miss Pat Hornsby Smith said, "No deep underground shelters
have been constructed or renovated,"
If the Government denied it was continuing to build shelters or re=site
R.S.G.s8, then its denial would have the same ring of truth as Miss Hornsby
Snith's answer,