AIR RAID MENACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 33, 9 February 1939, Page 11

AIR RAID MENACE.

CAUSE OF WORLD FEAR

few Defence League Formed

In Britain.

MOVEMENT LAUNCHED. British Official Wireless. RUGBY, February S. An Air Raid Defence League has been formed to take a position in relation to air raid defence similar to that of the Navy League and the Air League in their respective spheres. The proposed league is quite independent of Government Departments and other official organisations concerned with the preparation of measures for civil defence.

The Minister for National Defence, Sir John Anderson, has extended his good wishes for the success of the project.

The Air Minister, Sir Kingsley Wood, said in a speech that the menace of an air raid was one of the main causps of uncertainty and anxiety in the world to-day. Navies were not obsolete, and the role of armies remained. Financial strength to continue the contest and the courage and determination of a people must be reckoned in the sum total of a nation's capacity to win through. Speed of Armaments. "But to-day the seas are bridged by the air and the continent of the air is one," said Sir Kingsley. "It is for these reasons we are making great efforts and spending vast sums of money on our air defence, as well as in the belief that the best means of preventing war ia that Britain shall be strong, not only for defence, but in the peace councils of the nations." Britain's air rearmament was proceeding at a greatly accelerated rate, and he emphasised that Britain was building up a balanced air force. There were no foundations for the suggestion that she was falling back on a purely defensive strategy in the air. Counteroffensive remained, and must remain, an essential component of air defence. The Minister said he did not subscribe to the assertion that there was no defence against the bomber, but an offensive, to be successful, must start from a secure base. The efforts in connection with defence did not mean that the Government believed in the inevitability of war or that such efforts were inconsistent with the efforts which Mr. Chamberlain and the. Government were making to bring about a better un-lei standing among the nations. SOLD TO BRITAIN. ANTI AIRCRAFT EQUIPMENT. WASHINGTON, February 8. President Roosevelt told—a Press conference that the manufacture of American anti-aircraft equipment had been speeded up by the sale of older models of such equipment to Britain. The President gave this information in response to questions whether the United States was selling secret anti- ' aircraft equipment to the British j Government.