DO YOUR PART TO-MORROW

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 302, 22 December 1941, Page 4

DO YOUR PART TO-MORROW

COME time to-morrow the first really substantial test of the E.P.S.O. will be made. Preliminary trials have already been held in various sections of the work, but on this occasion the whole organisation will swing into action and every unit in the city will endeavour to carry on just as it would in the event of an enemy raid. For many months nowmembers of the organisation have been unselfishly equipping themselves for the work of helping the weak, the helpless and the maimed. They have become acquainted with the cases in their various districts which will require aid prior to attack, with the principles of first aid and with the use of ambulance and dressing station. To-morrow the public may be required to cooperate with them, by getting out of the streets and into the dispersal areas when the test alarm comes. They may be inconvenienced, perhaps seriously, but it is their duty cheerfully to accept and promptly to obey the instructions of the wardens, reserving any criticisms until the test is completed, when after the discovery of the inevitable errors and inadequacies full consideration will be given by the leaders of the organisation to all weaknesses disclosed. It may be well, too, if the critics remind themselves that as a rule it is those most sharply critical of plans for their own safety who are afterward most vociferous in their complaints if any of those plans go astray. The wardens have extensive powers; they have already demonstrated that they can exercise those powers with tact and discretion, and an equally co-operative and fair-minded effort should be made by the public in response to their directions, always remembering that if the diplomacy of the warden is tested too far he is armed with all the necessary authority to ensure obedience. But the test is being made for the safety of the whole community, and in that light it should be cheerfully accepted and there should be no call for compulsion.