Precautionary Measures
Public expenditure had also greatly increased. Air raid tunnels – thought incapable of sheltering more than a tithe of the teeming population – had been constructed at a cost of $8,000,000. Further large expenditure built up a food and fuel reserve, large enough to furnish a siege ration for 150 days for two million people. More than $1,000,000 was needed to build decentralised stores (58 in number) for this vast quantity of food. Government borrowed $20,000,000 and took over the rice import trade.