ANTI-GAS UNITS TO BE FORMED

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23366, 27 June 1941, Page 10

ANTI-GAS UNITS TO BE FORMED

AUXILIARY POLICE ORGANISED EVACUATION IN EVENT OF EMERGENCY Details of a scheme by which .the auxiliary, police are to be formed into , antirgas units, and issued with gas ; masks were outlined yesterday by Mr ! A. R. Galbraith, Controller of the ; Emergency Precautions Scheme.- For several weeks Mr D. Davies, of the auxiliary police, has been experimenting with the construction of gas masks, and he-now considers.,that large-scale production is practicable at a relatively small cost. - Dr H. G. Denham, with two other experts of Canterbury University College, has been working for .some considerable time, under- the juriaiiction of the Department. of Scientific and Industrial Research, the effect- Of, certain gases, and has been experimenting also in the chemical construction of 1 gas masks, Mr Galbraith said. • , _ The .auxiliary police, under Sergeant A., if,- Aurtffi,, have been instructed, in a series of lectures, of the best methods.of.combating the effects of gds,lahd{Jhave teen formed into, groups, which'’ willhave 1 authority to act m an ( 'emergency. . . Fourteen city /dentists recently underwent a resfrelsher course in the effect of gases, and-; they will' be in charge of the anti-gas units, a city deiitist, who is in control, said in an interview yesterday- •: The city has been divided‘into zones,-he said, and for each zone»a,decontamination squad has been rfdmiefl. . To; members' of each;squad,.which;will'corlsist of about suit wiU An ' arrangement ('’Withi CahtetfbtaJy --University .CoUege tea been. made for a mobile gas testing- unit to be ready ,at any time, in’ the event of an emergency, to go; to ,the area ■affected and determine what ;typa .bf vgasites been used. Evacuation, to safe areas, of the people of-Christchurch has been '.ar-MWn«-*iirperfect^^ganla€d,