E.P.S. REQUIREMENTS.

Evening Star, Issue 24081, 30 December 1941, Page 2

E.P.S. REQUIREMENTS.

The arrangements made for the protection of the Dunedin public, should an emergency arise, have been set out in a very useful booklet, recently received by every householder. The requirements have official approval and are in keeping with those laid down in other centres. It may be useful to suggest that a perusal of the back page of the booklet has shown a weakness, so far as Dunedin is concerned, and many people may find themselves faced with a difficulty in regard to one of the essentials of the whole scheme. Few persons in any given area know who their street warden is, much less his address or telephone number. The same ignorance could apply to the nearest warden’s post, or the telephone number of the nearest first aid post. A space is left in the booklet for these particulars to be filled in, but no further direction or information is given. These are points experience in London has shown to be of prime importance, and it would appear advisable that a tabulated list of this important information should be published and also be circularised in the form of a hard-backed notice to householders, so that it could be hung in a prominent place. A point which strikes a reader of the booklet is contained under the heading “Poison Gas.” It is stated that the use of gas is considered unlikely, .but certain precautions have been taken to counter it should it bo used. The only provisions mentioned, however, are somewhat meagre. Poison gas has not yet been reported in any theatre of war, and the Gas Protocol of the Geneva Convention of June, 1935, may be faithfully observed by our enemies. On the other hand, it may not be, when the war position, becomes more desperate for them. The panic force of poison gas is very great even though the gas itself may not be particularly destructive. Two mobile and one stationary lachrymator gas detection units have been established in the city, according to the booklet.' Lachrymators are tear producers, and they are not now considered of particular practical importance in warfare. It is most unlikely that they would be used in open area operations, as an enormous volume of a lachrymator would have to be released to have even a moderate effect. The gas, or substance designated as such, against which protection should be provided is the vesicant mustard gas. Military authorities, after experiencing this in the last war, have written that mustard gas is likely to play a largo part in future wars. The substance is an oily liquid, and the effect of its vapour is cumulative, so much so that to stay for a long time even in a low concentration is dangerous, when it has been sprayed or scattered about. The more recent attack by the Italians in open gas warfare against the Abyssinians is a case in point. The substance affects all tissues, and being a vapour-producing, oily liquid it soaks into materials and remains present for a long time. The common chemical so far advised which will destroy it is given as chloride of lime, and this substance, it would appear, should have mention in the booklet and take a prominent place in the store of antigas equipment in the home.