AIR CONVENTION URGED

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 10 March 1934, Page 9

AIR CONVENTION URGED

CONTROL OF ARMED FORCES DESIRE TO AVOID RACE. FEARS FELT BY NATIONS. VIEW OF MR BALDWIN. (British Official Wireless.) Received .1.30 p.m. to-day. RUGBY, March 9. The immense importance of a convention covering air armaments was emphasised by speakers of all parties during the debate in the House of Commons on the air estimates'. Several members considered the increase of only' £135,000 in the British estimates was inadequate. There was, however, general recognition that the Government had framed,the estimates with a view to avoiding*the possibility of starting au air armaments race, and in order to give every chance to the proposals for a convention on the lines of the British disarmament memorandum'. Such a convention was declared to be the only' alternative to air expansion.

Mr Stanley Baldwin’ said he did not admit for one moment that the tour of Captain R. A. Eden had been a failure, although it had as yet not brought its fruits. The air problem was largely' psychological. Other Powers had the same feeling of apprehension as some members had expressed about the safety of London. The British policy' of parity was an answer to the real fea’r of a sudden knock;out blow because no equal would dare to try a sudden blow at equals. He did riot believe the world was yet ready for an international air force and therefore a convention limiting national forces should be the object of a practical policy.