CO129-590-25 Accounts of events leading up to surrender and subsequent treatment of prisoners- etc 23-4-1942 - 28-9-1943 — Page 192

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11.

many everyday utilities are power driven.

Petrol pumps,

for

instance. The power is cut off and then you need a small

diesel engine to get up the petrol from tank to pump. And if

you haven't a lot of diesel engines, you go short of petrol,

though hundreds of gallons are stored at your feet. And

similarly with water. One knows as a matter of common sense

that when the main supply is vulnerable, provision must be made

for boiling well-water. But not until you are in the midst of

battle with the reservoirs in enemy hands do you realise the

scale on which boiled water is actually required. Not five

gallons at a time, but great vats of it which can be boiled up

and left to cool so that hundreds of men can draw from the store

for several days. And so on.

Our civil defence had foreseen most things but had not

always correctly anticipated scale and emphasis. If H.K's

experience meant anything then the short lesson for other Eastern

cities threatened with attack or siege was this. Exclude

married men as far as practicable from the non-European civil

defence personnel.

Increase by tenfold the arrangements to make

and store boiled water, the supply of small diesel engines to

replace electric power and the numbers of oil lamps. The

wastage in transport is liable to be greater than anticipated, so

there should be a large central workshop, well blacked-out and

well protected, where damaged lorries and cars can be repaired

without enemy interference by night. When the streets become

dangerous, food and supply convoys of all kinds are more likely

to/