Executive Order  No. 63: (1st Series) Speed limit in blacked-out areas

WHEREAS, the "Dimout Regulations for New England" as issued by the First Service Command of the United States Army are suspended by authority of the Commanding General of the Eastern Defense Command as of November 1, 1943; and

WHEREAS, the War Department of the United States, acting through the First Service Command, has indicated, in a communication addressed to me, that the rules and regulations embodied in Executive Order No. 55, issued June 7, 1943, for the control, elimination, and reduction of lights which contribute to the skyglow in coastal and certain other areas, are not presently necessary or expedient for meeting the supreme emergency of the existing state of war between the United States and certain foreign countries, provided that "all concerned are cautioned that a resumption of the dimout program may be ordered at any time, and therefore permanent installations should not be altered so as to prevent a prompt return to the present dimout requirements"; and

WHEREAS, it is desirable for the convenience, welfare, and safety of the civilian population of this Commonwealth that the operation and effect of such rules and regulations be suspended until such time as the exigencies of the war may require that they be promulgated once again:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Leverett Saltonstall, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, acting under the provisions of Acts of 1941, chapter 719, as amended by Acts of 1943, chapter 3, Acts of 1942, chapter 13, sections 2 and 3, and all other authority vested in me, do hereby issue this order:

1. The operation and effect of the provisions of Executive Order No. 55, issued June 7, 1943, with the exception of the provisions of the first sentence of paragraph 23 thereof, are hereby suspended as of November 1, 1943, at 12, noon; but such suspension shall not affect any prosecution under said Executive Order No. 55 pending on said date.

2. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the obscuring of headlights in the manner provided by paragraph 16a of said Executive Order No. 55 on motor vehicles operated anywhere within the Commonwealth shall not, until November 6, 1943, at one-half hour before sunrise, be deemed unlawful: provided that the speed of such operation does not exceed thirty miles per hour.

GIVEN at the Executive Chamber in Boston, this twenty-ninth day of October, 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-eighth.

By His Excellency the Governor,
LEVERETT SALTONSTALL

PAUL D. HOWARD,
Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth.