RISKS OF ECONOMIES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 63, 16 March 1933, Page 11

RISKS OF ECONOMIES

PROGRAMME IN SUSPENSE

AID TO DISAEMA3IENT

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, March 14,

In presenting the Air Force estimates in the House of Commons today, Sir Philip Sassoon, TJnder-Secretary for Air, said that the contributions to economy made by the Eoyal Air Force had not been made without anxiety. Bisks had had to be taken. An apparent rise of £6000 in the .total of £.17,424,000 concealed a reduction of £340,000, following the decrease of £700,000 last year.

!No new units wore provided for although ten regular squadrons were still required to compete" the modest programme approved as long ago as 1923. The decision ,to hold this ten-

year-old programme in suspense for another year was practical proof of the whole-hearted desire of the Government to promote the successful issue of the Disarmament Conference.

Pending the outcome of the Conference, the Government was once again prepared to accept a continuance of the serious existing disparity between the strength of the Eoyal Air Force and that of the air services of other great nations.

In terms of first-line strength, the Royal Air Force stood today only fifth on the list of air powers, although at the end of the Great War Britain had a larger number of trained flying personnel and a larger total number of aircraft than any other nation. While the air expenditure in Britain had shown a substantial decline since 1925, other nations had very largely increased their outlay pn air services' over the same period. • ■ ,

GESTURE TO WORLD.

The decision, therefore, again to postpone overtaking arrears on the modest programme deemed to be the minimum necessary in 1923, when the strength of other air Powers was considerably less than it is today, was a gesture the importance of which would not, he hoped, be overlooked. The air policy of Britain was and had always been conspicuously moderate and unprovocative.

Nevertheless, whilst air forces existed, air power was as vital to the British Empire as sea power, and could not be neglected. ,

Reviewing the past year's work of the Air Force, Sir Philip Sassoon referred to its many peaceful activities, mentioning other examples the conveyance of surgical aid to sheikhs in the deserts of Irak, carrying anticholera and anti-typhoid vaccines to remote native villages of the Persian Gulf, reconnaissance to give flood warning in India and Irak, the supply .of food to famine-stricken tribes ill Trans-Jordan, the discovery of uncharted reefs, locust fighting, and the conveyance -of political officers and civil .mails to isolated communities.

It was stated that 300 aeroplanes, 452 aero engines, and other aeroplane parts of British manufacture, to a total value of nearly £,1,750,000, were exported from, the United Kingdom during 1932. '