AIR AS FIRST LINE

Evening Post, Issue 82, 6 April 1936, Page 10

AIR AS FIRST LINE

AWAKENED INTEREST

THE ARMS OF DEFENCE

SOME FURTHER VIEWS

I The scries of articles upon the problems of the defence of New Zealand, as it must be regarded in the new light of the possibilities of air defence, and the discussion of some of the aspects of the problem in the Legislative Council have awakened considerable public interest. Several letters upon the subject have been received by "The Post." "Returned Soldier" writes: I I have read with considerable interest the articles and letters In your paper on the value of aircraft as firstline defence of New Zealand. As I have pointed out in previous letters on this subject, I do not quarrel with A.A.H. in his views that an air force is necessary, but I do say emphatically that an air force is not, and never will be, the "be all and end all" of defence. It cannot but play its own part in conjunction with the Navy and Army. :

If one studies history it is puite apparent that the introduction of now weapons of warfare is very quickly followed by its antidote. The Navy claims it has the antidote to air attack in its anti-aircraft unit. This is apparently a heavily-armoured ship bristling with the latest anti-aircraft guns which, according to reports appearing in the papers, are guns with eight barrels and firing shells at the rate of twenty rounds per minute from each barrel. For all our new inventions the casualties in the Great War, in proportion to the troops engaged, were smaller than at Waterloo, a hundred years before. A point which would be of great interest to your readers, and one which so far has not been stated, is what A.A.H. considers the cost would be of an air force sufficient for the task he has in mind, and what it would cost New Zealand to maintain this force. It has been variously estimated by several of your correspondents that 100 to 200 aircraft would be required. What are A.A.H.'s views on this most important point? I have roughly worked it out, and the figure I arrivfe at—allowing for purchase cost of aeroplanes, hangars, workshops, tools, barracks, and pay for the necessary personnel, replacements (service aircraft have only a very limited effective life), maintenance, and trainingis rather astounding. It is, of course, entirely beyond the scope of a-layman's duty (and capacity) to attempt to draw up a scheme of defence, by air, land, or water, for the guidance of technical men who are in charge of the country's defence, and whose duties are to carry out in detail such a broad policy as may be formulated The writer has, from an intensive course of reading and observation over a considerable period, his own ideas, but they are essentially his own and at no time has he been so presumptuous as to put them forward and to say what, in his opinion, should be the constitution and strength of an Air Force, what types and numbers of machines should be obtained, what strength'of personnel, what system of training should be followed, nor what would be the probable cost of such a scheme. , . He has, howeisr, endeavoured to direct public attention to these two main points:— . 1 New Zealand is so situated as to be 'more effectively defended (having regard to financial limitations) by an air arm as the" first line than by other T^he New Zealand Air Force has been so handicapped as to constitute neither a first line defence nor an effective co-operating arm. _ The cost of establishing and training to proficiency-and thereafter maintaining in efficiency-a real Air Foice would, unquestionably, be large, but v is for the people of the Dominion to ay trough Parliament, whether their country is worthy and deserving of effective first-line defence at that cost The people of New Zealand have first To m!ke Pthat decision. The technical officer advises the Government so that it may make its general decision, and vhTn the .decision is made must carry through the detailed, work possible only other points .made" by "Returned Soldier" have, in the mam, afready been dealt with h The wnter has no quarrel with Retumea SoldierY views, but asserts again that The New Zealand Air Force as it is Sdaydn neither play its part alone „.: a i r force nor as ,an air arm in .conjunction with the Navy and Army. —A.A.H.] "OF FAR GREATER URGENCY." "Depth-Charge" writes:— There are many New Zealanders, wJoTke myself, saw-at first handtoe horrors of the last war, and who low have sons of their own growing UD We, like the Hon. T. Brmaie, want "a peace psychology created - but we do not want to see our sonsand daughters massacred- by bomb and SJ as the unfortunate Abyss.niansmen, women, children, and babiesarp being massacred today. The danger of disaster by the raiding forces of an enemy-are .real, but unfortunately are almost wholly unrealS by the vast majority of the popuation of New Zealand. For that reason the speech by the Hon. F Waite on the Address-in-Repy Debate m the Legislative Council last week is all to the good, but it is a pity that a gentleman with Mr. Waite's abili y and excellent war record should get himself so off-side as to' suggest, in outlining the defence measures, which he considered New Zealand should take, that "there should be a land force,, the principal duty of which should be to provide an expeditionary force—probably a division—which could go over- " By making that statement Mr. Waite shows that he does not take cognisance of the revolutionary changes which have taken place in the whole set-up of defence and defence organisation in the last ten years. The question of the adequate defence of New Zealand is of vital importance, and of far greater urgency than the Reserve Bank, the forty-hour week, etc. That being so, the time has come to do away with camouflage,and call a spade a spade. , . . The first and foremost duty of all patriotic New Zealanders is to defend New Zealand. Twenty years ago that might have been done, per medium of the British Navy, but. what are the facts of the situation today? In the event of another world war, how much assistance could New Zealand expect to get from Great Britain during the first three months of such a war, and what is going to happen to New Zealand' during that three months if she is in her present state of hopeless defencelessness?

