Evening star., 1942-08-12
DC. Acts 10 Tighten ,
Regulations for 5erie,
OF Surprise B|ackouts
Also Whips Into Shape
Provisions Offered by
Army After Long Delay

After waiting five months for the
War Department to state the pro-
visions it needed in the proposed
general blackout regulations for the
National Capital. municipal officials
went ahead today to whip them
into shape, but further revisions
will be made now that Congress has
enacted q second District Blackout
Act.
Civilian defense headquarters
yesterday announced assignments
of the chief defense co-ordinator
and his assistants to specific posts
during an emergency here. Com
missioner Young will report to the
main contrpl center, and Col. Lem
uel Bolles, executive director, win
report to Commissioner Young.
The co-ordinator's aides report as
follows: Commissioner Kutz. to
control center No. /: Capt. H.. G.
Whitehurst to center No. 2; Com
missioner Mason to center No. 8;
Corporation Counsel Richmond B.
Keech to center No. 4; Edward Dent
to center No. S; Robert F. Cogs-
we'll to center No. 6. and Walter
Fowler to center No. Z.
Meanwhile, speed was promised
by the Commissioners in correction
of the temporary, or "stop-gap,"
general rules, under which the Dis
trict has been operating, to plug the
gap discovered yesterday by Mr..
Keech which prevented prosecution
of 100 violators Of Monday nights
surprise AFRAID drill.
No Cau Made for Order.
District OCD officials had not
called on the corporation counsel to
prepare the necessary order for the
Monday test, as he had in earlier
tests under the "stop-gap" arrange
ment.
Engineer Commissioner Kutz, who
is acting civilian defense co-ordi-
nator curing the absence on leave
Of Commissioner Young, said last
night the August program for fur
ther surprise tests would be carried
out, but not until after the tempo
rary regulations had been patched
up. He said this should not require
more than "a hours.
The fault in the existing regula-
tions, Mr.. Keech said, was that the
new afraid signal of two minutes
of q fluctuating sounding Of the
sirens, announced April 10 by Col.
Lemuel Bolles, civilian defense di-
rector, never had been adopted
formally by the Board of Commits
sioners as an addition to the black
out rules.
In a legal sense, he said, this
means that the signal had been
changed without necessary adequate
notice to the public. The first
announced signal was five short
blasts, but was abandoned when it
was realized sirens could not sound
short blasts"
First Law on Dec. 26.
The Districts first Blackout Act.
giving the Commissioners limited
powers for air-raid protective pur-
poses, became law last December 26.
Because of the necessity Of studious
Of a comprehensive set
Of general rules Mr.. Keech drafted
and the Commissioners adopted
a brief code Of blackout rules as a
"stop-gap."
A more comprehensive set then
was prepared and sent to the War
and Navy Departments for their
comments and instructions Febru-
ary 26. The Navy Department
by letter April %, but 1t
was late July before the wishes Of
the War Department were made
known, officials said.
During last spring need rose for
further powers for the Commis-
including control over day.
light drills. authority to conf1scate !
and pay later for facilities essential
for public protection and additional
funds for blackout purposes. The
second measure became law Au-
gust 6.
AS the series Of AFRAID drills
were staged. with advance notice,
however, OCD officials had asked
Mr.. Keech to prepare separate
order and in these the oficial signal
was stated. This was not done in
the case of the nrst surprise test