Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 18 August 1933, Page 4

Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Air League of the British Empire, the Duke of Sutherland said that the report covered a critical year for British aviation. Proposals for the abolition of bombing by pact \except for police purposes in outlying places), the strict limitation of air armaments by numbers and size of aircraft, the abolition of military and naval valr forces as a. later step, and the possibility of the International control or internationalisation of civil aviation were brought before the Disarmament Conference .at Geneva. The Air League, being a national, patriotic body, would liav° given its wholehearted support to all of these proposals bad it been convinced tb"t they were reasonable measures to take in the cause of disarmament. It regarded some of them, however, with grave concern and considered that they prejudiced Britain’s safety while contributing nothing to the progress of disarmament. The Air League supported the more reasonable- course of limiting air armaments and recommended the regulation of the use of aircraft-by codified law. It could see no security in the

proposal to abolish bombing by pact; indeed, by adopting the proposal Britain would lie deprived of a powerful weapon of attack against submarines in the event of another war, and its defensive measures must inevitably be weakened. Further, the abolition of military and naval aviation could be carried out only by the application of a form of control over civil aviation that would destroy a great and growing British export trade, kill initiative and enterprise, render negative Brit ish technical and‘operational skill, and cause the rapidly expanding industry of air commerce to stagnate. Finally, they should have to rely on international goodwill for security am: prosperity—a thing quite unacceptable when alternative measures were available.