DISARMAMENT IN THE AIR

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21034, 9 December 1933, Page 15

DISARMAMENT IN THE AIR

Discussion in House of Lords BRITISH POLICY STATED (BUITISB OFFICIAL WIHELESS.) (Received Decenlber 8, 7.5 p.m.) RUGBY, December 7. The possibility of putting civil and military aviation under international control was raised in the House of Lords by Lord Allen of Hurtwood, who urged the Government to consider taking the initiative at the resumption of the Disarmament Conference to secure the total abolition of military and naval aviation on the line of the British draft convention, and the internationalisation of civil aviation. Lord Allen said that if a new race in air armaments once began it would ruin the Disarmament Conference, destroy all hope of peace in the Far East, and re-establish German militarism. It would mean letting slip the best opportunity of giving security to the world. Lord Londonderry (Secretary of State for Air) said in reply that the Government adhered to the policy it had put forward at Geneva —that of parity for the great powers who possessed air armaments, combined with a reduction from their present strength, pending examination of the difficult and complicated question, the internationalisation of civil aviation, with a view to the abolition of air armaments of every kind. The Government did not think the establishment of an international air force at the disposal of the League of Nations was either a practicable or desirable policy, and it was convinced that its adoption would by no means necessarily be followed by the happy results which its advocates anticipated. Lord Londonderry said Lord Allen seemed to favour changing the whole character of the League of Nations, making it a super-state with an armed military force. That would inevitably mean that every war would become a world war, extending instead of reducing the evils of war.