The Waikato Times MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1942 EMERGENCY PRECAUTIONS

Waikato Times, Volume 130, Issue 21655, 16 February 1942, Page 4

The Waikato Times MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1942 EMERGENCY PRECAUTIONS

Consternation expressed at the meeting of the central committee of the Emergency Precautions Service and the Hamilton Borough Council regarding the Government's attitude to the protection of the civilian population will, it is hoped, have the effect of at least causing the Government to review its precautionary schemes to ascertain whether the criticism is justified. Proof that the strictures are illfounded would not only reassure the public but would give the Emergency Precautions and other services fresh heart to proceed with their work. It is desirable that the people should know whether it is true, as claimed by Mr Arthur Cook, secretary to the New Zealand Workers’ Union, that the Dominion’s war effort is already “one hundred per cent.” The Hamilton meeting declared that everything possible was not being done when the Emergency Precautions Service or the chief warden had no power to put to work thousands of men who have been registered for the home defence services, many of whom are not now assisting in the work of preparing trenches or otherwise attempting to make the towns reasonably safe for women and children who would otherwise be exposed to the savagery of bombing, machine-gunning and fire. It is certain that vastly more could be done if every available man were employed in the work; therefore it cannot be claimed with justice that the maximum effort is now being exerted. The only other point to decide is whether the emergency is sufficiently serious to demand nothing less than the maximum service the public can render. Asserting that inertia, lack of appreciation of the problem and the only action that will solve it, and the tendency to allow political side-issues to intervene are interfering with the prosecution of the war effort, this meeting of sober men, on whom the responsibility of providing for the local population falls, has posed a question that cannot be ignored. They declare that they need only the authority of the Government to immediately speed the work of providing shelter and generally putting the town into a condition in which it could hope to survive an enemy attack or any natural disaster with a minimum of loss and suffering. It is due to the country that no unnecessary prohibitions or restrictions should be placed in the way of the achievement of that objective. The chief warden at Hamilton has been subjected to criticism on various grounds—because he called for volunteers for trenchdigging instead of employing regular labour; because the work was being done by hand instead of by machinery; because it was alleged he imagined that the emergency was greater than the facts justified. He has answered that neither regular workers nor machinery are obtainable. As for the acuteness of the emergency, he does not lack authority for the warning that every day lost now might later be bitterly regretted. 'The Government has ruled that where men are ordered to perform such work as the digging of trenches they must be subject to award condition, except in an “actual emergency.” The committee contends that an emergency now exists. The Government rules that registered personnel is not subject to the orders of the chief warden for trench digging, except in an emergency. Hamilton is in the meantime forced to rely upon the efforts of volunteers.