STRENGTH IN THE AIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 73, 26 March 1923, Page 5

STRENGTH IN THE AIR.

A CONTRAST WITH FRANCE.

COULD DESTROT LONDON.

.DIFFERENCES IN POLICY. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.! LONDON. March 23. A representative of the "Evening ' Standard" interviewed Lord Birkenhead, who said that an Air League should be formed immediately to educate public opinion on the lines" of the Navy League. Constant pressure on Parliament and the country was necessary to create j an atmosphere in which the Govern- l ment would cease talking and begin to j act. The Government admitted that j we were hopeless, vis-a-vis with France, j i If she wished, France could destroy London and other big towns without warning. "I do not believe the country will consent to be at the mercy of any other power, whether friendly or unfriendly," he continued. "I won't bury my head, ostrich-like, in the sand, or ignore the fact that an overwhelming number of influential French generals dislike and distrust Britain. France is engaged in ,

a policy which is daily revealed more j clearly as political first and economic second, and a policy of which Britain j profoundly disapproves. Moreover, I many influential writers in France are : daily indulging in sneers and menaces I at the expense of Britain. The people , of Britain are asking how France, , which pays nothing like our taxation j and has no unemployment, can afford this prodigious expenditure when she , refuses to pay capital and interest on her debt to us. I do not believe the British are prepared to be the only nation to pay war indemnity, or accept the suggestion that we pay our debts and receive nothing . from our debtors. What peril makes it necessary for France to be eight times j stronger in the air than we? The answer is that the French preparations are not an actual menace, but are wanted to Strengthen the tongue of diplomacy. —(A. and N.Z. Cable.)