ALARMIST REPORTS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 32, 7 February 1931, Page 14

ALARMIST REPORTS

OFFICIAL DENIAL

NO' CURFEW AT HASTINGS

(By Telegraph—Presg Association.) HASTINGS, 6th February. The public is earnestly asked to give limited attention to alarmist reports that are .being issued from some sources. Amongst some statements made is one that martial law has been established and a curfew imposed upon the people of Hastings. The whole of this statement is the rankest exaggeration. What happened is that volunteers consisting of. ex-territorials and ex-servico men consented to do patrol and picket duty. The town is still governed by civil law, and fa curfew has not been heard unless by the'person from whom the report emanated. Inaccurate casualty lists are also being sent out. The list supplied to the Press Association may be taken as the official list; it is compiled under the strictest precautions. ! Even then it is not impossible < that errors may occur. Nothing, however, in that list is published without the sanction of the police, i Looting has not even been feared, and the only precautions taken in the way of guarding property are merely those that are usual to such occasions. The police state officially that not a single instance of looting is reported. The statement that the people are losing their nerve is to be treated carefully. Naturally they arc feeling some strain, but they will carry on, as they are doing now, grimly and calmly and with a wonderful courage.