AIR WAR MENACE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 33, 9 February 1939, Page 13

AIR WAR MENACE

CAUSE OF UNCERTAINTY

BRITISH ARMAMENTS EFFORT

BEST WAY TO PREVENT CONFLICT

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 7. The Air Minister, Sir Kingsley Wood, in a speech today, said that the menace from aerial warfare was one of the main causes of uncertainty and anxiety in the world today. Navies were not obsolete, and tbf role of armies remained. Financial strength to continue the contest, and the courage and determination of a people, must be reckoned in the sum total of a nation's capacity to win through. But today the seas were bridged by the air and the continent of the air had no frontiers. "It is for these reasons," said Sir Kingsley Wood, "that we are making great efforts and spending vast

sums of money on \ our air defence, as well as in the belief that the best means' of preventing war is for Britain to be strong, not only for defence, but in the peace councils of the nations-" NOT PURELY DEFENSIVE * STRATEGY. "Our air re-armament is proceeding at a greatly accelerated rate and we are building up a balanced air force. There are no foundations for the suggestion that we are falling back on a purely defensive strategy in the air." Counter-offensive remained, and must remain, an essential component of air defence, but the* Air Minister did not subscribe to the assertion that there was no defence against the bomber. An offensive, however, to be successful must start from a secure base. •■ | Their efforts in connection with de-j ' fence did not mean that the Govern- J ment believed in the inevitability of j war or that such efforts were inconsistent with the efforts which Mr. Chamberlain and the Government were making to bring about a better understanding between the nations. It is announced that an Air Raid Defence League has been formed, to take a position in relation to aid raid defence similar to that of the Navy League and the Air League in their respective spheres. The proposed league is quite independent of Government departments and other official organisations concerned in the preparation of measures for civil defence.