§ Mr. Kimballasked the Lord Privy Seal whether he is aware that the trial blackout in the Midlands on the night of the 13th–14th July was a complete failure in the Leicester area owing to the fact that the various railway authorities failed to extinguish their lights on the grounds that they had been instructed by his Department that they need not do so because they were not included in the area; and will he take steps to ensure that in future conflicting instructions are not issued by the Air-Raid Precautions Department to different authorities in the same area?
§ Sir J. AndersonI regret that there was some confusion in this area owing to a misunderstanding of the intentions of the Leicester City Council. It was left to each local authority to decide whether it would co-operate in the blackout on this occasion; and the Town Clerk of Leicester informed my Department on the 26th June that his authority did not propose to take part in the blackout. In a subsequent letter he stated that his council would be recommended to co-operate; but no notification of the council's final decision was received, and in consequence the railway companies were not asked to co-operate in the Leicester area.