The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1923. BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 73, 26 March 1923, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1923. BRITAIN AND FRANCE.

for the cause (hat lacks assistant*, for the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do.

There is a good deal of nervousness at Home about the strength of Britain in the air and the future of aerial warfare as it affects British interests. The traditional policy of Britain has been supremacy on the sea; this has been the basis of all defence. Now, however, a third element has entered into the problem. Air fighting is only in its infancy, but by the end of the Great War it had reached such a pitch of terrible efficiency as to make the imagination reel at the possibilities of the future. What, then, i» to be the position of Britain? Will a supreme Navy save her when aeroplanes may be able to sink the most powerful ship, or, flying in hun> dreds across "the silver moat," far out of reach of gunfire, work appalling havoc in the great cities? Ts Britain justified in falling behind any Power in the development of the air arm? It is now officially admitted that Britain is far behind France in this respect, and we have no less a person than Lord Birkenhead urging the formation of an Air League, which would work on the lines of the Navy League.

The possibility of air rivalry between Britain and France is a matter that British people are loth to discuss. France has been our ally in a life and death fight, a struggle sanctified 'by the mingled blood of the sons of both countries, and to the average Briton the suggestion of war between them is impossible and repulsive. Yet it is being discussed. A Southern paper of a few da3-s ago, commenting on the debate in the Commons, says that such a disaster is fortunately "not even hinted at by the most pessimistic among the politicians who count for anything." This is creditable to this paper's feelings, but unfortunately to-day we have Lord Birkenhead, who does count for something, discussing the possibility of war quite openly. He says that French soldiers and journalists dislike Britain, and that France is pursuing a policy of which Britain profoundly disapproves. We are not in a position to confirm his statement about French generals, bus the feeling against Britain in the French Press is notorious, and the disagreement about policy is obvious. In our cable news to-day is a summary of an article in a leading Paris paper suggesting that France abandon the Entente and seek other alliances. We are tempted to ask what alliances, 'but that is another question. We most fervently hope that Britain and France will never quarrel to the point of war, and w e would regard war between the countries as a hideous calamity, but the comradeship of the Great War has perhaps blurred a little the historical fact that we were fighting France a little more than a century ago, that our naval strategy was directed against France until the opening years of this century, and that there was risk of war as late as 1898.

The risk of a war between these coun- I tries in the future- will depend upon several factors, including the measures devised by the nations to prevent war, chief among which is the League of Nations. Britain would be 3low to move in a race with France for supremacy in , the air, but we doubt whether even a I Labour Government in Britain would view with equanimity the continued development of French superiority. In the meantime the amount of money that France is spending on aeroplanes and warships does not make Britain more friendly towards her neighbour. France may plead security, and up to a point, the plea is unanswerable, especially by j a nation that promised, as a pendant to .the Treaty of Versailles, to defend France. But the question that worries Britain is whether, with Germany disarmed and prostrate, for the time being at any rate, all this expenditure is justified. It is likely to worry Britain still more if while she pays her debt to America she gets nothing from France, i