PARLIAMENT IN WAR TIME April 2019

Parliamentary Library Research Paper

Preparations for Defence

When World War II broke out in September 1939, New Zealand changed in many ways. Approximately 140,000 men and women went overseas to take part in the war.1 Others were retained in essential positions or “manpowered” into them as the war went on. Rationing was introduced, initially of petrol only, later of rubber tyres and other items, with food rationing beginning in April 1942.2 New Zealand citizens contributed to the war effort by buying war bonds, growing vegetables, knitting socks, and preparing care packages for New Zealanders abroad. They also made bandages,3 wove camouflage nets4, and donated binoculars and other equipment to the armed forces.5

As fears about the possibility of invasion grew, at first from Germany, later from Japan, New Zealand made other changes.6 Harbour defences were built, the Home Guard was formed and enlarged, as was the Emergency Precautions Service (EPS). The EPS was a precursor to civil defence which was “designed to meet emergency conditions arising from enemy attack, epidemics, earthquakes and other natural disasters”.7

Parliament was not excluded from these changes, and a number of preparations were made in order to protect its occupants and allow the business of governing the country to go on, even in the event of enemy invasion.

Blackouts One of the earliest preparations was to initiate blackout precautions to deny enemy attackers from identifying their targets by sight in the dark. Starting in coastal areas of New Zealand in February 1941 “black curtains, paper, or even paint, covered windows in most homes. Outside, street lighting was dimmed, making life difficult through the winter nights that followed.”8

Blackout tests were conducted in different areas. The first test in was held in November 1941.9 Several subsequent practice blackouts were held, with Parliament falling afoul of the Mayor of Wellington, Thomas Hislop, following a test in January 1942 when an unscreened lighted room in Parliament buildings was used. Prime Minister said the mayor was completely right to draw attention to the action, and said a misunderstanding leading to a communication failure had now been fixed.10

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Incendiary bombs and evacuation drills Incendiary bombs were considered likely to be used in an attack and in September 1941 the Gisborne Herald reported that “Parliament Buildings … have now been provided with standard equipment for dealing with incendiary bombs. A supply of sand in neatly-sewn sacks and of wooden rakes and shovels has been distributed throughout its extensive area.”11

However in December 1941 “news came of the simple Russian way with a bomb: dunking it rapidly in a large bucket of water”. Prime Minister Peter Fraser was photographed disposing of a device in such a way,12 and a great debate over the best method of extinguishment arose, eventually settling on the official line that both water and sand equipment should be in every building.13

Trial evacuations of Parliament were also held. One in January 1942 was signalled by the ringing of the division bells:

“an ‘alert’ signal of five seconds being followed within a minute by the evacuation signal. Immediately the ‘alert’ was sounded the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon P. Fraser, Ministers of the Crown, private secretaries, officials, typists and others ceased the work they were doing and made their way to the nearest corridor.

“The building warden, Mr T. D. H. Hall, and the evacuation patrols took up their posts at various points through the buildings and, as soon as the evacuation signal was given, directed those being evacuated to the nearest dispersal exit. Two and a half minutes were occupied by the actual evacuation, but it is hoped to reduce this time by remedying minor weaknesses revealed by the trial.”

The trial evacuation “was followed by a demonstration of the most effective methods to extinguish incendiary bombs”, using six precautionary practice incendiary bombs. (It was not specified which methods were used.)14

Air raid shelters The most visible preparations at Parliament were the construction of air raid shelters, which required digging out large sections of the grounds.

Pascoe, John Dobree, 1908-1972. Removal of air raid shelters, Parliament grounds, Wellington. Pascoe, John Dobree, 1908-1972 :Photographic albums, prints and negatives. Ref: PAColl-0783-2-0297. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22625671

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Construction was carried out by the Public Works Department and began almost immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941. 21 shelters were constructed on the grounds of Parliament, some above-ground and some underground, at a cost of nearly £13,000. They were originally intended to accommodate personnel employed in Parliament Buildings and in nearby Government offices, but the larger ones (the underground shelters in front of the Buildings) were later declared public shelters and handed over to the control of the Wellington EPS organisation.15

Then-Parliamentary Librarian Guy Scholefield16 wrote about the construction in his diary:

“Parliament grounds now look like Gallipoli or a relief map of New Guinea, almost completely turned up by machinery into a succession of hills and gullies for construction of shelters for the public in case of raids. The engineers have been considerate enough to spare the pohutukawa trees which have been a feature of the grounds for many years, and the statues of Seddon and Ballance.”17

The open trenches in the ground were removed in early 1943 as the threat of a Japanese attack waned, and a mechanical digger was brought on site to remove the larger public shelters in February 1945.18

War Cabinet shelter Also constructed at this time was a bomb resistant shelter for the War Cabinet and staff. “This was a rush job of top priority, work proceeding by day and night until completion in January [1942]” for a cost of approximately £8,250.19

