AIR FORCES AND PEACE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20756, 17 January 1933, Page 3

AIR FORCES AND PEACE.

PETER RENTS OF WAR. (KHOM OCj'OWfi ;COKEESPOSCEXT.; . XONDCCv, December .1. ' Air Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salraond, Ihe present -commander-in-chief" of Britain's air defence, who has been selected to succeed his brother, Sir John Salmond, next year as Chief of the Air Staff, brought a note of reality into the disarmament controversy in a recent speech. His defence of the air arm, which is threatened with drastic "cuts," and even abolitiou, took the-form- of a reasoned argument that air forces are the greatest deterrent against war that could possibly- be invented. He suggested that the proposal to abolish air forces originated in a fundamental misconception—that war, which is only a process Of organised killing, can be made humane. " He held that statesmen aud others who contemplate a war nowadays or in the future know well that by aggression ihey Jay open their countries to terrible attacks from the enemy, who will take no notice of- the old frontiers, but will transfer the attack immediately 10 the home front. "With this possibility existing," he asked, "are they so likely to take upon themselves the responsibility of creating a war?" Much of the appalling mischief wrought by "the last great war followed as a direct consequence on its long duration. Millions of men were thrown into' an almost static conflict, millions of them were killed or wounded, while at home privation and hardship led to the loss of'hundreds of thousands of lives as well as causing injury to the physique of the people of the defeated nations which will "endure to the third and fourth generations. With this in mind Sir Geoffrey went on to point out that the chief danger to.civiljsa.tion was theprolongation of war. "Anything that can shorten a war—and the air forces of the world are the. most powerful arm to do such a thingshould not be abolished, but should be retained/' he said. It was largely due to rhe presence of- the Royal Air Force in the outposts of the Empire that peace had reigned there since the war.