CLOCK TURNS BACK A THOUSAND MRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 291, 8 December 1937, Page 7

CLOCK TURNS BACK A THOUSAND MRS.

MODERN BARBARISM.

Home Secretary on Air Raid

Precautions.

PEOPLE LIKE MONSTERS. British Official Wireless. (Received 1.30 p.m.) RL'CBY, December 7. The Air Raid Precautions Bill, as amended in committee, was considered in the House of Commons, and the Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, moved a new clause specifically placing upon local authorities the duty to provide the necessary information to enable the Government to prepare plans "for any necessary transference of civil population in the event of hostile attack from the air."

The Home Secretary, replying in the debate, said that the essence of the problem of evacuation was the magnitude of it. Though they realised its difficulties they would do their best to surmount them. The new clause was agreefl to. Sir Samuel then moved the third reading of the bill, which was carried without a division. He said that the Government was driven to admit that no air raid precautions, however great, could ensure complete immunity. Passi.e defence would not suffice.

"The best defence for London is a strong, vigorous air force, capable of tying down an enemy's force to local defence," he said.

"What Britain is forced to do runs counter to the ideals and tendencies of civilised life. We are setting back the clock thousands of years in making women and children disperse over the country in remotest districts and abandon the necessities and amenities of civilisation. We are arranging to dress up people in gas-proof suits that will make them look like monsters from the dark ages.

"I assure the House that the Government will not lose any opportunity to reintroduce sanity and remove the conditions that make the bill inevitable."

Sir Samuel announced the reorganisation of the Air Raid Precautions Department of the Home Office by differentiating between staff and administrative' duties. He proposed to appoint WingCommander Hodsell as chief of the precautions staff, with the title of Inspec-tor-General. Mr. C'. W. G. Eady, one of the most comj«?tent organisers in Whitehall, would come to the Home Office as Under-Secretary of State, and would devote his whole time to the administration side of the precautions.