The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1923.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1928, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1923.

BRITAIN’S AIR PROGRAMME. A recent British official wireless cable message stated that Sir Samuel Hoare (Secretary for Air) last week delivered an address on Aviation in the British Empire before the Royal Geographical Society of Scotland. Dealing with the problem which the invention of aviation li;\d created for the British Empire, he said we went into the war in wealth and power and completely immune from invasion. We came out of it victorious indeed, but with our capital more open to foreign attack by reason of this new invention, than any of the great-capitals of Western Europe. Year by wear we must give our minds and money to building up an Air Force strong enough to deter any would-be enemy from attacking. He was glad to think that, while five years ago there were practically no air force squadrons available in-this country for home defence, there were now 30 squadrons out

of 52 that , were being formed, Aviation had, however, Imposed, upon British taxpayers ’a new item in the expenditure upon armaments at the very time when we wished to reduce over the whole world the burden of armaments. Ho could we find some advanta.ge from flying to set off against this liability?-, Five years of experience in the Air Min is ter y had impressed upon him with continuous force that the only way in which that liability could be counter-balanced was by making the fullest possible, use of the unique power of mobility of the aeroplane for effecting economies in Imperial defence and developing the communications and resources of the scattered Empire. There were certain fields of Imperial defence where the Air Force wing could be economically u§ed as a substitute for the older military forces, rather than as a supplement to them, and a conspicuous instance of this policy was the case of Iraq, where we had been able to reduce the garrison, which in 1921 comprised 33 Imperial battalions costing over (£20,000,000 a. year, to five squadrons of the Royal Air Force, without a single Imperial battalion in support,, and costing less than £2,000,000. A single squadron of the Air Force had forced Ima mof Yemir* who had for years encroached upon Aden Protectorate, to leave it and release sheikhs friends to the British, whom he had kidnapped in Somaliland. Aeroplanes had in a few weeks removed the constant danger of Mullah’s risings, and on the north-west frontier of India,, with practically no casualties on either side, peace had been imposed upon unruly tribes by British airmen. He forsaw the time when air power, like sea power, would be concentrated upon two or three strategic points of the Empire and when units, instead of being uneconomically tied down to local defeifiSta would be freely moved from one threatened point to another. Such a policy presupposed the closest possible liaison between the air forces of the Empire. Dealing with aviation as a means of improving Imperial communications Sir Samuel Hoare said that early next year a regular aeroplane service would be running everv week between London and Karachi. Another great trunk aeroplane service as projected between London and Capetown, and he was every day expecting detailed proposals which would enable him to judge whether the creation of this service was possible, In regard to airships, he believed thev could be used for eliminating two-thirds of the time now spent in journeys between London and the ctpitals of the Empire. That was the justification of the programme under which, for the last three years, the Air Ministry had been engaged upon the design and construction of the two great airships. He anticipated the success of the experiment, and the dominion Governments were co-operating, and also believing, in its success. It will he seen from the foregoing what a revolution aerial development is going to -bring

about in regard to Imperial affairs, and as a consequence New Zealand cannot afford long to lag behind in the matter of a serious aerial programme also. Australia has decided on a definite forward movement, and New Zealand must keep step also.