AIR ATTACK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 17, 21 January 1937, Page 3

AIR ATTACK

DEFENCE FUTILE

A DUTCH MANIFESTO

Three of the leading air pilots in the Netherlands have addressed a manifesto to Parliament calling for a supreme effort for peace because, they contend, it is impossible to protect tlieir country from air attack. The pilots are Evert van Dijk, W van Veenendaal, and A. Viruly. The last-named was recently in the news when he resigned his post as reserve flying officer in the Netherlands Air Force because he felt that he never could perform a duty which necessi- j [tated killing other men—"thus break-1 ing a positive Christian commandment, the most valuable experience of life and my human sense of honour." Evert van Dijk is a veteran pilot of the Royal Dutch Airlines, who, with Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith and Paul Stannage, flew the Atlantic from Europe to the United States in 1930, W. van Veenendaal is a popular pilot on the 9000-mile AmsterdamBatavia line and widely read author of aviation books.

The manifesto runs as follows:—

"The Netherlands is but 40 minutes wide. Every year it becomes narrower. And our large towns are within 20 minutes flying with a normal commercial aeroplane, either from the River Yssel, the Scheldt, or the North Sea, and sometimes considerably less. "Within 20 minutes, however, it is impossible: (1) to signal an air attack; (2) to ascertain its probable object; (3) to alarm the defensive forces near that object; (4) to man the possible aeroplanes for defence, to start them and to bring them up to the necessary height for defensive action. In their soberness these facts determine the fate of these towns in case of war, even when the sky is clear, whether by day or by night.

"When the sky is clouded, a blind flyer, guided by radio from behind, can remain invisible up till the last minute and his success will be the greater, the more so as all our towns are clearly marked by water and easy to find by day and night, and the defending aeroplanes are hardly faster than modern bombing machines.

"This is no question of different political views and opinions, it is a question of minutes and miles which cannot be denied. Every expert knows that an air attack on an object situated in a belt of less than 70 miles wide indubitably because of the velocity of modern bombing machines. Every Netherlander lives in such a belt; his life, his civilisation, his possessions are completely at the mercy of an attacker. . . . Our profession makes us see more soberly and more clearly the chaos which a war would make of a small and narrow country. . .

"There is no conclusion to the manifesto," a "Christian Science Monitor" correspondent said to Pilot Viruly.

"That's quite right," he replied. "It lis not up to us, as laymen in the ' domain of politics, to draw conclusions. Everybody may do so for himself. We, who signed the manifesto, even • have different views as to what should be done about it. But we all agree on this cardinal point, that there is a grave danger and we wanted to open people's eyes to the terrible reality that it is absolutely impossible to put up an adequate defence system against air attacks. in the Netherlands."

"And what is your personal conclusion?" Viruly was asked. "My personal opinion is: let the Netherlands Government take the initiative for a positive peace policy. Let there be an international police force, to be put at the disposal of the World Court, as a court of justice above the sovereignty of the States."