BRITAIN’S CIVIL DEFENCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 263, 7 November 1945, Page 5

BRITAIN’S CIVIL DEFENCE

RETBItIONPLANNED ATTACK MAY YET COME

Recd. 5.5 p.m. London, Nov. 6. The Home Secretary, Mr. Chuter Ede, moving the second reading of the Civil Defence (Suspension Powers) Bill, announced that the Government regarded it as essential to retain the defence organisation. He paid tribute to the work of the civil defence during the war and added that what happened during the war meant that the technique of civil defence in many respects was outdated. The purpose of the Bill was to bring civil defence up to date. The Government desired to have a service which was designed to deal with what the country would probably have to meet in future.

Nobody would be more pleased than the Government It It could repeal the Civil Defence Act, being satisfied that the risk of air attack on Britain had passed for all time. The Government, unhappily, could not take this view. It was the Government’s essential duty to take the necessary precautions as long as the country was still liable to attack.

The Government directed that a study should be made ot recent forms of air attacks. Missions were sent to Germany to study the effect of saturation bombing, and the way in which the German civil defence reacted. Scientists were in Japan investigating the effects of the atomic bomb. The Government would duly know a great deal mure about the standard sheltei required and the type of organisation best fitted to deal with air attack n the future.

He appealed to those who took such an outstanding part in Britain’s defence during the war to .keep together so that they would be there if required. He added that it was intended that the process of rebuilding civil defence, within the framework of the legislation already sanctioned, should begin in a quiet orderly manner. The Government would submit new proposals to Parliament if any radical alteration of the whole system of civil defence was necessary, or advisable. They all hoped that the organisation at present being prepared to deal with the world’s future peace might be effective, but it wag necessary, for at least some years, to watch carefully to see that Britain was prepared to meet anything that might come upon the country, in a state of full preparation.