Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE BEGINMXG OF WAR, 1939t\representatives of that organization had already been installedin New York and Montreal for the purpose of ensuring themost economical use of cargo space, while avoidingall unnecessarydelays. The success of their mission was, of course,largely dependent u]X)n the assistance of the Xaval ControlService organization, but N.S.H.Q. felt that giving the Ministry'srepresentatives free access to convoy information mightweaken Security. At the same time it was obvious that thevwould have to be provided with considerable knowledge of theships that they were handling. By November the situationurgently called tor an understanding, and as a result of aconference held in Ottawa on the 9th, a system was set upwhich promised the utmost co-operation while safeguardingthe details of convoy sailings. ^^As soon as it had become apparent that war in Europecould no longer be avoided, Canada took certain steps towardthe protection of her coast-lines. One of the most important ofthese was the controlling of navigational aids, which was theresponsibility of the Department of Transport acting on theadvnce of the Department of National Defence. No plan hadbeen prepared for carrying out these duties, so that when theurgency of the matter was communicated to the Minister heimmediately wrote to the Minister of Transport suggestingthat an inter-departmental committee be set up to consider thewhole question.'^ In the course of the next few weeks theDirector of Operations Division in consultation with theDepartment of Transport's representatives drew up a schemefor the control of navigational lights, radio beacons, and fogsignals, which was submitted for comment to the Departmentof Transport on October 26.'**Because it was not expected that all the lights on a coastwould have to be extinguished at any one time, the coasts weredivided into areas, eight on the east coast and four on thewest, so that navigational lights could be extinguished in oneor more of them without affecting other areas not threatenedby the particular emergency.It was decided that the bestmethod of exerting control was by broadcast, using suitableC.B.C. stations to transmit messages. These would be simplifiedby employing only three stereotyped instructions: (a)normal operation— to be used when there was no threat from