SIMBAD references

In an attempt to discover new southern BL Lac objects, 14 optically featureless objects from the Edinburgh-Cape Survey were selected. Optical polarimetry and spectroscopy, radio and IR observations were carried out in order to improve their classifications. The 14 objects were examined according to special criteria that are described. Their UBV and JHK colour-colour distributions, spectrograms, radio observations and visible-region polarimetry were utilized to conclude that the selected objects are not BL Lacs. Most of them are apparently not extragalactic objects. It is suggested that four of the 14 candidates are DC white dwarfs, one is a QSO, three are DA white dwarfs or sdB subdwarfs, one is a cataclysmic variable, one is a DAO/sdO and another is possibly a DA+dM binary (composite system with a `primary' hot white dwarf and a `secondary' M-type main-sequence dwarf) or a cataclysmic variable. One object is likely to be a subdwarf, while two remain unclassifiable.