§ 59. Mr. Lipsonasked the Home Secretary whether he is now able to relax the restrictions on street-lighting, at least, in areas where street-lighting is controlled by a central switch?
§ Sir J. AndersonI would refer my hon. Friend to the reply which I gave yesterday to a question by the hon. Member for the Camlachie Division of Glasgow (Mr. Stephen). In view of the considerable public interest in this question, I am arranging to circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT a statement outlining the reasons for the Government's present policy in this matter.
§ Following is the statement:
§ It has been suggested in various quarters that, while adhering to the general "black-out" policy, the Government could nevertheless allow ordinary street lighting, or something approaching it, to be restored if arrangements were made by which the lights could be turned off as soon as an air-raid warning was received. This suggestion has been considered very carefully by the Government, and I am glad to have an opportunity of explaining the main reasons which have led the Government to adopt their present attitude.
§ In the first place, I should like to make it clear that it is only in a very few towns in this country that all street lighting can be extinguished from a central control. In most of our towns street lamps are lighted and extinguished individually, either by a time-clock control or by hand; and even in towns where a proportion of the lights can be controlled centrally or 1558 in batches, a large number of lights have still to be extinguished individually. Conversion of these lighting systems to enable the lamps to be extinguished centrally would involve many months of work and the expenditure of many millions of pounds. Moreover, more than half the street lighting in this country is by gas; and gas-lighting could not be extinguished from a central point except in towns where the system of gas distribution is unusually simple. In London, for example, it would be impossible to switch off gas-lighting in the streets without at the same time switching off gas for all industrial and domestic purposes, unless a separate gas main system for street lighting were first installed. Under present conditions, therefore, it would in most parts of the country be impracticable to adopt a system of turning off street lighting on receipt of an air-raid warning unless a very large army of persons were kept standing by on duty in the streets throughout the hours of darkness ready to turn off the lights, individually or in groups, when a warning was received.
§ Even if it were possible, however, to extinguish street lighting on receipt of an air-raid warning, there are still a number of considerations, of which account must be taken in the interests of national safety, which suggest that it would be inexpedient to adopt this policy even in those few towns where a substantial proportion of the street lights are so controlled that they could be extinguished at a moment's notice. There are three main considerations.
§ First, the number of towns where all street lighting is subject to central control is, as I have said, very limited. In most of the towns where a system of central control has been introduced, there are still many streets where the lights are extinguished individually and in these streets the total black-out would have to be maintained. There are obvious disadvantages—and, as regards road traffic, even dangers—in a system by which some areas of a town would be brightly lit while others would remain in complete darkness.
§ Secondly, if street lighting were maintained and switched off immediately on public air-raid warning, the result would be that, at the very moment when it was most important that they should find their way to shelter, people would be plunged 1559 into sudden and complete darkness. The sudden change from light to darkness would inevitably create very great confusion in transport services and would be very liable to cause panic in the streets.
§ Thirdly, it has been conclusively established, by practical experiments carried out with the co-operation of the Royal Air Force, that in a built-up area ordinary street lighting, or any system of street lighting of substantial intensity, would make the area visible to hostile aircraft from a distance varying according to weather conditions up to as much as 40 miles. Switching off the lights on receipt of the public air-raid warning would, therefore, be an insufficient safeguard; for by that time the raiding aircraft might have come within sight of the area. Quite apart, therefore, from the second consideration to which I have drawn attention, it would be necessary that the lights should be extinguished on the preliminary warning, which is given some minutes earlier and is at present a confidential message restricted to key personnel in the Civil Defence services and other selected services and individuals who have special functions to discharge in preparation for the possibility of a raid. In view of the speed of modern aircraft, these preliminary warnings must be given at a time when it is impossible to determine with precision the probable course and objectives of the raid, and as a result they must often be communicated to areas on which no actual raid will in the event be delivered. If, however, street lighting were extinguished at this stage this confidential preliminary warning would be converted into a public warning, with all the dislocation and interruption of industrial activity which that entails. An arrangement which would constantly put areas under public warning on occasions when no raid developed would undermine public confidence and would seriously impair the productive capacity on which the country's war effort depends.
§ These difficulties do not appear likely to be overcome by reducing the intensity of the street lighting—by using blue lamps or by screening such as was used in the last war—with a view to maintaining this reduced lighting until a public air-raid warning is given. The first and second of the considerations outlined above would apply, though perhaps with less force, to modified lighting of this type—in particular, its sudden extinction on 1560 the sounding of the warning signals would still be liable to increase the public alarm and to cause confusion. And, although it would be less easily visible to aircraft than lighting of normal peace-time intensity, even modified lighting is visible by aircraft at considerable distances, and in favourable weather conditions it is probable that raiding aircraft would be able to locate the position of areas so lighted before the lights were extinguished on the sounding of the public warning
§ I have indicated in some detail, as I think is desirable, the considerations upon which our present policy in this matter is based. In the meantime my Department are exploring the possibility of devising a type of modified street lighting of very low intensity which would not be visible by raiding aircraft and could be left alight even when a raid was in progress. The types of lighting so far tested have failed to satisfy the conditions required, and I cannot hold out any definite hope at present that it will be found possible to devise a type of lighting which will prove satisfactory. Further experiments are, however, in progress.
§ 75. Sir G. Mitchesonasked the Home-Secretary whether it is proposed to introduce in London the system of street-lighting now in operation in Liverpool?
§ Sir J. AndersonI would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given yesterday to a question by the hon. Member for Plaistow (Mr. Thorne).