PLANS OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21225, 23 September 1940, Page 7

PLANS OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT

SENSELESS AND BRUTAL NAZI ATTACKS CARE OF CIVILIANS IMPROVED ARRANGEMENTS (Official Wireless) (Received Sept. 23, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 22 Mr Malcolm MacDonald, Minister of Health, broadcasting, described the Government’s plans for sheltering citizens who have lost their homes through the senseless and brutal German air attacks. Mr MacDonald said: “ The care of those who have been made homeless amidst the bombardment of the air raids is a major activity of the Government. Many agencies are helping in the work. Local authorities have an important part to play and countless citizens are giving assistance in one way or another. “ But the main responsibility for seeing that those who have been ejected from their homes are quickly provided with another roof, with food, clothing and other necessities, rests fairly and squarely upon the Government itself. “Generally speaking, our plans worked reasonably well through all the widely scattered raids on Britain until the violent bombings on London a fortnight ago. Then the first day or two of that experience revealed some faults in our plans. One important thing in war is to preserve an alert eye and mind, detect mistakes as soon as they become apparent, correct them swiftly, and turn them to advantage. “ So in the past two weeks we have greatly improved our arrangements for looking after the homeless.”

Areas Help Each Other

Mr MacDonald continued: “Some j boroughs have received a heavier weight of the attack than others and have at times found their centres temporarily crammed" to capacity. Aid has then come from other boroughs. There are omnibuses to take people from centres in the more hardly pressed boroughs to centres in those which have been less severely hit. In all these movements borough boundaries have been swept aside. “The different areas are helping each other. The London defence region, which is even wider than that ; of the London County Council, is be- ' ing treated as a whole. For people who cannot find new dwelling for themselves an official billeting officer must find billets. “Here, again, there are no rigid boundaries between borough and borough, or even between county and county. A host of people from the ■ most heavily bombed areas in London have recently been billeted widely outside their own boroughs. : This has been done either by billeting people in other households or by putting them into unoccupied houses. Local Authorities’ Wide Powers “All local authorities have full powers to requisition empty houses for this purpose and many have been exercising the powers energetically for some time. For instance, I have asked the authorities of fourteen London boroughs where there are the largest numbers of suitable empty houses to requisition those places up to a capacity to accommodate more than 20,000 persons, lest that should be required, which is not the case at present. A local authority can take over furnished houses if it likes or it can requisition an unfurnished house and itself acquire from Government stcoks or by its own purchases the furniture required for the use of the incoming householders. My friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, foots the bill. “The migration of homeless families into these residences is now proceeding, but we must never ignore the human factors in this situation. Often those who have been turned out of house and home by enemy action and who could be housed elsewhere are reluctant to leave their own locality. Over and over again omnibuses have waited to take them away, but they have declined to go. “This solid refusal to budge from the danger zone is partly a reminder of the average Englishman’s deep sentiment rooting in the locality of his own home and partly evidence of how little these nightly bombings have shaken the nerve of those who are victims of its fierce spite.” Mr MacDonald concluded: “If our armies were engaged around you with the enemy you would not hesitate to give whatever shelter and succour lay in your power to our soldiers, but these London citizens are soldiers. All In This Business Together “They are frontline troops. They are our comrades who have shown coolness and valour under fire. They have been in battle like our airmen and our sailors and our men of Calais and Dunkirk. “And that spirit already has inflicted defeat on the enemy. Sustain and succour them. We are all in this business together and it is by the firm union of the whole nation that our cause will prevail.”