CIVILIAN DEFENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 March 1939, Page 8

CIVILIAN DEFENCE

PROGRESS OF ORGANISATION IN BRITAIN SIR J. ANDERSON SATISFIED. NATIONAL SERVICE CAMPAIGN. (British Official Wireless.* (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) RUGBY, March 1. The Lord Privy Seal, Sir John Anderson, reviewed in the House of Commons a number of aspects of the air and civilian defences. He strongly emphasised the acceleration which had been applied to the Government’s plans following upon the September crisis and indicated that the resulting speeding up was of such an order as would mean the realisation in the present year of aims formerly scheduled for 1941. x Dealing with supply of essential equipment, Sir John Anderson mentioned that his Department had taken delivery of over 50,000,000 respirators and their containers. It had also received 127,000,000 sandbags and would go on receiving them at the rate of 3,000.000 to 4,000,000 a week, from now on, in addition to 200,000,000 which were on order in India. He also disclosed that deliveries of a new antigas device for young babies and a new type of respirator for young children, would be, completed within the next few months.

Speaking on the subject of national service, he refuted allegations that the campaign had failed. It had done nothing of the sort. There were places where all civil defence services were filled and they had first and second reserves. In other places, where services were not yet quite filled, recruits were coming forward as speedily as they could be dealt with so far as civil defence services concerned 1J million recruits already been accepted that was a very respectable figure.