Executive Order  No. 53: (1st Series) Issuance of licenses for the storage of inflammable and explosive materials required for War effort

WHEREAS, agencies of the Government of the United States and various industries and establishments engaged in operations vital to the effective prosecution of the war are required, in the performance of said operations to keep, store and use large quantities of petroleum products, explosives and other inflammables; and

WHEREAS, the provisions of existing law authorize the granting of a license by the local licensing authority for the keeping and storage of such products only after a public hearing, notice of the time and place of which hearing shall have been given prior thereto by publication and by registered mail; and

WHEREAS, compliance with said provisions of law by agencies of the Government of the United States, or by industries and establishments engaged in operations vital to the effective prosecution of the war, would result in making available to the enemy information of great value which would endanger the safety and welfare of the lives and property of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth; and

WHEREAS, the Government of the United States, acting through the War Department has requested that appropriate action be taken to authorize the granting of a license for the storage of petroleum products by industries or establishments engaged in operations vital to the success of the war effort, without public hearing, publication or public notice of any kind:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Leverett Saltonstall, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, acting under the provisions of the Acts of 1941, chapter 719, Acts of 1942, chapter 13, sections 2 and 3, and all other authority vested in me, do hereby issue this order as a measure necessary and expedient for meeting the supreme emergency of the existing state of war between the United States and certain foreign countries.

1. Upon request of the Government of the United States the licensing authority in cities and towns, subject to the approval of the State Fire Marshal and to the approval of the Commissioner of the State Department of Public Safety, may issue licenses under the provisions of General Laws (Ter. Ed.) chapter 148, section 13, to any agency of the Government of the United States or to any industry or establishment certified by an agency of the Government of the United States as engaged in operations vital to the prosecution of the war, without a public hearing and without the giving of any public or other notice.

The provisions of General Laws (Ter. Ed.) chapter 148, and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder shall apply to every license so issued in so far as the same may be applicable thereto, except those provisions thereof requiring publication or other notice and a public hearing prior to the issuance of any such license.

2. The local licensing authority and the State Fire Marshal, or either of them, may require such information as they deem pertinent prior to issuing a license hereunder and may impose such conditions and restrictions of said license as they, or either of them, deem proper in addition to the provisions of existing laws, rules and regulations that may be applicable thereto.

3. Every license issued in accordance with the provisions of this order shall be revocable at the discretion of either the local licensing authority, or the State Fire Marshal or the Commissioner of the State Department of Public Safety.

GIVEN at the Executive Chamber in Boston, this eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and forty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and sixty-seventh.

By His Excellency the Governor, Leverett Saltonstall

Frederick W. Cook, Secretary of the Commonwealth