Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1939. PLANS FOR AN EMERGENCY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1939, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1939. PLANS FOR AN EMERGENCY.

. + TN a lengthy statement reported yesterday, the Prime Ministei X outlined'plans that are being shaped in this country• or coping with an emergency of war should it anse p ans u would applv in some measure also to abnormal conditions cue Io other causes, such as the occurrence of a serious eart Enough was said by Mr Savage to show that an 1 nineu> amount of detail work has already been done towards deve oping the Organisation for National Security and enabling it to function efficiently in a war or other emergency. Muci ms evidently been accomplished in the direction of ensuring eltective collaboration between the armed services, civil departmei s, local bodies and representatives of industries. Limits of necessity have been set to the disclosure of details and no fault can be found with the Prime Minister s statement that many of the steps taken are secret and must remain secret. It mav be a question, however, whether parts of the security organisation might not be extended in detail, so that some sections of the public at least (in addition to the armed forces might have an understanding of what they would be called upon to do should an emergency arise. There should be useful scope for'a certain amount of detail organisation, and in. some instances for training, which need not entail any unwise disclosure of national security plans. Making every allowance for varying circumstances, it is a question whether the development of the Organisation for National Security should not involve some such organisation of a considerable part of the general population as is being undertaken at present m Britain and m many other countries. While the broad lines on which the Government is working in this great and momentous matter can only be approved and supported, some details in Mr Savage’s statement are not altogether convincing. No doubt there is a good case to be made out for the view that there is no present need, m this country, for the provision of gas masks for the civilian population <is a whole, or for shelters, dugouts and other forms of protection against bombing from the air or bombardment from tlie sea. Even here, the reservation perhaps is called for that if war broke out this country might find itself isolated and that needs might then arise lor gas masks and other details oi equipment which could not readily be supplied unless provision had been made beforehand. Afore obvious exception may be taken, however, to the Prime Minister’s listing plans for the evacuation of civilians from the main centres amongst the things for which there is no present need. Due weight must be given to the fact that Mr Savage claims to have the unanimous backing in these opinions “of every individual whose view on the matter is worth taking.’’ Nevertheless it is difficult on some grounds to accept the dictum that plans for the evacuation of civilians from centres oi population, in the event for example of bombing raids, are not worth making. In the event of war this country conceivably might be subjected at least to fairly formidable bombing raids, and if would be taking a great deal for granted to assume that any such raid would be met by counter-measures so prompt and effective that the evacuation of civilians from menaced areas could bo regarded as a waste of time. Impressive evidence has been afforded of late in Europe. China and elsewhere that the bombing plane is an exceedingly formidable instrument of attack and that its attack is not easily countered. For instance the .Japanese, bombing Chungking. the. present capital of China, from a base six hundred miles distant, have devastated a great part of the city and slaughtered thousands of its inhabitants —this in spite of the fact that Chungking is defended by fighting planes' and in other ways and possesses extensive bomb shelters. In an article in the “Sydney Morning Herald,” transmitted from Chungking by air mail, Air AV. A. Farmer describes a series of air raids in some of which a thousand or more victims were killed. Here are a few sentences from Air Farmer’s description of a night of terror 911 Alay 4 hist, when 27 Japanese planes carried out a twilight raid with incendiary and demolition bombs:— They attacked in line formation, and started a two-mile wall of flame that devoured about one-fifth of the city. No other city not even Canton last summer—had suffered so severely. Death by burning, by crushing, by burial alive in dugouts, and more merciful death by bomb fragments claimed more than a thousand victims. Bombing attacks even on a much less formidable scale would more than amply justify the evacuation at least of women and children from some centres of population in New Zealand, and while the bare possibility of such attacks remains in sight, tlie making in good time of plans which would enable the evacuation to be carried out in an orderly way appears to be correspondingly warranted.