NO ONE-WAY AVENUE

Evening Star, Issue 23350, 21 August 1939, Page 10

NO ONE-WAY AVENUE

AIR GANGSTERISM [From Our London Correspondent.]

[By Air Hail.]

August 3. Nazi Germany’s astoundingiy successful exploitation of power politics, which is only the modern version of the Homan vi et amis, has been mainly based on the air. Air frightfulness is the trump card of a Nazi propaganda which is amazingly subtle in its infinite ramifications. Last September very influential persons in London were deeply impressed by Berlin’s confident talk of Blitzkrieg, or lightning-stroke warfare. From this point of view a comparison of our strategical position in the air with that of Germany may be interesting. When Germany set about building scores of aerodromes in Schleswig, we in pur innocence regarded it as aimed at Baltic neighbours. But Schleswig is the shortest and quickest line from Germany to Britain by air without invading the neutrality of Holland or Belgium, and undoubtedly these Schleswig preparations were intended to overawe'us. This Schleswig line of air attack has the further advantage, from the Nazi standpoint, of being across the North Sea, and therefore more likely to be unobserved. HITTING DISTANCES. A radius of 425 miles westward from Schleswig includes Hull and the Humber. Sheffield, Nottingham, Leeds, and Newcastle come within a 470 mile radius. Crewe, Birmingham, Manchester, Dundee, Aberdeen, and Dover are within a 510 mile radius. Bristol, Portsmouth, Southampton. Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Rosyth come within a 585 mile radius. Plymouth Cardiff, Swansea, Belfast, and Seapa Flow are within the 650 mile radius. These are thoughtiprovoking facts and figures, of course, but there as Dr Goebbels and and his associates realise quite well, another side to the picture. Our bombing headquarters during the war was in Nancy. From that convenient location Berlin is almost within a 400 miles radius, which also, it is not unimportant to note, includes Schleswig itself. And also about 80 per cent, of Germany’s chief munition works. Some of our bombers flying to France and back last week covered tour times that distance. It is a terrible thing if Europe has to sink to the ethical level or gangsterism, but it is well to realise that even frightfulness is no one-way avenue.