PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM

Grey River Argus, 19 March 1941, Page 6

PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM

GOES TO WAR (From Herbert Tracey, of the British Trades Union Congress) LONDON, December 2. Loud-speakers on War Work: Intensive air attacks upoi - cities as Coventry, Birmingham and Bristol have revealed latent lesouic in the British war organisation as wel las in the qualities of the people. It is no secret now that these cities suffered considerable damage. Bu the scheme of regional admmistration established at the outset of war answered the needs arising out of local dislocation of services and] communications with remarkable efficiency. . Mere rescue and succour are not enough. 'The civilised organisation must°be maintained. In a city visited by such a calamity as a night-long raid it is imperative that the local people should know where to turn tor information about the situation. They want to know how to get in touch with relatives and friends and with those responsible for dealing with homeless families. They want to know what to do about getting to and from work when communications and transport are upset. The people of a bombed city want to know also whether their dreadful experience has been shared by other cities,’ and how the country as a whole has fared. To give all this information, promptly and over a wide area, when normal communications are interrupted or even completely cut off, is an enormous problem. Yet it was solved at once —in fact it was solved beforehand. The Ministry of Information, in cooperating with the regional authorities, was on the job almost before the raid was over As dawn broke over Coventry loudspeaker equipment mounted on lorries was filtering through the stricken city, and soon officials of the Ministry were announcing through amplifiers all the information and instructions the people wished to have. Radio equipment on the loud-speaker

vans also broadcast the 8.8. C. news bulletins in the streets. ‘For many hours in the devastated city these radio and speaker vans functioned as mobile clearing centies of information, news, advice and communication. The “regional organisation” of Britain covers the whole country.. It has divided Britain into thirteen areas, each of which has its own arrangements for ''maintaining the life of its people, sustaining morale, and organising communications, transport and supplies in circumstances of emergency. A vigorous corporate life so goes on which no blitzkreig can shatter, and which no dislocation of national communications will affect. > Communal feeding arrangements,

rest centres, temporary accommodation for bombed out families, repairs to houses, the provision of clothing and furniture, arrangements for compensation, the re-union of families and the evacuation of children and aged and infirm people from devastated streets—all these matters the regional authorities superintend with the cooperation of the cities’ civic authorities and voluntary associations. Air raids cannot break the morale of a people habituated to the practice of self-government.