WE MUST HIT BACK.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1917, Page 6

WE MUST HIT BACK.

THE FRONT IS WHERE THE ENEMY ATTACK. There is fierce anil rising indignation about the bombing of London last week (wrote Lovat Fraser in the Daily Mail after the raid in June last). It is eom.plained that, although the Government are spending close upon eight million pounds a day, they cannot even protect the capital. If, after the}' have had nearly three years' experience of war, after mobilising millions of men, and making unparalleled demands upon the nation, th« authorities allow over 500 people, including 120 children, to be killed of maimed, and let the raiders get away unpunished, something must be wrong somewhere. The aeroplane raids on Folkestone,, the Medway, and London represent the beginning of the invasion of England, and these incursions are going to continue. What kind of response do the Government propose to make to th« new air menace? The public will not be satisfied with the threadbare plea that "the needs of the Army at the front must come first." Of course they must, but that is no reason why England should be bombed without "hitting back. lam well aware that the smallest suggestion that the War Office should pay a. little more attention to home defence will be met by the usual bleats about "playing into tiie hands ot Germany." We shall be told that to ask for an efficient system of hoine defence is to "squeal'' and to "play Germany's game," because the enemy want i lis to weaken our air forces at the front. Silly suggestions of the kind need not disturb us, for Englishmen will never be persuaded thajk their best course is to lie down and bF kicked. We can well imagine the real answer of "the boys at the front" when they are told that the women and children they left behind cannot be adequately defended. A typical article of the "Let-Us-All-Lie-Down-and-be-Kicked" variety has been published by the Spectator, coupled with the usual appeal not to retaliate upon the poor Germans. Here are sample extracts:— "The truth is that in any case we are much better off here than they ar& at the front, where bombing is going on perpetually on all sides. We are in no special danger at home, and such danger as there is is of the kind that has got to be endured because it can't be cured. ... "If the Germans employ their aeroplanes by the hundred in 'invading 1 us, their airmen will be withdrawn from doing us serious mischief at the front, and we shall have things our own way there. That will be a great .score and well worth any damage or anxiety caused here."

Why can't it be cured? I should like the writer of these pusillanimous remarks in the Spectator to repeat them to an audience of Poplar mothers, with Mr. Will Crooks in the ehair, and see what kind of reception he. would get. Twice before the same sort of plea lias been advanced, and twice it has been shattered. We are told that the. best remedy against Zeppelins was "darkness and composure." The Daily Mail and other newspapers vigorously denounced these passive counsels, and the Government of the day were forced to adopt measures which have crippled though not annihilated the menace from Zeppelins.

Similar things were said at first about the German submarines. We were urged to "put our trust in the Grand Fleet," although every schoolboy knew that battleships cannot shield us from U-boats. Fifteen priceless months were lost, and when at length the Germans sent forth their submarines in hundreds we were found unprepared. Now it is being suggested that the aeroplane menace must be "tolerated" because "the claims of the front are paramount." But the Zeppelins were overcome without weakening the front, and why not the aeroplanes also? Unless we strike I back, unless we take instant steps to improve our defences, to build more aircraft. and to carry the air war into the enemy's country, what will happen when German aeroplanes are as plentii ful as the bronze-blue dragon-flies which [ pervade the countryside in this marvellous June?

The front is, for our pufposes, wherever the enemy choose to attack when fV.v seize the initiative. Last Wednesday at noon London was as much a part of the front as the Messines Ridge. All the east and south of England constitutes our true war base for the whole of our widespread operations, and once these areas are liable to serious attack they cannot be left without adequate defence. Captain von Brandenburg only bombed a children's school on Wednesday, but he may very easily get a vast munition works or a vital railway bridge to-morrow. It is a truism that the first object of warlike operations is to destroy the enemy's forces, and if the enemv's aircraft elect to raid England continually, then they must be destroyed here. The North Sea is the main battle front of the Royal Navy, but when Admiral von Spee appeared off the coast of South America the Admiralty did not 6ay that they could spare no ships from the North 'Sea. They detaohed a squadron and destroyed him. There is another aspect : of this question. Just as it was humiliating for England to Ke helpless while Zeppelins dropped bombs far and wide, so it is preposterous that the greatest city in the world, the very heart of the British Empire, should' be so badly defended that an enemy squadron can rain death upon its population and escape scot-free Such an incident impairs our prestige and makes us appear less efficient in war than we really are. The truth seems to be that our air forces are not yet strong enough. We need sufficient aircraft to supply all the requirements of* the trooph in the field to defend these islands against invasion from the air, and to retaliate upon German cities. The question of warnings in London is a minor issue. It should not be allowed to deflect attention from the main point, which is that when enemy aeroplanes raid this country they must be attacked and overcome as the Zeppelins were. The balance of public opinion is in favour of a general warning, I tiling rightly. The, people of London mean to be warned, and the Government will have to 'meet their wishes. But a far bigger and more urgent question is that of reprisals, about which the views of the nation are rapidly crystallising. 1 have constantly urged that the Allies will have fought in vain unless German territory is invaded, and unless the German people are compelled to experience war upon their own soil and in their own towns and villages. The Germans are now invading us thronsh the air. and we must, reralinte in like manner. The princlpitf eU» in Western Germany is Cologne, nntf <n stead of scattered raids we should concentrate upon Cologne, which, next tBerlin. is the most sordid and material

city in the Fatherland. A secondary objective might be Frankfort, the haunt of the international financiers, whose intrigues are just now so far-reaching. A constant succession of British and French air raids upon Cologne and Frankfort will do more to bring the Huns to their senses than a thousand meetings and speeches of protest. The suggestion is as feasible as the German .raids on London, for Cologne is only 2uo miles from Dunkirk, and Frankfort Is only 160 miles from Nancy.

But the kernel of the whole question was compendiously stated by the Daily Hail, when it said that "die air services must be capable of meeting the enemy and beating him wherever he appears." o must never again be told that there is no cure for aeroplane attacks op London.