Mr. . Waite, like our friends the Navy League, is ten years behind the times. He apparently entirely fails to realise that today the striking force of any nation is the Air Force, and that the Navy, through no fault of its own, but simply by reason of the growth and efficiency of "the air," is now relegated to the position of a transport service, and will not even be able lo

carry out that duty without air protection.

The pathetic part about all this controversy over defence is that so few people realise that whereas the growth of aviation has made the defence of all European countries more difficult, it has, by reason of New Zealand's geographic position, made the defence of New Zealand by New Zealand possible and within the limits of the nation's purse.

I If Mr. Waite and the Navy League and all those other well-meaning people who believe that New Zealand is! worth defending—and can be defended —without relying on anyone else, will get in behind those who are fighting for the only sane and practical form of defence for New Zealand, taking into account her geographical position and monetary resources, an efficient air force, our children may yet be saved from the horrors now being inflicted on the women and children of Abyssinia. If, on the other hand, they persist in talking about sending a "division overseas" and of spending six or seven hundred thousand pounds a year on two cruisers which would be withdrawn on the first hint of war, then God help our sons and daughters. FATEFUL DECISION TO BE MADE. "Wake-Up, New Zealand":—At last we find that the authorities are beginning to -think seriously about defence matters. Britishers are notoriously slow at getting under way at the thinking game. History affords numerous particular instances upon which I need not enlarge. But what is this twaddle we find being uttered in opposing the defence plans of the Government: "War is unthinkable to me." Good heavens, do the dreamers who talk in such a strain not yet realise the real state of the world outside?

"Defence money should not be voted while there are men and women who are not properly fed." Admittedly it is shameful. But just as undeniably it is a dreadful necessity. These and similar pious thoughts are making for our betrayal as a nation. Are the honoured gentlemen who adduce this argument quite incapable of understanding that the alternative to an adequate defence expenditure is going to be the definite possibility, of not only the starvation they allude to, but also death in an even less attractive form, and on the grand scale?

It is amazing that in the twentieth century men should have to talk in this wise. Nevertheless, these are facts that have to be faced up to. Now is not the time for platitudes regarding pacifist ideals. These are grim and realist days, at least for men who see things as they are. We must look to our defence, and immediately. Unfortunately this is a brutal world internationally, where force alone counts; witness the inhuman Italian operations in Ethiopia. Pacifist talk, sincere or otherwise, avails little. The world as yet is far from ready lor pacifism. Moreover, it is not wanted, unless in all countries.

In conclusion, I cannot do better than quote an axiom from a particularly sane article in your paper last Thursday:—"An island, instead of being easily starved out, taken, or destroyed by navies as was the case in the past, becomes tremendously strong because it cannot be got at by any land forces, and, while supremacy of the air is maintained, cannot be taken by sea forces." '

Now, in defiance of cold reason, seeing that we are typical Britishers, let us stand by indefinitely to Hear of a large vote for New Zealand's "Navy and Army" and for costly and ineffective immobile gun mountings ("to protect our cities"!); and for a small sum voted, but not expended, on a few second-rate aeroplanes, minus bombs, for our all-important Air Force.

Our destiny, all we have and are, may conceivably be bound up in this decision.