Mr. Morrison said he was not convinced that the new piece of machinery would prove effective unless the Lord Privy Seal had those executive powers and was not only to preside Over the ce-ordination committees of Ministers and. Civil Servants.
He admitted that since Sir Samuel Hoare, the Home Minister, had been at the Home Office, considerable progress had been made. The general burden of his criticism, however, was that there had been serious and avoidable delays, which had discouraged both the local authorities and individual volunteers.
In these circumstances, it was, he thought, a very big thing to have already obtained 1,000000 Air-Raid Precautions volunteers.
Giving instances of deficiencies in the supply of Air-Raid Precautions equipment, including fire-fighting apphanoes and medical supplies, Mr. Morrison referred to the agitation, in some quarters, for compulsory service.
He said that he could not understand the purpose of advocating compulsory service, when they had been shown that they did not have nearly enough material for available volunteers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.