R.A.F. PRACTISES ITS DEFENCE OF LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 9

R.A.F. PRACTISES ITS DEFENCE OF LONDON.

LENGTHY ATTACKS.

Powerful Force of 'Planes

To Be Used.

DAY AND NIGHT RAIDS

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received 12.30 p.m.)

RUGBY, July 19.

Air defence exercises will begin on Monday evening with a raid by day bombers belonging to the "Southland" forces on London, which will be defended by lighters of the "Northland" forces.

The operations, in which over 370 aircraft, day and night bombers, and single-seater and two-seater fighters will take part, will lie carried out in two main phases, the first lasting 14 hours, and the second commencing on Tuesday evening and continuing for over 00 hours, during which there will be one period of 48 hours' continuous exercises.

A daylight raid on Monday will be followed by a night attack, in which the latest types of bombers will be used. All the main targets will be in the London area since the exercises, as in former years, are concerned with the problem of the air defence of the capital.

The ground organisation of the defence, which will include anti-aircraft batteries, searchlights and sounddetecting apparatus, will be strengthened by territorial units.

PERIL IN THE AIR. British Navy to Quadruple Gun Power. POTENCY OF ATTACKS. LONDON, July 10. The Navy is about to double, and eventually will quadruple, its antiaircraft armament, states the "Daily Telegraph" naval correspondent. This is a tacit admission of the potency of air attack, which is expected to be more formidable as aviation progresses.

The battleships Nelson and Rodney carry six 4.7-inch anti-aircraft guns, and other battleships and cruisers carry 4-inch guns.

The battleships Warspite and Malaya, now undergoing refits, will be the first to have eight long-range guns. Probably the new calibre will all be controlled as one unit, and will each be capable of firing S~ to 100 high explosive shells a minute at a sky target to the maximum ceiling visibility.

The battleships to bo laid down in 1037 will each have 10 guns.

POLITICIANS BLAMED.

"War Thoughts Do Not Spring

Front the People."

MR. J. A. LYONS' OPINION.

VICTORIA, Julv 1!).

'"If war comes it will have been caused by politicians, not by the people," remarked the Prime Minister of Australia. Mr. J. A. Lyons, before he left Victoria for San Francisco. "I am sure war thoughts do not spring from the hearts of the people of any country. We should take all Government heads once a year to the battlefields of France and let them meditate."

Mr. Lyons urged a closer friendship and a more equitable scale of trade relations between Canada and Australia. and said he believed that better Pacific relations would result in more stable world confidence.

At a luncheon of the Rotary Club Mr. Lyons said it was most important to increase Australia's trade balance with Canada. He did not wish to decrease Canada's trade, but to bring about a more even balance. He would even welcome an increase of Canadian exports provided that Australia's leeway was made up.

RECORD FLIGHT. PARMENTIER TO THE RESCUE. (Received 10 a.m.) BAGDAD, July 19. K. Parmentier, the noted Dutch fiver, who loft Amsterdam in a Douglas 'plane to pick up tlio passengers of the crashed K.L.M. air liner, reached here after a record flight. He hopes to reach Amsterdam to-morrow, when lie will have covered 7000 miles in 3J days. An Amsterdam message says that owing to tlio shortage of pilots, due to two recent crashes, the K.L.M. will shortly close down the AmsterdamLiverpool service.