PREPARATIONS IN BRITAIN

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21160, 9 July 1940, Page 5

PREPARATIONS IN BRITAIN

CONTROL OF CARS HANDED TO AUTHORITIES (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, July 7 It is officially stated that if invasion of Britain occurs no private I cars or motor-cycles will be allowed • on roads in the districts affected. I They must be put out of action and I pans removed must be handed over ! to the authorities. Otherwise drastic j action will be taken, j It is not desirable that residents ' should evacuate south coast towns, says another official statement. The Government, on the contrary, is anxious that people should remain in toeir homes, particu’arly in defended ports like Southampton and Portsmouth. People in a defence area can best assist by carrying on their ordinary occupations. civilians from beaches in Hampshire, and from the Hampshire border along the south coast to Poole, between sunset and j sunrise. The order similarly affects ; the whole of the Isle of Wight. Anj other order completely closes East- ' bourne seafront from 10 p.m. to i | a.m. Shot by Sentries Because many people have lost their lives through not heeding the challenges of sentric:. there has ; grown up a widespread demand for i a standardised signal from sentries

calling on motorists to stop. The Times points out. however, that a standardised signal might aid Fifth Columnists and air invaders, but it insists that unstandardised signals are rather dangerous. The newspaper adds: •‘Dimmed headlights circumscribing the light force drivers to concentrate on the road; and engine noise, combined possibly with a high wind, prevents the driver from hearing an unseen sentry’s challenge. It is unreasonable that life should be jeopardised in this way when the purpose of the control is simply to halt cars for examination. Improvised signals have gone on long enough, and from now on signals should be such as any i reasonably careful driver could not miss.” The latest victim of a sentry is M> J). B. (.’aider, manager of a Fireshire quarry and a veteran of the last war. He wos shot dead when he failed t> stop his car at a sentry's challenge.