The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News. The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1937. "TOO GREAT A TARGET."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 8

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

SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1937. "TOO GREAT A TARGET."

Tor the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do.

"No one," it has been said, "has ever correctly foreseen the nature of future wars," but there is ample information at present to suggest the nature of one feature of the next. Possibly the pictures painted of future aerial warfare —the mass assault upon great cities by incredibly fast 'planes dropping bombs carefully devised to cause the maximum amount of destruction, death, injury and disease —has been over-painted, but its general accuracy is not doubted. At least it i& assumed that such attacks would be attempted. The destruction and slaughter, great or small, would be incidental; the attackers' general object would be the demoralisation of the civil population. But this might be difficult to achieve by indiscriminate bombing; the more certain and direct way to achieve it would be by damaging the country's administrative and economic organisations so seriously as to cause widespread confusion and panic. The more centralised such organisations are, the greater would be the damage if the centres were destroyed. Considerations such as this, it is suggested, have influenced the British Government in its reported decision to suspend the building of a great block of Government offices in Whitehall. It would present "too great a target for air attack." It seems futile to deplore the conditions which have made such a decision seem wise. Indeed, if regarded properly, it is a decision dictated by the fundamental instiuct of selfpreservation. But it must lead people in every those, like New Zealand, which do not think of themselves as being in such danger, to ask again, what is to be the end of all this? Are people's lives for ever, or for long, to be regulated and shaped by the ever-present possibility that their existence, their homes and their livelihoods will be imperilled by enemies in the skyf We in New Zealand have had impressed upon us the fact that a considerable part of the country is subject to earthquake, and new buildings are planned and constructed with a view to the possibility that they will one day have to stand the shock of a natural convulsion which we cannot prevent. Although such precautions may save us much, they deprive us of nothing; no building has been abandoned because of the fear of earthquakes. But if the London decision creates a precedent, the people of the United Kingdom will be obliged, because of the fear of war —a man-made catastrophe— to deprive themselves of amenities and services which they need and which they have the means to provide. It is possible, moreover, unless the threat of war disappears, that the design of future buildings of importance will be radically affected by the thought that some day they may be bombed. Already, in some European countries, military aerodromes (most important targets in war-time) are being built underground. Is the time far off when vital administrative buildings, the preservation of which is essential, will also "go to earth"? All this sounds, and is, unpleasant, but it is no longer "unthinkable," nor is any good purpose served by calling it so. A number of "unthinkable" things have happened in the last few years. The fact seems to be that the Governments of Europe have accepted the view that ultimately war cannot be averted. They do not admit it in their speeches, but they show it by their actions. The peoples in the various countries probably do not accept the same view—in some of them the Government prescribes the view they shall hold —but in every country the people see that their nation, to maintain its own security and to secure respect for its rights, must be strong enough, either alone or by means of alliances, to defend itself. Hence measures and expedients and sacrifices which to a dispassionate observer must seem insanely fantastic are accepted, even with enthusiasm, lin the cause of defence. And the pressure | is more intense in Europe than anywhere else because there more than 20 sovereign States are trying to exist in an area which, if Russia be excluded, is not much bigger than half the size of the United States.