WAR FROM THE AIR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3018, 1 April 1926, Page 4

WAR FROM THE AIR.

MENACE OF THE FUTURE.

ESSENTIAL PREPARATIONS

The education and organisation of the nation to protect itself against air attack was urged by Colonel J. P. Villiers-Stuart in a lecture at the Royal United Service Institution in London, on “The Nation in Relation to its Armed Forces.”

Very big changes had come about because of the possibility of air attack on our country, said Colonel Villiers-Stuart. Wjar had practically completed, or was about to complete, a cycle. We were back again to the primeval tribal war, in which even women and children were liable to death or capture. The theory that armies were obsolete and that the air would be paramount in war, the air would be paramount in war, the lecturer thought, need be followed only to its logical conclusion to break down. He discussed the possibility of mechanical columns “hustling” enemy aerodromes, and declared that modern invention made the land forces one very distinct answer to the air. If that were so our expeditionary forces would go abroad in a war just as they had done in the past. Air attacks would be likely to be sudden and immediate, with no probationary period. Since the knowledge was essential to co-operation and air attacks could not be prevented, it was time to come out into the open and to organise protective measures on municipal lines. The nation was acting like an ostrich at present, and that was too dangerous. He urged that as a start the Government might take certain selected municipal authorities into its confidence and evolve a scheme which might 'be extended generally. Measures which might be taken included the protection of essential food supplies from gas, provision of a medical system, extra hospital accommodation, firefighting appliances and anti-gas stores.

Towns might have to be washed down after being deluged by gas, before they became habitable again; messenger systems should be organised, since the telephones and probably electric light would be the first things to go. It might be necessary to put a cordon round a town until its inhabitants were disinfected and made incapable of contaminating others with mustard gas. Without preparation and organisation there would be chaos; with preparation it could be reduced to the proportions of one of the normal horrors of war. If the nation were driven to think it would demand far better protection than it was getting now. He thought the solution of the problem lay not so much in universal service as in persuading each householder to interest himself in the protection of himself and his property. From passive defence it would be easy to pass to a more active form. As soon as the next big war occurred a mass of civilians would go intq the Army-and Navy, and the more service customs differed from civilian, the more difficult would their as-