Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1930. AIR DEFENCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 84, 20 January 1930, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1930. AIR DEFENCE.

The eve of' the Five-Power Conference on naval limitation is causing the nations to take stock of their special defensive needs and to fill columns in the i'ress in statement of their particular, requirements. WJiile'observing from afar .these manoeuvring. 1 * for bargaining positions, New Zealanclers may also turn a narrow gaze on their own defensive system. It does not matter how efficient a machine is, it is still in need of examination and overhaul. And even a first "lance reveals' serious neglect of what has become the third arm in de-fence-Hthe Air Force. It will surprise many people to learn that at present the Force possesses only three sighting machines that can be claimed to be, even comparatively modern. New Zealand professes to be becoming air-minded but our practice still lags a long way behind our professions. The blame does not fall on the Air Force because it is financially starved. In the past five years over £4,600,000 lias been spent on defence but of that sum the Air Force has received . only £182,000. The disproportion is so glaring as to call for immediate remedy. The "third arm" must wither on a pittance amounting to about 4 per cent, of total defence expenditure. We spend more than eleven times as much on the Army and twelve times as much on the Navv. Great Britain, on the other hand, , spent £16,000,000 last year on her Air Force, or about 40 per cent, of' Army expenditure (£40,5.00,000) and about 30 per cent, of that on the Navy (£59,000,000). If New Zealand followed the British proportion, last year's air vote would have been over £160.000 instead of £44,000. The best way in which to remove this apparent anomaly would seem to be to make the Air Force a separate service here as it is in other countries. At present it is a branch of the Army, an obsolete arrangement. If it were made self-governing, granted complete autonomy, its development would proceed more naturally and equipment and personnel would be provided in closer proporton to modern defence requirements. It is not suggested that the Army looks, with a jealous eye on this younger son; merely that the junior service would develop more strongly if cut loose from the old establishment. There may he other anachronisms in our Defence system that require modernising: but at a first glance the Air Force presents the most striking case calling for immediate remedy.