DUTY TO OBEY WARDENS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23753, 26 September 1942, Page 4

DUTY TO OBEY WARDENS

CIVILIANS IN E.P.S TRIALS

NO OTHER RESTRICTIONS ON MOVEMENTS

Although there is no law and no regulation to prevent civilians going where they please, at their own risk, during an E.P.S, trial or actual emergency, I hey are bound at all such times to comply with instructions given by a warden or other competent authority, said Mr W. Machin, chairman of the organising executive of the Christchuich Metropolitan E.P.S. yesterday. They are also required to keep clear of roped-off areas, blocked streets, and blocked buildings, and they have an obligation not to obstruct the fire brigade or E.P.S. workers and not to obstruct .the entrances to shelters.

"If a man is told by a warden to get out of the way of E.P.S. operations or to go to cover because he is jeopardising his own or other people’s lives and he refuses to do so he renders himself liable to prosecution,” said Mr Machin. “He would be prosecuted not for going into areas forbidden to him but for disobeying a warden.” Mr Machin emphasised that in a trial wardens had to act just as if there were real danger. In an actual emergency wardens would have the duty of clearing people from the streets and making them take shelter, because anyone unnecessarily exposing himself to risk increased the aggregation of danger to all. Members of the public must accept the warden’s judgment on that point and obey his instructions as implicitly in a trial as in a real emergency.