IF PEACE IS KEPT

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 January 1939, Page 10

IF PEACE IS KEPT

HITLER IS BEATEN. If world peace is preserved for a reasonable lime, Hitler’s power to do harm to the world will be immeasurably reduced. And even if war should now come, the German air superiority will not procure an eventual victory. Such is the sum of expert, opinion in Washington. It holds that, even now. if the English and French can recover from the devastation and disorganisation of a fearful attack from the air, they can win a war. The British Fleet is infinitely stronger than the German, and the French Army is still Better than Hitler’s constantly increasing forces. The British Fleet could command the sea coast and the French Army might well break the I Siegfried line. Expert opinion here is that while the Maginot Line is probably impenetrable, the new German fortifications along- the Rhine are unfinished and comparatively weak. And behind the British Fleet and the French Army are tremendous manpower, ample raw materials. great gold hoards, and the. financial resources of two Empires. Behind the German Air Force, on the other hand, is a nation living on synthetic foods, clothed in synthetic textiles, needing oil and iron and rubber, with no adequate sources of supply in sight.

The massed German air attacks which are so much feared are planned on the theory of the Italian strategist. General Douhet, who first suggested repeated attacks on the great cities by huge fleets of aeroplanes. How efficient it is in terms of the cost-damage ratio, no one knows. Yet the experience of Barcelona lias shown that, whatever its efficiency, if can be inhumanly horrible. Once they can protect Paris ami London from the inhuman horror. France and England can defy Germany at will. Because their present total of air strength is far below Ger-

many’s ten thousand aeroplanes, and because their product ion capacit y is ridiculously less than Germany’s eight hundred a month, they would now have to stand and survive the immediate horror. For the future, they

must build aeroplanes so fast that, if the German bombers come over, pursuit ships will be ready to drive them off. Military authorities here place no confidence in such expedients as the English balloon-supported wire net around London. The memory of the Great War will undoubtedly stimulate the English and French to superhuman efforts. The efforts will need to be super-human. Some have doubted the power of the German Air Force,

but reports received here recently indicate that it is scarcely possible to exaggerate it.

EXPERT ESTIMATES

t The story of the. French General Vuillemin, whom the Germans sought to frighten by showing him their aeroplane factories, has already been widely printed. He is said to have carried word back to his Government that the Germans must be making aeroplanes for export, so immense was the production lie. observed. And his observation has lately been confirmed in full by an American air expert's report to the authorities here.

This man passed a considerable period of time iu Germany. Prance and England, investigating the methods and facilities for manufacture. He found that the Germans had 20,200,000 square feet of factory floor space devoted to making aeroplanes, and that there were 160.000 German labourers

at. work'coiistriicting aeroplane bodies, with many more building engines ami producing guns, accessories and the like. t'miiid further that tin- German

factories were incomparably well designed. better than any even in America, ami shrewdly houses' in small, scattered buildings, with green-painted roofs and evergreen plantations around them, making them almost safe from air attack. He stated that the estimate of ten thousand aeroplanes a year as the German production was well on the safe side. In England, on the other hand, he considered that the factories were large, poorly designed, and not very safely situated. At. the same time, he saw production rising- and efficiency increasing, and he. concluded that the. English were now spending several times as much as the Gormans on aeroplane production. As for Franco, he discovered production almost at a standstill due to labour conditions, and not much hope of improvement in immediate prospect.

I The American expert ended his report by giving a comparative rating to the three nations, taking performance, number of aeroplanes on hand ami output facilities as the three factors. Giving Germany a full mark of one, he allowed England a mark of one-half, and France only one-tenth. Ital.y has a rating of one-fifth. Translating ail these figures into tenths, that gives the comparative air strength in a German-Italian versus English-French conflict as 12 to f>. or precisely two to one. You can sec why there was fear of the war in the air. Of course, this power to bring ter-1 ror from the air can give no perman-1 ent assurance to .Hitler. As has been '

pointed out. the military authorities believe that even now rhe British and French can win a long war. Clearly, Hitler cannot build 'up his strength in the other arms in the same way that the British and French can build up air strength. 'rhe German economy will not stand the cost of a great navy, or much increase in the army. Anti ] that is why. if peace can only be kepi | this time. Hitler’s power to do harm in the world will be so great.lv reduced.