The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1929. AVIATION AND SECURITY.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 September 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1929. AVIATION AND SECURITY.

The achievements of her airmen, by reason of which Great Britain holds the aerial speed record, have been gratify.ng to the whole Empire They have shown that liritisn grit and British inventive and- mechanical genius constitute a combination which can more than hold i.s own. None the less the contention that in comparison with other countries Great Britain attaches insufficient importance to aviation is s.ill advanced says the Otago Times, and goes unrefutecl. This year a sum of £i9,UX),O>.O is being expended on the air force- and c-ivii aviation, or, as is pointed out, about sevenpence out of every pound raised in national taxation, compared with two shillings and fivepence for education, and an insignificant fraction of a penny for the League of Nations. The Spectator rei.crates vigorously the argument that Great Britain is seriously neglecting her own interests, especially her interest in security, by not doing much more to encourage aviation and the training of her youth for air service. “The present position,” it declares, “is unsatisfactory and indeed dangerous. In twenty-four hours a hostile Power coulcl drop more bombs on us than were dropped in the whole course of the last war, and could continue this scale of attack until defeated. How should our battleships and battalions defend us? The brassbound mentality of the older services leads us into a wasteful expenditure and diminished efficiency in peace, and would involve us in ruin if there were to lie another war.” The emphasis, it will be observed, is laid upon the need for the greater development of the aerial arm for protective purposes. If the efforts to bring about the abolition of war should pmve successful there would not he any- need for the maintenance of -a great air force. But unfortunately- the eimclusion cannot he cherished that the necessity for the provision of adequate means of defence against the possibility of attack from the air has vet disanneared. Aerial warfare, on a scale of which the world has yet had no experience, is fraught, the experts nave warned us, with the possibility of horrors almost beyond conception. There seems a certain pcrtinaiice in inquiring why tue nations concern themselves so greatly about the reduction of one form, of armament if they regard flic position in which fhev cannot escape the necessity of (oiren 1 rating heavily upon another form of armament. Wluit is gained by exchanging a fleet of one kind for a fleet of another kind? Nothing, at all events, that counts in the interests of world peace. It is to ho doubted whether any Power, whatever its preparations, is in a position to protect itself efFec-

tively against the dangers of the possible warfare of the rutnre. Tiie hope of the world lies clearly in tho elimination of armaments, but the position in regard to the air suffices itself to show how even the fringe of that great question has scarcely yet been louched.