COUNTER TO IDEALS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 9, 8 December 1937, Page 10

COUNTER TO IDEALS

3.15 P.M. EDITION.

AIR RAID MENACE. BRITISH PRECAUTIONS. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) Received December 8, 1.10 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 7. In the House of Commons Sir Samuel Hoare (Home Secretary), moving the third reading of the Air Raid Precautions Bill, which was carried without a division, said the Gcfvernment were driven to admit that no air raid precautions, however great, would ensure complete immunity. Passive defence would not suffice. “Tlie best defence for London is a strong and vigorous air force, capable of tying down the enemy’s force. What Britain has been forced to do runs counter to tlie deals and tendencies of civilised life,” said Sir Samuel. “Me are setting back the clock thousands of years in making women and children disperse over the country to the remotest districts and abandon the necessities and amenities of civilisation. We are arranging to dress up the people in gas-proof suits that will make them look like monsters from the dark ages. I assure the House that the Government will not lose the opportunity to again introduce sanity and remove the conditions that make the Bill linevitable.” He announced the reorganisation of the Air Raid Precautions Department of the Home Office by. differentiating between staff and administrative duties. He proposed to appoint WingCommander Hodsell as chief of the Xirecautions staff with the title of In-spector-General. Mr C. W. G. Eady, one of the most competent organisers at Whitehall, would come to the Home Office ns Under-Secretary of State and devote his whole time to the administration of the precautions.