The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated The West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1926. BRITISH AIR POWER.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 March 1926, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated The West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1926. BRITISH AIR POWER.

WmiN the Air Estimates were before the House of Commons a, few days ago the Air .Ministry was repeatedly asked by Government supporters whether enough was being done to support miliary aviation. Sir Samuel lion re, in introducing the Estimates, relerrcd to the present slowing down of his .Ministry’s .activities, and. in closing tin: d,shale said it might he that Britain could never make it impossible for an .attacking Air Force to penetrate beyond tho coast; hut the British programme, if tarried out, would make it so risky that a foreign Power would hesitate before attacking. These Ministerial admissions .seem to admit the weight of criticisms of tho British air policy, which for .souk- weeks prior to the appearance of the Estimates had been levelled from various quarters. That criticism has centred on the. adequacy of the honii? defence force. When Ah' Baldwin first became Prime .Minister he promised that British ail- power should, in addition to meeting the essential .requirements of the Navy, Army, and Indian and overseas commitments, include a home defence of sufficient strength adequately to protect, Britain against air attack by tli»? strongest Air Force within striking distance of the country. Under pressure of economy, and perhaps partly in the hope that disarmament will he mutually practised hv the Powers, the fulfilment of that promise is not materialising. According to wellinformed critics the numbers of mnehines in the squadrons of the various countries named were as follows last June :—Britain, 1.050; Frame. 5.500; Italy, 1.500; United States, 1,100; Japan, 1.300. But only half of the British squadrons were quartered in Britain, and tig? authorised programme was to bring the home defence squadrons from twenty-seven and a-half to fifty-two by the beginning of 1030. But under the retardation scheme the rate of increase is to bo halved, and this is what is causing concern in British aircraft circles. An armament maker may not he tlie person whose views or economy in national defence are dictated hv purely impersonal motives lint there is much food for thought ii some of the statements made by Air Handley Page to the “Observer”: “It has always seemed to me that an essential fosttime of our Air Force should he efficiency and superiority in detail rather than size. If now a cut. is to be made both in our production programme and our experimental work there, must inevitably he a slowing up of progress and the dismissal of a great part of our trained organisation. And what will be the result ? I think that in a year or so’s time the country will realise, ns it- did in 1922, that it has lost its. place in the air. and that it has either to take steps to regain it or submit to a position of inferiority. 1 cannot conceive that we should agree to the latter alternative. We should, therefore, have to spend a great deal of money not only to bring the quality of the material up to the new high level that the programmes of other countries will have then made necessary. Surely a much sounder policy is to go ahead with a continuous programme based on wliat, after all. are very reasonabe requirements, and so keep together tb? trained organisations that arc necessary to our air defence. If wo are to i?oononiise. do not let it- l.e in efficiency or hv cutting' down and destroying the sources from which our technical progress has to be made sources which can render the force really efficient, even though it may be smaller in numbers than some of our more 'military neighbors.” Son l ,? of those neighbours, notably France and Italy, are weighted with burdens of national finance which should make economy in military expenditure much more pressing than is the ease with Britain, and they have neither better nor worse reasons for putting trust in

the willingness of nations to resort to peaceful arbitrament instead of war. Yet they are undoubtedly setting tho pace iu the expansion of Air Forces, and it is a pace which Britain unfortunately must follow or take a place well back among the Powers, with its attendant risks. However, Sir Samuel Hoarc has announced that tho whole question of tho Air Force policy is to be brought up at 'the Ini peri til Conference in October, and given a prominent place on the agenda paper.