In any event, it was quite common during the war for people to ask, "Was that the 'warning,' or was it the 'All clear?'" The instrument itself, no matter what sort of noise it made, brought great disquiet and anxiety. But it is the structure of the sirens to which one takes such exception and the curious mournful tone which this instrument was expressly designed to produce. One hopes they have passed a long time ago. It seems to me an extraordinary situation that, fifteen months after the end of the war, we should have the "Raiders passed" signal inflicted on us. The Minister in his reply will probably say that it is not the "warning" sound which is now given, but the "Raiders passed" signal. There were many people who said they found even the noise of the bombs less disturbing than that of the preliminary warnings which were given by these sirens. There was no single weapon of war which caused greater anxiety to certain classes of people, and in the raided areas everybody found the noise extremely disturbing. During the war the wailing and moaning of the air raid sirens was universally regarded as one of our greatest inflictions. In fact, these air raid sirens are being used merely for the purpose of summoning from their homes a handful of part-time firemen, with the result that, in the districts where this takes place, the entire community is startled in order that half a dozen or so men can be told there is a fire. The siren was designed as a general warning, and one would imagine that its use would be confined to cases of threatened danger to the community as a whole, such as an impending flood or some other form of threat which needed communal action.
It is a matter of considerable surprise to many people that these sirens are in use at all, and we are entitled to ask how this has come about. I refer to the continued use in various districts of the air raid warning sirens. I am very glad to have this opportunity, so early after the reassembly of the House, of raising a matter which is causing a great deal of concern in various parts of the country.
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