ATTACKS BY AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1934, Page 7

ATTACKS BY AIR

ABSURD EXAGGERATIONS

MARSHAL FOCH QUOTED

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, December 20. Lord Allen of Hu_Vtwood raised a debate in the House of Lords by asking the Government to make a statement as to its present policy at the Disarmament Conference. In the course of his . speech he said: , "Aviation-will either destroy civilisation or become its salvation. If developed nationally it will overwhelm us; if owned internationally it can give us security." " ■ ( ■ The debate was valuable for a speech by Lord Mottistone who attended the Versailles Conference as a representative of the air for Great Britain. He maintaind that it was " a complete and fantastic delusion" to suggest, as Lord Allen had done, that London could bo paralysed by One single blow from the air. ■ • ''■'.. "Of course, "lie said, /'this is not, in the least bit true. If you take the' total number of aeroplanes that could possibly be got up into the air and reach this capital city, and if they dischargedan adequate'number of bombs, it is quifc true that you might do immense damage to , this capital. And if there was a strong easterly wind there might be a repetition of the Great Fire of London. "But the most -absurd exaggerations are made about the possibilities of poison gas as discharged from the air. The problem, of utilising poison gas is a very complicated one,' because it must' be sufficiently heavy not to be dissipated'and it must be sufficiently light not to be closed to' the ground." Lord Mottistone recalled that just after the war he had a talk on .this subject with the late Marshal Foch, "in many ways tho most brilliant impartial military thinker of our generation—almost since tho days of Napoleon." '.■•■■■■■■''■ TIT FOR TAT! "In a conversation with him just before he died," said Lord. Mottistone, '.' we talked about these things. It was in the House of Commons. "I said to him, 'It looks to me quite.clear because of the development of incendiary bombs— -^which is the new thing that has happned; not gas or high explosives—that if our country crosses swords wil;h yours you could wipe out quite a nice: bit of London by an air raid.' . " .■ "He. said to me,-"■' Yes; my friend, but is it not equally apparent that you could destroy on the same day, on the same night, a great part of Paris. Therefore the thing will never happen.' " ■ Lord Mottistone pointed out that when flying over London • the city looked like a forest, while Paris looked like a town, because in, London there were about 1000 open spaces; while in Paris there were hardly any. "If, the French and English,"! he declared, "were to be so idiotic^ as to try this war of reprisals, I think it is a mathematical calculation that, making allowance for the larger number, of aeroplanes possessed by- the French and smaller number possessed by ourselves, and1 the greatly larger number of open spaces in London on which, bombs (could drop : without hurting anybody. as compared with Paris, we could about cry 'Quits.' "Marshall Foch was quite right when he said that each could injure the other so much that the thing would never happen.": Lord! Mottistone also referred to records as; to the performance of "Big Bertha," the German gun which fired on Paris during the war, "so that people should not get unduly frightened." ' •'• "I happened to see "one of these shells burst," he said, "and it was a very good1 bang, but the only thing it killed was an old horse.',' He pointed out that "Big Bertha." fired altogether 340 shells, and 261 persons wore killed in Paris and its suburbs. "That," he added, "works out at .77 of a person kilted for every shell fired."