THREAT FROM THE AIR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 42, 5 March 1937, Page 5

THREAT FROM THE AIR

i— Press association. i

Peace Only Alternative To Self-Destruction

VULNERABLE FRONTIERS

(Bj Telegraph

WELLINGTON, This Day. Emphasing the ghastly tenor of . future warfare, Mr F. Hall-Jones, of Invercargill, in an address to the Rotary Conference in Wellington yesterday declared *that' the impossibility of defending any country against aerial attack made peace the only alternative to mutual self-destruction. "The whirr of the aeroplane, like a voice of an angel from the skies," he said, "will whisper to this troubled world, 'Peace, be still. ' " "Will there be another war?" he asked. "Not a minor war, but a war among those great European powers that control coal and iron and vast factories and shipbuilding yards, and all that is called the 'war potential' necessary for a major conflict? There are two schools of thought. One, that continued expansion of armaments must reach bursting point. There are irreconcilable antipathies between Bolshevism and Fascism that at the moment have their miniature battlegronud in Spain. There is the irreconcilable hostility between France — tortured, scarified, and seared by two great wars — and Germany, humiliated and embittered, not by defeat, but by the terms of the Peace Treaty. There is the irresistible force of treaty xevision, meeting the immovable object, the status quo, -and the result must be war. "The other school of thought, to which I adhere, believes that so long as these great powers are armed or disarmed to a xeasonably equal degree —and that necessitates the present rearmament programme of Britain — the impossibility of defending any country against aerial attack makes peace the only alternative to mutual self-destruc-tion. Network of Airways "A close network of airways has spread over Europe. The European peoples are becoming conscious that frontiers so easily crossed in times of peace are equally vulnerable in war; they are increasingly aware that war is not a matter of armiea, but of peoples, and will spell indiscriminate slaughter to the civilian population. " "To the ambitious dictator, the military firebrand, the armament manufacturer aiid war proflteer, the threat of retribution from tha air is an overwhelming argument for peace. * To most nations, goodwill and understanding will bring peace; fear of destruction will deter the potential aggressor." Experts of all kinds, scientists of all nations, militaTy men in responsible positions, statesmen of the highest standing, all acknowledged that in the event of a war among the great powers, whole eities, whole naval bases, manufacturing centres and Tesidential areas could be annihilated in a very short time, and that no defence could be relied upon other than reprisals. Gas inasks and bombproof shelters Tanked only like armour as a defence to a bullet. Elaborate rehearsals in Europe against mock air-raids had given no 1 satisfaction to the authorities in any means of defence. i Horror of Future Wars ! I Weapons and means of destruction • had been intensified a thousandfold 1 since the great war. Small electric inl

cendiary bombs that developed a heat of 3000 degrees centigrade and could not be extinguished, ga)s bombs with delayed-action fuses that exploded four, eight, twenty-four, and thirtysix hourg after impact, aerial torpedoes that could be launched many miles from their objeetive, gases sprayed or dropped in containers, invisible, imperceptive and adhesive were capable of converting any eity into a chartiel houise, with man, woman, and child peer, potentate, paupers alike — twisted into the ngly hieroglyphic of death. "Eyes that are dazzled by the prospect of dominion," added Mr HallJones, "may be blind to the marble halls of Geneva, ininds that are seething with aggression may be impervious to understanding and goodwill, ears that are ringing with the clamour of conquest may be deaf to the call of peace; but the whirr of the aeroplane, like b voice of an angel from the skies will whisper to this troubled world, 'Peace, be still.' "