AIR STRENGTH

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 13, 15 July 1936, Page 18

AIR STRENGTH

GERMANY'S POSITION

REPULSE OF LIMITATION

SECURITY PROBLEM

There is now hardly any doubt left that Hitler refuses to accept the limitation of armaments in the air as between Germany, France, and Great Britain, writes the diplomatic correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian." His refusal is based on what are. to him, the realities of the European situation. Perhaps it is not final, but ■it.will hardly change unless tnat situation changes fundamentally—and of this there is no sign.

In all matters relating to re-arma-ment in the air General Goering, as Minister of Aviation, had a good deal to say. and there do not seem to be any real differences of opinion between Hitler and himself with regard to the Air Force. Goering is opposed to a one-Power standard. Hitler takes the same view in so far as he is opposed to accepting parity in the air with France or Great Britain. His reason is that the existence of a large and growing Russian Air Force am of the Franco-Russian Pact makes parity with either of the Great Western Powers incompatible with German security. Genera] Goering is in favour of a twoPower standard.

The air pact first proposed by Great Britain and Prance in February last year was intended to reinforce the Treaty of Locarno. When Germany repudiated that treaty by reoccupying the Rhineland the Western Pact was proposed to replace it, and the original plan for the air pact was retained so that it should reinforce the new instrument if it were to be negotiated.

Under the Western and air pacts Great Britain would be obliged to go to the defence of France or of Germany, whichever of the two were the victim of aggression by the other. But if Germany has an air force twice as strong as the British, or as strong as the British and French put together, this obligation becomes very onerous indeed, all the more so as Great Britain is by her geographical position, and especially by that of her capital, for more vulnerable in the air than Germany is. An air pact on such terms would, in fact, condemn Great Britain to permanent inferiority to Germany in the air, a status that would be incompatible with the security of the British Isles. POINT HARDLY ARISES. If there is no change in the German attitude there can hardly be any question either of a Western or of an air pact. Meanwhile German re-armament in general has been making rapid progress. No doubt is felt here that German naval re-armament is being kept well within the limits accepted under the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of last year. But sea power and air power have become inseparable, and the" construction of military airports and bases (some of them with underground hangars) on the German coast (especially on the island of Syll) makes it impossible to assess Germany's coming naval strength in term? of naval armaments alone. German re-armament in the air still proceeds amid great secrecy, but the available evidence leaves no doubt that Germany has surpassed the British level. She is still inferior in quality—much of the German material bears signs of hasty -construction;—but in quantity and in her ability to replace destroyed or damaged aircraft she is so far ahead as to more than eliminate the margin of qualitative inferiority. There is some reason to believe that beyond what is positively known of German re-armament in the air a special German air force is being created under the conditions of special secrecy The size of this force is unknown, but its mere, existence would considerably increase Germany's margin of superiority. An air pact based on parity seems all, the more improbable because even if Germany were not to insist on a two-Power standard, she would hardly consent to relinquish the superiority she has achieved. NOT WITHOUT TRIALS. Not that Germany is having no difficulties She is beginning to feel the lack of trained pilots. The number of accidents in the German air force is probably unparalleled. Elaborate. but sure,"calculations make it certain that a daily average of three or four German airmen. are killed in flying accidents. (The casualties in the German tank corps are also heavy.) Although the death-roll in the German air force- is not ' generally known, rumours of it spread, perhaps in an exaggerated form, with the result that there has' of late been a perceptible waning in the enthusiasm with which great numbers of men applied for admission in the German air force. Meanwhile Germany is making herself invulnerable in the west not only by fortifying her North Sea coast, but by the .remilitarisation of the Rhineland. All hopes—and they were never very great on this side of the Channel—that there could •be an agreement by which Germany would refrain from the full militarisation of the Rhineland, even if only for a transitional period during which the Western and air pacts could be negotiated, have proved illusory. The remilitarisation' of the Rhineland will be complete well before the end of the year

A CHANGED PROBLEM.

The entire problem of Western security has been transformed within three months. The old basis of Western security was the Treaty of Locarno itself. The demilitarisation of the Rhinelandr was the of that treaty. When the Demilitarised Zone was reoccupied a substitute for the treaty had to be found, and it was found in the agreement amongst the non-German Locarno Powers that as far as they were concerned the treaty stood unilaterally until the Western and air pacts could be negotiated. Measures for carrying out the terms of the provisional unilateral agreement in case of an emergency were worked out. in the recent staff consultations.

At the end of the proposals known as the White Paper, submitted to the German Government by the French. British, Belgian, and Italian Governments on March 19, is the "letter" proposing a pact of mutual assistance as between Great Britain. France. Belgium, and Italy in case the negotiations for a Western and air pact fail It is still too early to say whether these negotiations will or will not take place, though it does not seem likely that ihey will. But the fact is that while terms of the "letter" at the end of the White Paper have not come in force in any formal sense they would be carried out automatically and instantaneously—as between Great Britain. France, and Belgium (the participation of Italy must remain doubtful until the Mediterranean crisis has been brought to an end)—if the emergency arose, irrespective of any negotiations for a Western and air pact.

Nine years after it had been released in Greer. South Carolina, a racing pigeon has come home to Wilmington, Delaware. The pigeon h"d flown about 500 miles—as the crow flies.

"If you want to live a long time, never think about your age," is the advice given by an Egyptian now living in Chicago who has passed the century mark by some years.