BEST IN WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 30, 4 August 1939, Page 10

BEST IN WORLD

ENGLISH FIGHTING

PLANES

SIR KEITH SMITH'S VIEWS

THE EUROPEAN SCENE

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, This Day,

"English military aeroplanes are the best in the world in efficiency," said Sir Keith Smith, Australian aviator and representative of Vickers, Ltd., on his arrival by the Monterey en route to Sydney. "The amazing development in speed and efficiency in the air in the last twenty years is a great trfe bute to the men behind the scenes, he said. Australia was being .prepared as a major source of supply of munitions to Britain in the event of war.

Having visited Europe he was impressed with the critical state of international relations, but Britain was quietly confident that she could handle •whatever situation arose. It was realised that if Germany struck the first targets would be British and French cities, and German squadrons would be so broken up that an air war would soon become a stalemate. The decision would then rest with the British Fleet and the French Army.