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12
Air Raid Precautions.
Whilst this is not the proper place for a detailed account of the effect of Air Raid Precautions
responsibilities upon the routine work of the Health Department, it is apposite to comment that the
magnitude of Air Raid Precautions duties has inevitably changed the perspective of the outlook on
normal work. The crisis weeks of last September witnessed herculean efforts to meet a need as
urgent as it was sudden, and caused work, which had hitherto been somewhat spasmodic and alien
to the Health Department, to assume the first place. The surveying, planning and adaptation of
first-aid posts, stretcher party depots, and the enrolment, training and exercising of casualty service
volunteers represent a task, the magnitude of which may be gauged from the fact that the war-time
staff of the Health Department will need to be thirteen or fourteen times the size of the peace-time
establishment. The normal activities of the department have been interfered with as little as possible,
but some interference has been inevitable. It does, unfortunately, appear clear that it will be necessary
to establish a permanent A.R.P. section of the Health Department with duties no less wide nor onerous
than the maternity and child welfare, tuberculosis or sanitary sections.
I have the honour to be,
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
J. A. SCOTT,
Medical Officer of Health.