BRITISH CIVIL DEFENCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 1 July 1943, Page 5

BRITISH CIVIL DEFENCE

FURTHER CUT IN PERSONNEL NEW AIR RAID WARNING SYSTEM (Rec. 11.40 a.m.) Rugby, June 30. A new and better air raid warning system is to be installed in Britain and the permanent A.R.P. personnel is to be reduced still further to release men and women for the services, Miss Ellen Wilkinson (Labour) told the House of Commons during the Civil Defence Debate. Miss Wilkinson said the warning system would be vastly improved. She said Germany must hit back in reply to the Allied bombing or admit they were helpless to hit back. The problem of home security now was to decide not what was the margin of safety, but what was the highest peak of risk they dared run to release man and womanpower for the offensive, and what was the standard of efficiency they coujd maintain. There had been a cut in the wholetime personnel establishment by one-third in the last twelve months apart from substantial earlier CUt j Fur ther cuts were about to be made, but not in specially vulnerable areas. This would mean a further 12* per cent cut, but every full-timer might be replaced by three part-timers. The Minister for Home Security, Mr Herbert Morrison, replying, said they must be cautious in making a reduction Vi ci Y il defence. He agreed with Air Marshal Leigh-Mallory that the Germans would probably never resume air raids on their former scale, because German air resources were stretched over a wide area and Allied strength was rising, while German strength was going down. That did not mean that a substantial attack would not be aimed at Britain, but they did not want to keep any more in civil defence than necessary.—B.O.W.