THE WORLD'S AIR COMPETITION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3132, 28 August 1922, Page 8

THE WORLD'S AIR COMPETITION.

(By Sir Philip Gibbs.)

Considerable agitation is being organised by a, section of the British press, supported by questions and debates in Parliament, on the subject of Britain's future in the air and the threat to national safety by the loss of military and civil enterprise in aviation. The facts in the case certainly have caused great uneasiness in the public mind. British air squadrons for home defence have been reduced to 12. In the Near East and India there are another 20 squadrons. Civil airplanes certified as lit for flight number 1)7, and many of those are old-fashioned crocks suitable only for short joy rides. Meanwhile, for lack of Government and civil orders, air works are at a standstill, manufacturers of airplanes and engines like Bolls Koyco and Napier have given notice they cannot keep their plants going on the present basis of inactivity. As a contrast to this weakness France has an enromous and highly efficient air force of more than 200 squadrons, and Germany is doing a great deal in the way of civil aviation which could instantly be adapted to war purposes. The. effect of newspaper and Parliamentary propaganda on simple minds was evident to me during the recent procession of the Prince of Wales through the streets of London when I stood in Jiie crowds and listened to the commentFof the men and women when two airplanes circled overhead. "When the next war comes," said' one woman, "these things will be as thick as midges in the sky," and we shall have no defence against them unless we wake up soon." "Ah." said another woman, "it won't do any good going into cellars like the last time. That new poison gas will creep into the underground places and choke us all before we know what's what." "It's a wicked shame. 1 call it." said another woman; "people who invent such stuff ought to lie hanged, though they call themselves scientists." Then a. man spoke up. "It's l coming all the same, sooner or later. We have got to be ready for it. It is not nice to be caught napping. One night of «;as bombing and London would be a graveyard. Be prepared, I siay." A little fellow in a cloth cap challenged his opinion: "If we get ready for an air war we shall have it all right. It means asking for it. What I say is let's make up our minds not to have another war. Tt is far safer in the long run. and cheaper, too. Peace ih our best policy." "That's fine talk," said one woman "How can you bo -sure of peace with thorn Germans building up secret armies, and even France not overfriendry to us?" So the talk went on until the coming of the Prince That was the mind of the people made uneasy by scare articles, bv ugly memories of air raids and English cities in daylight dark-

n ess There is something more than cheap newspaper scare in this question. And it is a problem which holds a menace to more countries than Great Britain. We have got to make up our minds before very long in every part of the world whether this new invention of (light is to be used as the most destructive agent of humanity or is to be controlled by international agreement in the service of peace. Those comments I heard in the London streets went pretty close to the heart of the subject and raised the question which must .somehow be answered. No country like England, very vulnerable to attack from the air, can afford to lose her place in aviation if other countries are increasing their squadrons, training great numbers of young pilots and' subsidising civil enterprise! No country can with any prudence ignore the abominable menace ol' poison gases to drop on the head from aerial bombs if such things are to be allowed in civilised warfare. 1 discount all flesh-creeping stories of gases which in an hour or two could reduce a great city like London or New York to ebarncl houses of suffocated bodies. But, exaggeration apart, it is certain there are new forms of poison known to the laboratories of England, France. Germany, and the Uii'ited States which have more deathdealing power and a wider area of gaseous penetration than anything used in the last war.

T saw enough of that to know its paralysing effect on troops in action. German mustard) gas, when used, was the cause of very serious anxiety to British army commanders. The casualtics in 1917 numbered several thousand daily in certain areas. I shall never forget the sight of those lines of young men laid out in casualty clearing stations behind the lines, coughing their lungs up, temporarily blinded, unconscious, suffocated, burnt about faces and bodies by the invisible vapor.

Without gas the. effect of aerial bombardment became* increasingly severe before the end of the war. In one night of aerial activity in which I bad a very personal experience the Germans destroyed over two thousand houses at Amicus; another night they laid the centre of Abbeville in ruin. Our own destruction, over the German lines on "billeting places was increasingly terrifying to the enemy; there were days of battle when the morale of the German troops was badly shaken by the audacity of the young British aviators. who swooped low over their lines, machine gunning them in their very trenches, pounced down over batteries, knocked out their guns by well directed bombs, chased transport trains, smashed them up. made death traps of cross roads and high roads crowded with battalions on the march. The German soldiers I met as prisoners confessed that this aerial warfare shook their nerves lbore than anything else. Vet in my opinion this method of war. this new engine of destruction, can never be decisive one way or the other. In the future as in the "past airplanes can never win a victory or force the surrender of the enemy over wide areas of country. In whatever numbers they fly they will not bo able to lake the place of masses of lighting men with their feet on the earth advancing and occupying a hostile position. Aerial warfare will not take the place of military operations but only supplement them, increase (he mortality of war. and, above all. break down the thin line between military and civilian populations. Undoubtedly civilians will be the. first to gel it in the neck as the Cockneys say. and il is this intuition which is I he cause of the uneasy forebodings among such folk as these [ heard discussing; the subject in I he streets of London. I am inclined to agree with the little fellow in the-'cloth cap who said "Let's make up our minds no! to have another war." The newspaper scare now being worked up in England won't do badly if il intensifies that particular conviction among great mattes of the common people. hut it does not solve I he problem. Wars have a way of happening, whatever the common people think, and there are forces at work in I lie world to-day which, if they are not checked, will beyond any doubt lead to some convulsion in the future. It seems to me urgently necessary that there should be a world-wide propaganda against -the coining competition inaorial armaments and an international agreement on a world-wide basis against bombing cities and the use of gas bombs. Aviation is one of the most beautiful powers of humanity over nature. In

the early days of aviation mankind seemed to have reached to a new era. of splendid, joyous conquest, and I well remember the sense of ectasy with which we used to watch men like Latham, Bleriot, and Wilbur Wright making their first flights. It is an awful thought that this new power we have should l be devoted almost exclusively to destruction; that there is a dark suspicion of sinister purpose if Germany builds airplanes to carry mails from one city to another, if France establishes a school for pilots. If we do not take thought pretty quickly this invention of flight will be the most evil power men have created for their own destruction. It is certain Great Britain will not allow any country to gain unchallenged supremacy in the air, oven if that country is France. It is certain any country looking ahead with steady eyes, without false pessimism, without false optimism, would bo unwise to be unarmed in the air when there is no certainty of peace on earth. Therefore, while making greater certainty of peace in every way possible, especially in the minds of peoples, it will be necessary to check, control, and limit by international pacts the size ol aerial armies, to devise a code of honor for humanity by which they may be used.