MULTIPLICITY OF COMMITTEES

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23514, 17 December 1941, Page 8

MULTIPLICITY OF COMMITTEES

MAYOR CRITICAL OF E.P.S. PROPOSAL “DIFFICULTIES SHOULD NOT HAVE ARISEN” “We are getting absolutely over-bur-dened with committees for this, that, and the other, and as usual a Government officer must take the most circuitous route for getting to a desired end.” This was the reaction of the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr E. H. Andrews) on receiving instructions from the National Service Department yesterday for the appointment of still another committee for dealing with probr lems of civil defence—a committee to adjust the division of personnel between the Home Guard and the Emergency Precautions Services. The Mayor said the Minister for National Service had several times given an assurance that the necessary key personnel for the Emergency Precautions Services would be transferred from the Home Guard where necessary, the most recent occasion being the conference in Wellington last week. Now the E.P.S. organisations were told that it was a “serious matter to effect the discharge of men who had been duly attested,” and a cumbersome method of securing transfers was proposed. Recruits Diverted When the first Emergency Reserve Corps Regulations were framed, said Mr Andrews, both the Home Guard and the E.P.S. were incorporated in the Emergency Reserve Corps, along with the Women’s War Service Auxiliary and the Emergency Fire Service. The EP-S. organisers were told that E.P.S. personnel should enlist in the Home Guard, from which, where necessary, personnel would be seconded for duty to the E.P.S. This course was followed in Christchurch, and the re-

suit was that a considerable number of men who had originally intended to serve in the E.P.S. had enrolled in and were still members of the Home Guard. This was only one of the many difficulties which the E.P.S. organisation had had to face. It had overcome or was overcoming such difficulties, but they necessarily meant delay in the implementation of the scheme. As an example of the difficulties, Mr Andrews said the original controller of the transport section was the district traffic manager of the Railway Department. Then the department dec’ded to have its own emergency scheme, and the citv scheme lost its controller. Later the deputy controller of the transport section was appointed to the temporary staff of the Army for sei'vice in the Lines of Communication Company, and the controller, *who was a member of the same firm as his deputy, had to withdraw in order to give the necessary attention to business. Transport Difficulties There had, in fact, been a great deal of difficulty with transport arrangements for the E.P.S. When the Army began to impress vehicles it impressed a number which had been bespoken by the E.P.S., and it was only after much trouble tha. the authorities were prevailed upon to take steps to safeguard the requirements of the civil emergency organisation. Again, the transport section had suffered through pressure being put on some of its members to serve in the Lines of Communication Company. Now it appeared likely that the Emergency Precautions Services would lose some of the personnel of the medical section, which had been most efficiently organised. “These difficulties are being overcome. but I do suggest that some of them should never have arisen. It is disheartening to the whole E.P.S. organisation,” said (he Mayor. “As fast as we make progress in one section some upset, interference, or change is made by a Government department or official.”