SERVICES SHARE IN TRIAL

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23742, 14 September 1942, Page 6

SERVICES SHARE IN TRIAL

CO OPERATION WITH E.P.S Co-operation of the defence services with the E.P.S. was a new feature of the trial last Thursday evening. Their part was purely theoretic, and did not involve the movement of personnel and equipment, but in matters of information and control was of the precise nature that it would be in a genuine emergency. It is considered that the trial was of value to the service officers and personnel from a military point of view as well as from the civil defence standpoint, because to some extent it tested,the linking of the services themselves. The system of co-ordination meant that the services were kept fully appraised of all the “incidents" arranged for the testing of E.P.S. workers, so that they knew what roads were blocked and other vital information. Similarly, the Army had to .be advised when unexploded bombs were'deemed to have fallen, so that the bomb disposal section could take its share in the test. The services supplied information to the E.P.S. vitally affecting the trial. In one incident it was assumed that trooos had to occupy Hagley Park. This meant the evacuation of civilians from air raid shelters in the park' and their transference to a safer locality.