HOME SECURITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 98, 22 October 1938, Page 9

HOME SECURITY

MEETING AIR MENACE

NEED FOR ORGANISATION

STEPS IN BRITAIN

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, October 20. Speaking at Clacton today, Sir Samuel Hoare, Home Secretary, said that, under the present conditions, airraid precautions covered the whole field of home security and meant a comprehensive organisation of the people for the purpose of maintaining the nation in face of an air attack.. He had vividly in mind the need of organised home security in which willing citizens would have a full part to play as trained helpers rather than as newly-joined amateurs.

The first part of Sir Samuel Hoare's speech contained an eloquent tribute to Mr. Chamberlain's achievement, which saved the world from chaos and catastrophe such as it had never suffered in all the centuries.

"Looking back through the chapters of modern history," said Sir Samuel,

"I can find no similar case in which a single man by his own efforts, physical, mental, and moral, so completely changed the course of events. The world rightly rang with his praises. Parliament acclaimed him. The peoples of England and Germany gave him a triumphant welcome. They knew that his air-borne peace saved them from death and devastation." MR. CHAMBERLAIN DEFENDED. The Minister complained bitterly of the criticism of Mr. Chamberlain which was now raising its head, and denied that it was possible to obtain better terms for Czechoslovakia, because, if better terms could have been obtained, Mr. Chamberlain would have secured them. Sir Samuel Hoare read the Munich declaration and said that he refused to accept the view that one could not believe in Herr Hitler's pledges. He must admit that the occasions when, having disclaimed the use of force, Herr Hitler had yet had recourse to it, inevitably gave cause for anxiety, but he recalled the Anglo-German naval agreement, by which Germany had stood faithfully, as a powerful reassurance of Herr Hitler's desire for friendship with Britain. Sir Samuel next dealt with the question of why, if" the Government had faith in a peaceful future, it feltythe necessity for pushing on with rearmament, and mentioned the doubts expressed in the German Press on that point. The answer —surely convincing to Germans —was to be found in the Saarbrucken speech in which Herr Hitler said that the German motto must be "always willing for peace and at any hour ready for defence." HERR HITLER'S FEAR. "Herr Hitler believes in Mr. Chamberlain's peaceful aspirations," went on Sir Samuel Hoare, "but fears some possible successor. I believe in Herr Hitler's peaceful aspiration, but, like him, I must be prepared for some successor who may not hold his views. "And so I adopt my own motto, 'Always willing for peace and at any hour ready for defence.' That is the reason why, in the interests of peace, I attach such vital (importance to national strength." ). That was exactly the British position. A very' conditio/i for- future peace was British strength, for the great British interest was peace and British strength was certain to be thrown into the scales for peace.. Going on to consider the lessons of the crisis in relation to defence, he thought that the spirit of public service in the country was greater than ever before in its hjstory, and he declared that one of the first duties of the Government was to organise it. The problem was very different from that of 1914, when national service meant the conscription of a continental army for foreign service. Today the need was different. It was for the organisation of a great industrial community to protect itself against a knock-out blow from the air. Willing helpers were there, but the problem of training remained. ANNOUNCEMENT OF NEW MEASURES. While reserving fuller details for the House of Commons, Sir Samuel Hoare gave an assurance that the Government was taking every possible step to improve the air-raid precautions organisation. He and his undersecretary had been engaged this week in conferences with their advisers on reports collected from local authorities and at a series of meetings between officials of the Home Office and air-raid precautions workers, and he would soon be in a position to announce the new measures which they considered necessary.

Among items which must be put on the credit side in examining the airraid precautions organisation created in the few days of the crisis, Sir Samuel Hoare expressed particular satisfaction at the immediate and spontaneous emergence of local leadership—of men and women ready to undertake great responsibilities at a moment's notice. He paid a tribute to this characteristic spirit of democracy.