Britain╒s new defence measures were announced yesterday afternoon in the following statement issued from 10, Downing Street:╤
In continuation of measures already adopted, it has been decided to complete naval mobilisation and to call up the remainder of the Regular Army Reserve and Supplementary Reserve.
A further number of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve will also be called up. Offices and men should await further instructions which will be made public immediately by each of the three Service Departments.
This notice was subsequently supplemented by detailed instructions, issued through the press and wireless, to the classes called up and to other reservists.
Instructions have been sent to local authorities to set up the A.R.P. Emergency Committees and to local A.R.P. controllers to assume duty. This establishes the regional organisation already arranged.
Work on public shelters is to be accelerated, and 20 per cent of the whole-time members of the A.R.P. services are to be called up, including the Auxiliary Fire Service.
Local authorities have been given power to requisition premises for civil defence purposes, and for public shelters.
Restrictions on flying by civil aircraft in the United Kingdom were announced last night. All telephone services to other countries and to ships at sea have been suspended, and there are strict regulations for telegrams.
EVACUATION
Evacuation of children, expectant mothers, blind persons, and cripples from certain congested areas, including Greater London, Manchester and Salford, will begin to-day. Some 3,000,000 people are affected, about half of whom are school children. Rotherham, Runcorn, and Widnes have been added to the list previously announced of areas from which evacuation will take place.
The evacuation will cause considerable disruption of transport, both rail and road, and people are especially asked to restrict travel as much as possible.
The London Stock Exchange will be closed to-day because it is not anticipated that members would be able to reach their offices. Nine main trunk routes from London will become one-way streets in an outward direction during the period of the evacuation.
An order was made last night prohibiting the acquisition or purchase of excessive quantities of food. It is now an offence for anyone to buy more than a week╒s supply of any kind of food. The restriction does not apply to stocks of food acquired by trades in the ordinary course of business but it is an offence for traders to sell food to a customer if he has grounds for knowing that the customer is buying in excessive quantities.
The order does not mean that there is a shortage; it is merely a necessary safeguard against hoarding.
