CIVIL DEFENCE MEASURES

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23800, 20 November 1942, Page 6

CIVIL DEFENCE MEASURES

—* — GOVERNMENT POLICY EXPLAINED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, November 19. “It must be emphasised that great care has to be exercised to avoid anything in the nature of unjustified or premature relaxation of our efforts; the real effect of major actions must be considered first by the higher authorities in charge of Allied operations,” said the Minister of Civil Defence (the Hon. D. Wilson), after remarking that the Dominion had good reason to be gratified with the result of Pacific operations within the last few days. The public, he said, could rest assured that in so far as those actions affected civil defence requirements a complete review would be asked for by the War Cabinet as soon as full information was available The Minister said that there was no desire to maintain irksome restrictions a moment longer than was considered imperative, but at the same time it was not always possible for the War Cabinet to disclose all the reasons necessitating protective measures. It had been the considered opinion of expert advisers up till as recently as last month, when matters were last reviewed, that the present civil defence measures should be maintained, and that expressly included continuous fire-watching in the four main centres. As a result of that appreciation he Had directed that Christchurch and Dunedin should institute ■ forthwith a continuous system in line with Auckland and Wellington. In making those directions he had made it clear that the first objective was to secure an efficient fire-watch-ing system, and, second, that any relaxation in the measures would be dependent on efficiency and on conditions existing in the Pacific from time to time. Representations had also been made for some relief during the Christmas and New Year holidays, said Mr Wilson. Obviously it would not be possible to determine at this stage whether the position would be safe enough during the holidays to justify any such S *“l can only reiterate that the whole matter will be kept under constant review, and provided the watching service has reached a reasonable state of efficiency and the war position in this area justifies it, then irrespective of holiday periods the War Cabinet will consider whether some measure of relief can be afforded. This applies with equal force to such matters as lighting restrictions, but it will not affect training measures in the ordinary avenues of civil defence such as the E.P.S. The latter are more in the nature of long-range plans.’’