Evening star., 1950-08-10

Wn0le UISirICf Area
To Be Called One City
In Civil Defense Plans
Washington and its neighbor-
ing counties of Maryland and
Virginia will be considered Sin
gle city" in laying plans for civil
defense.
That was emphasized yesterday
by Engineer Commissioner Cor
don r. Young in declaring that
coordination of Metropolitan
area defenses must be brought
into focus" at an early date.
The first step. he said, will be
top-level meeting of the Board
of Commissioners with the heads
of the city and county units
within the area to agree on basic
policies.
Up to now, Washington's plan
ming has been limited to the city
itself. A bill authorizing a civil
defense setup here is now await
ing the Presidents signature.
Memorandum Put Out.
Gen. Young's forecast came in
memorandum designed to fill
in the not-yet-appointed civil de-
fense director for Washington on
what has been done so far and
what needs to be done to make
the city ready for any emergency
The principal stumbling block
to getting on at the moment is
money. A $290000 appropriation
still resting in the House Appropri-
ationS Committee. will do for a
start, the general indicated. but
more money-possibly a lot more
will be needed later.
The generals memo revealed for
the first time that an airplane OBJ
servation tower is figured in the
$290,000 budget. That figure also
includes funds to pay the director
and his staff. to finance micro
filming and to buy monitoring
equipment.
Items of Future Expense.
Future expenses. the general
added, will include:
/. A better civil defense head
quarters than the vacated nurses
home at the Upshur Street Tuber-
culosis Home, now designated as
the headquarters.
2. More money for AFRAID
warnings. The fund earmarked
for that in the pending appropri-
alton, the general said, will be
only drop in the bucket. if
as is probable-we must install a
large number of centrally-con-
trolled sirens.
3. Funds to buy and stockpile
reserve equipment, supplies and
spare parts and provide for their
storage and safekeeping. Gen.
Young said he had no idea how
much this will cost. He added
that "it may run to big money,
though we should make every ef-
fort to keep it down"
4. Funds to pay for the train
ing and equipment of volunteer
personnel such as auxiliary police
and f1remen.
To be prepared, the general
went on. the civil defense organ
iZation "as soon as possible" will
need to enlarge normal peace
time forces with more paid work.
ers and volunteers.
The reserve supplies Stockpiled
for emergencies, he said, possibly
should be stored around the edges
of the District or in nearby Mary
land and Virginia.
operative Basis.
Gen. Young explained that, if
the Metropolitan Area were un-
der one political jurisdiction, a
Single civilian defense plan for it
could be set up at once. But since
1t is and will be under separate
political Jurisdictions, "the CO.
ordinated plan must be, to begin
with, on the basis of voluntary
cooperation" He added:
1T seems clear to me, and will
probably be accepted by our neigh
bors, that the District, as the
nucleus of this area, should to
some extent set the pace; but
there must be friendly co-ordin-
alton and compromise where
necessary"
He said he could not now fore
see whether, how and to what ex-
tent there will eventually be
Metropolitan area. civil defense
organization with a single head.
ut must be worked out" he
said.
Gen. Young pointed out that
Washington, being first of all the
National Capital, "all our plans
are subject to the overriding
needs and demands of the Fed
eral Government and must be
adapted thereto.
But I foresee no serious diff
culties in this" he said.
AS to civil defense headquarters,
there probably will be two, it
ryoc eoiJ