Evening star., 1942-04-26
D.. {. Raid Setup
Is Inadequate,
Lands Warns
Major Revisions
In Communications
System Urged
BY noN s. WARREN.

lUfIned1aLG STUDY OF proposals %,
Federal o. C. ID. officials for majo
reyisions of the Districts air raft
and communications control system
was ordered yesterday by the Com.
missioners after James M. Lands
civilian defense chief. warned tina
II might be highly dangerous to rely
on the present "iadeQuate" plan.
Decentralization of the communi.
cations control system was an out
standing recommendation made by
Director Lands In a letter to Com
missioner Young. metropolitan civil.
ian defense co-ordinator.
Numerous other changes in ar
rangements for receipt and dispatch,
of reports and instructions in air
raid protective work were included
In the Lands report, which was
made after careful review" OF the
District setup, conducted by o. c. D.
officials at the request Of city au-
thorities.
Points TO Blackout Test.
Mr.. Lands found that the Dis
tricts communications control sys-
TEN had begged down during the
latest blackout test and he SYM
patheticaIly but pointedly explained
TO District officials that the present
arrangements here did not conform
TO basic principles outlined In the
Federal o. c. d. official planning
guide. He added:
Il might sum 1t oil UP simply by
saying that the present system is
somewhat inadequate TO meet the
burden which may be expected, and
accordingly the whole matter should
be gone over from the very begin
ming. This conclusion was reached
only after the most careful review
by members of my staff and my
personal inspection of the recent
tblackout) demonstration.
This test showed that the pres
ent arrangements would have
caused tncalculable loss of life and
property II they had been relied
upon during real raid"
Bolies Suggests Changes.
At the same time, Commissioner
Young had before him urgent rec
concentrations from Col. Lemuel
Bolles, executive director of the Dis
trict Defense Council that the COM
munications control system be de-
centralized by the establishment of
six subcenters. as suggested by Po-
lice Supt. Edward j. Kelly. Col.
Bolles suggested that the changes
be made with utmost expedition. ("
He added: 1T is my conviction that
until this is accomplished, the Dis
triot Is NOT prepared to cope effec-
fively with enemy action"
apparently, officials are somewhat
n1oved to demand speedy action in
view of beliefs voiced by some au-
thorities that Washington can ex-
pect bombing attack by the enemy
sometime soon because of the raids
by American flyers on Toxic and
other important Japanese cities.
One Of the basic points made in
the Lands report is that Washing
tons centralized communications
center, is not only inadequate to
serve the need for control and dis
patch and receipt of reports of in
cidents, but that II its service were
disrupted no substitute is available
One advantage of a decentralized
control system is that if the main
office were bombed, the subcenters
could handle the problem.
Six-Peint Program.
Six specific recommendations were
made by MIR. Lands, which may be
outlined as follows:
THAT full-time controller be
appointed, who would be sorely re-
sponsible for the proper operation
of the civilian protection system
under air raid conditions Such a
position Is proposed in the o. c. D.
planning guide. but Mr.. Lands said
he had not been able to discover
that such a position had been filled
In the District.
2.-That a control system plan be
drawn up and reduced to writing
Mr.. Lands said such a plan needed
collective judgment by a group OF
technically qualified persons and
that 1T is not enough that this plar
be merely a vague understandings
arrived at through casual confer
ences, but that 1t should be written
down. even though subsequent re-
vision may be necessary from time
to time as experience accummulateS
and defects develop. am as.
suming that no such written plar
was prepared because none ha:
come to my attention, and the re-
suits Of the test indicate such q
lack.
Il understand that more than SOC
incident messages were distributed
10 wardens for transmission to the
two control centers during the re-
cent test exercise. Only two tele-
phonists were provided at the fire
alarm headquarters center for re-
ceipt of messages. II the message
load were figured at the rate of lbs
messages per telephoniSt. and al
initial incident reports were received
within about s minutes. the tele-
phonists would have been required
TO complete approximately one mes
sage every three seconds"
5, That the control system be re.
Continued on PAGE A-l4)