WELL ORGANISED

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 29241, 11 October 1940, Page 6

WELL ORGANISED

PRECAUTIONS PLAN HAMILTON ORGANISATION LIAISON WITH HOME GUARD FIFTH COLUMN MENACE Plans for dealing with any enemy i attack on New Zealand, the frustration of fifth column activities, and ■ other important emergency work j conceived in the Emergency Precau- ' tions Scheme, were detailed when 1 the progress of the New Zealand I Emergency Precautions Volunteers j was reported to a meeting of Wai- • kato local body representatives in ( Hamilton yesterday, and the organi- ' sation of the Home Guard in the district was discussed. The report was submitted on behalf of the secretary of the New Zealand Emergency Pre- j cautions Volunteers, Mr W. L. Ranstead, of Hamilton. Details were given of the progress that had been made since local authorities entrusted to the N.Z.E.P.V. the task of recruiting and organising a combined Emergency Precautions Scheme to deal with any possible enemy attack. Country Districts First “After careful consideration,” the report stated, “we decided that while the organisation of the towns was more important for civil disaster, there were several reasons why the organisation of the coTintry was more important against invasion. In the first place, if all our towns were perfectly organised the loss of the country districts would nevertheless force the towns to capitulate. Therefore we have taken the view that in their own interests, the towns should first of all assist the country adjacent to them to organise, even to the extent of supplying technical assistants wherever they are missing. For that reason a number of town people are already enrolled in the adjacent country units. “Secondly, the danger from air raids has been exaggerated even in England, where the number of attacking planes can be many times greater than in New Zealand. “It is physically impossible to bring enough bombs to New Zealand in a week to do as much damage as an earthquake can do in two or three minutes. “Then when it is realised that an earthquake gives no warning, whereas a raid gives time to get away, it becomes clear that if a town s fire and evacuation organisation is sufficient for earthquake it is more than sufficient for air raids or bombardment. Confirmation of this was contained in a recent speech by Mr Winston Churchill, when he pointed out that the main function of air raids was to stop production and that their success was due more to people leaving their jobs than to any damage the bombs might do. In fact, not 1 per cent of London was damaged and the enemy had to transport four tons of bombs for every three persons killed. We are often asked why our organisation has not done more about air raids. This explanation, therefore, appeared desirable because it is our policy to deal with the greatest dangers first.

“It is not realised by the public that a mere handful of fifth columnists with sufficient engineering knowledge could do more to paralyse this country than any large-scale military attack.

“Since neither the Army nor the Home Guard can do much toward dealing with that activity until it is too late, we considered that the most important duty of our defence emergency precaution plan was to create a means of frustrating the fifth column which definitely exists in this country. , . . . . “It is, of course, not advisable to detail publicly how this is done, but prominent men of the Army, the Police, the Home Guard, the Post and Telegraph and the Public Works Department wholeheartedly agree with the method that has been adopted. Restriction On Home Guard “A proposal to call a meeting of representatives of every organisation in Hamilton to explain to them how Hamilton fits into what now exists in the surrounding counties has been delayed until it is clear how far the I-y,me Guard will affect the town,” the report added. “Last evening our executive had a round-table discussion with Colonel M. Aldred, the Commander of the Home Guard for the Auckland District, and it is now quite clear that the Guard is to organise on Army principles and can be instructed to do anything. *Tt is therefore against the public interest to enlist any man essential to production or to the civilian emergency precaution schemes in the Home Guard, because there is considerable evidence that the financial and production loss created by putting too many men into her armed forces did as much as anything to produce the collapse of France. England seems to have seen that danger, because Mr Winston Churchill told us recently that the total strength of the British Home Guard was 1 700,000, or only 4 per cent of the population. It is generally agreed that if the fighting force of any country is allowed to exceed a total of 10 per cent that country becomes weaker, and it would appear that Great Britain is now at its maximum strength The total of the Army, Air Force Navy and Home Guard would appear to approximate 10 per cent of the population. "It would appear that the authorities expect that some restraint will be necessary to prevent too many men from joining the Guard. Co-operation Best “Since the effectiveness of the Home Guard will depend upon the extent to which the Emergency Precautions Volunteers co-operate with it, there seems no better way of securing that co-operation than by eliminating any question of competition, by allowing volunteers to obtain enrolment forms from a person who can give a clear explanation of both schemes," Agreeing with this suggestion, the

meeting of local body representatives in Hamilton accepted the offer of the New Zealand Emergency Precautions Volunteers to provide their organisation to secure recruits for the Home Guard. Approximately 60 authorised recruiting centre will, as a result, be in operation. The location of each centre will be announced on Saturday. The Hamilton plan has been adopted throughout the Dominion. The report pointed out that there was no need to alter existing regulations to allow the Home Guard and E.P.S. to work on the same plan. As a result, if the Waikato local bodies put the Hamilton E.P.S. scheme into full operation there was no doubt that other local authorities were ready to follow the lead in this hour of extreme emergency.