AIR WAR MENACE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 34, 10 February 1939, Page 7

AIR WAR MENACE

CAUSE OF UNCERTAINTY BRITISH ARMAMENTS EFFORT BEST WAY TO PREVENT CONFLICT [ British Official Wirelees. J RUGBY, Feb. 7. The Air Minister, Sir Kingsley Wood, in a speech to-day, said that the menace from aerial warfare was one of the main causes of uncertainty and anxiety in the world to-day. Navies were not obsolete, and the role of armies remained. Financial strength to continue the contest, and the courage and determination of a people, must be reckoned in the sum total of a nation’s capacity to win through. But to-day the seas were bridged by the air and the octinent of the air had no frontiers. “It is for these reasons,” said Sir Kingsley Wood, “that we are making great efforts and spending vast sums of money on our air defence, as well as in the belief that the best means of preventing war is for Britain to be strong, not only for defence, but in the peace councils of the nations.”

Not Purely Defensive Strategy “Our air rearmament is proceeding at a greatly accelerated rate and we are building up a balanced air force. There are no foundations for the suggestion that we are falling back on a purely defensive strategy in the air.” Counter-offensive remained, and must remain, an essential component of air defence, but the Air Minister did not subscribe to the assertion that there was no defence against the bomber. An offensive, however, to be successful must start from a secure base. Their efforts in connection with defence did not mean that the Government believed in the inevitability of war or that such efforts were inconsistent with the efforts which Mr. Chamberlain and the Government were making to bring about a better understanding between the nations. It is announced that an Air Raid Defence League has been formed, to take a position in relation to air raid defence similar to that of the Navy League and the Air League in their respective spheres. The proposed league is quite independent of Government departments and other official organisations concerned in the preparation of measures for civil defence.