CIVIL DEFENCE IN A CRISIS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 193, 16 August 1941, Page 6

CIVIL DEFENCE IN A CRISIS

rvLISPITK the occasional warnings of events it has been difficult for New Zealanders to believe—and to act as if they believed—that a war which broke out in Europe nearly two years ago might come close 10 the shores of the Dominion. Their thinking on the subject has lacked the .-pin- of constantly-impending danger. After the war began, and even before, they set up organisations of various kinds, designed to promote civil defence if ever the need should arise. In these organisations a great deal of sound and essential work has been done. In some, more than in ethers, preparations and plans have reached an advanced stage. Cut—the need which all such organisations were designed to meet has not arisen. There has been no emergency, not one, in nearly two years. The executives and personnel of such organisations carry on, but even to the most thoughtful of them it sometimes occurs to wonder whether the need will ever arise. Civil defence organisations in Britain were in a similar state for many months after the war began, even though ihc war was always close to them. They carried on, and one day—and ihen every day and every night—they were needed. Everything they had learned, all that they had organised, was put to the test. They were called on to prove themselves. How they responded, how magnificently they responded, all the world knows. The violence of events instantly shattered doubts which they had harboured about their usefulness. When their test came they regretted, not that they had prepared too long, but that they had not prepared enough, ■mil that there were too few of them. Thousands ot people were killed or injured, and tens of millions of pounds' of damage done, because defence preparations were incomplete, because neither Government nor people had sufficiently apprcciat/.d their importance. That fact should bo realised in New Zealand to-day. Statements such as that attributed to the Governor of Tasmania rSpeaiung \vi"h knowledge and a lull sense of responsibility, 1 say that Australia is now in much more danger than Britain") may be thought exaggerated, but in view of recent events they cannot bo ignored. The war' does threaten to invade Australia and New Zealand, in ways of which neither Commonwealth nor Dominion has ever had experience. The threat may not materialise, but in the light of rapidly-moving events we should put that thought at the back of our minds. Now is the time lor all civil defence organisations to give renewed attention to every aspect of their work, and, in circumstances as realistic as possible, to test their efficiency. Such tests, if thoroughly conducted, will expose defects and shortcomings in any organisation—if they do not seem to do so, there was something wrong with the test. Now is the time fur defects and shortcomings to be made known, and to be remedied. If and when a real emergency arises, a great deal—including human lives —will depend upon the alertness, initiative and resource of a few hundred.; of men and women, upon their knowledge of and confidence in their own organisation, and upon the confidence which the general public has in them. It must be accounted a fault of such organisations in Auckland, though not only here, that the people know too little about them and their functions. It is of major importance, not only that there should be civil defence organisations, but that the people should know what to expect of them and should be prepared confidently to depend upon them in time of crisis. It may be that the uncertainty of the people on some aspects of civil defence is due to the uncertainty of the organisations responsible. If so, the time has come to make an end of indecision, of misunderstandings, and of administrative conflicts. It is possible that there may not be much more time for doing so.