THE DOMINION'S AIR DEFENCE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 51, 16 March 1937, Page 4

THE DOMINION'S AIR DEFENCE.

Plans are now being formulated by the Government for the aerial defence of New Zealand, and the publication of an outline of proposals for the building up of an Air Force of our will be welcomed. In view of the disturbed conditions that afflict the world and the Old Country 's recognition of the need to be prepared for emergencies, it can scarcely be said that this movement is in any way premature. Especially may this be said when we note that it will take two years to oarry the scheme into ef fect, for during that time much may happen. • There can be little doubt also as to the wisdom of making the establishment of an Air Force a first requisite, for, if we are to accept all expert evidence, then any possible coming armed conflict will to a very large extent be decided by relative strength and efficiency in that respect. The experiences of the wars in Abyssinia and Spain go a very long way to confirm this opinion. For an isolated and sparsely populated little country such as our own, to be attacked only from the sea, the question of aerial defence is one of supreme importi ance. It is from raiding warships, with their own supplementary aerial equipment, that our greatest danger is to be expected and it will be with them that in emergency our local forces will have to deal. Apart from this, too, if wfc are to play our part m any broad scheme of Imperial defence, probably our best contribution to it would consist in being prepared with a thoroughly trained body of airmen ready for service. It will be seen that in formulating its plans the Defence Departnient has had the inestimable advantage of the advice of a thoroughly competent officer of the Royal Air Force, who has devoted some months to the study of the problem and, has familiarised himself with the human material with which they will have to be worked. We may thus rely with some confidence upon the scheme being both practical and practicable. Nor is it to be qverlooked that, as the Minister emphasises, defence is not the only thing that has been kept ijn vjiew. It isi unquestionable that in this Dominion we have fagged badly behind the rest of the civilised world in the development of civil and commercial aviation. Those who have set themselves to promote it, the real pioneers, have until quite recently met with but seant encouragement either from Government or from people. They have had many difficulties to contend with, virtually unaided and at very considerable sactifice. It has been only within the last two or three years that they have xnanaged, in the face of many drawbacks, ,to force their projeets on public attention and seeure some substantial measure of necessary financial support. Even as it is only a beginning has been made and very much has yet to be done before the leeway is made up to place us in any way upon the same plane as, say, our neighbours in Australia, where the population has become pretty thoroughly "air-minded." Our Government has now wakened up to our shortcomings and it is almost as much with modern civil requirements as with military that it is concerned. In this way it may well turn out that the need to look to our own defence will have served a very good peacetime purpose iri providing a stimulus to the advancement of air services in general. That the Government is very deeply indebted to the Aero Clubs who have blazed the way goes without saying. Without them and all they have done under adverse conditions we should be very poorly placed indeed for setting out upon the organised plans that are now to be put in hand with the dual object that has been indicated. It is upon the foundations thus laid that the present scheme is admittediy to be built up, and it Is the training the Aero Clubs have given that furnishes the nucleus from which our aerial services, whether military or civil, will expand. Practical acknowledgment of this is made in the proposals for the education and instruction of pilots that are to-day intimated by the Minister.