Entrance to the shelter was through steel doors a quarter of an inch thick in Parliament House’s basement. The shelter was small with low ceilings: “the main room is about 8 feet by 12 feet and there are three smaller rooms connected by narrow passages in which an average man can barely stand upright”.20 Some of the corridors, and the escape tunnel (which extended “for about 100 feet beneath the lawns and gardens of the Parliament Buildings not far from the famous Seddon statue”)21, had “to be negotiated in a crouching position”.22

According to plans dated 28 December 1941:

“The Cabinet room with six chairs is nested in between the building foundations. Typists and a phone exchange are just outside, with ‘essential’ and cyphering staff in the next underground corridor. In the Entrance Lock at right that leads to the two emergency exits (one bricked up), cupboards hold provisions of food, medical supplies and – more ominously – ‘demolition gear’. It is clear from this that in an emergency, executive government would have retreated down here for a last stand in Wellington.”23

In an interview in 1970 Arnold Nordmeyer (Minister of Health during the war) stated that the idea was that, in the event of a bombing raid, the Cabinet would be able to meet and give directions from their underground headquarters.

The room was never used for its intended purpose (some of it was later used as storage), and most of it was dug up in 1970 to make way for the underground car park.24

The end of war, and farewell to gongs While none of these precautions were ever used for their intended purpose, at least one has a happy tale to tell. Upon the announcement of the armistice the gongs set about Parliament to function as an alarm were rung “lustily” by over a dozen people in celebration.25

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Jessica Ihimaera-Smiler and Michiel Verkade Senior Research Services Librarian and Research Services Librarian Parliamentary Library

ISSN 2253-5624 (Print) ISSN 2253-5632 (Online)

Disclaimer. Every effort has been made to ensure that the content of this paper is accurate, but no guarantee of accuracy can be given.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. In essence, you are free to copy, distribute and adapt the work, as long as you attribute the work to the Parliamentary Service and abide by the other licence terms. To view a copy of this licence, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/..

1 “Counting the cost” New Zealand History (17 May 2017) 2 J. V. T. Baker The New Zealand people at war : War Economy (Historical Publications Branch, Wellington, 1965) at 64 3 “2112 bandages made” New Zealand Herald (Auckland, 23 January 1942) at 2 4 Terry Snow (ed) The Listener bedside book. No. 5, The war years, 1939-45 (W & H Publications, Auckland, 2001) at 139. 5 “Appeal for binoculars” Otago Daily Times (, 28 January 1942) at 4 6 “The Second World War at home : Challenges” New Zealand History (20 December 2012) 7 Ministry of Civil Defence The history of civil defence in New Zealand (Ministry of Civil Defence, Palmerston North, 1988) at 2 8 “The Second World War at home : Challenges” New Zealand History (20 December 2012) 9 “Wellington blackout” New Zealand Herald (Auckland, 16 October 1941) at 8 10 “Lighting restrictions” Otago Daily Times (Dunedin, 20 January 1942) at 6. Allied Press Ltd is the copyright owner for the Otago Daily Times. The image is reproduced under the Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC- SA licence.

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11 “Parliament House air-raid precautions: fire-bomb suppression” Gisborne Herald (Gisborne, 4 September 1941) at 5 12 “Dealing with fire bombs” Press (, 31 December 1941) at 8 13 Nancy M. Taylor The Home Front (Historical Publications Branch, Wellington, 1986) vol 1 at 327-8. 14 “Trial evacuation: Parliament buildings” Gisborne Herald (Gisborne, 28 January 1942) at 4 15 Official war history of the Public Works Department (Public Works Department, Wellington, 1948) vol 4 at 857 16 Frances Porter “Scholefield, Guy Hardy” Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (1998) 17 Nancy M. Taylor The Home Front (Historical Publications Branch, Wellington, 1986) vol 1 at 521 18 “Parliament’s wartime air raid shelters”, Parliament website, 31 August 2010 19 Official war history of the Public Works Department (Public Works Department, Wellington, 1948) vol 4 at 857 20 Mark Hanson and Peter Cooke “War Cabinet’s Funk Hole” (2003) 16 Forts and Works : thoughts and words on the defence of New Zealand 6 21 “Cabinet bomb shelter to be demolished” Evening Post (Wellington, 1 October 1970) at 9 22 Ibid 23 Peter Cooke Defending New Zealand (Defence of New Zealand Study Group, Wellington, 2000) vol 2 at 635 24 “Cabinet bomb shelter to be demolished” Evening Post (Wellington, 1 October 1970) at 9 25 “In Parliament House” Evening Post (Wellington, 15 August 1945) at 8. Fairfax Media is the copyright owner for the Evening Post. The image is reproduced under the Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence .

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