WARDENS’ PATIENT WAITING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 21 October 1942, Page 1

WARDENS’ PATIENT WAITING

THE HARD JOB OF STANDING BY In his foreword to a recent issue of “Action." the Hon. R Heffron. Minister of National Emergency Services. New South Wales, gives this salute to wardens ‘the kind of message which, says the “Civil Defence Bulletin." could be given with the same sincerity in New Zealand): — “Fellow-Wardens,*-The job of just standing by and waiting is probably the hardest of all jobs. There is no doubt that sometimes you must feel you are wasting your time, that you want to be doing something—some thing real and tangible. "Perhaps you feel that simply filling in practice reports, and listening to lec tures. and patrolling in dimmed streets where nothing ever happens is not enough. “Perhaps sometimes you ask yourself if you should not be doing something else. Because, when you are keyed up. waiting for something to happen, standing by for a long time, that sense of frustration is an inevitable reaction. “Yet is there anything better or finer you can do? “What if there were no wardens.’ Compared with the amount of crime, there are a great many policemen. Yet it is only the fact that there are so many policemen which ensures se “Without wardens—men who are trained, ready, prepared, there would be little security against raids or bombard menus. That is the plain fact of the mat-