THE AIR FORCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 March 1922, Page 5

THE AIR FORCE.

THE POLICY OF BRITAIN. _ DEVELOPMENT URGED. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, March 25. Brigadier-General Groves, air expert, concluding a series of special articles in the Times, submits that the aims of British air policy should be: (1) To build as rapidly and economically as possible a striking air force for home defence, lest the heart of the Empire be open to sudden direct attacks from the air. (2) To provide the army and navy with specialised air forces with the essential efficiency. (3) To create a Royal Air Force organisation to carry out the duties at present performed by the army and navy. (4) To maintain and develop the aircraft industry. Civil aviation had suf; fered in the past because it had not been definitely and clearly identified with national defence. State grants were the only possible method of creating defensive air fleets or exploiting and utilising civil aviation, of which the bulk of the material and personnel should be promptly available at the outbreak of war.

General Groves continued: “We are faced with the intensive growth of air power throughout the Continent and the world, and are not creating adequate means to meet that force. Nearly four centuries ago great sea captains laid the foundatio'n of our sea power and gave England peace and security. We no longer may look to sea power to protect us; we stand upon the threshold of a new age. To us is given the greater task of building up a mightier i force, to safeguard the future of the IjEmpire.”