AIR DEFENCES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 27 March 1922, Page 5

AIR DEFENCES.

AN EXPERT'S APPEAL

THE DANGERS OF^THE FUTURE

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT (Times Service.) Received March 27, 9.5 a.m. LONDON, March 25. Brigadier-General Groves, air expert, in concluding a series of special articles in the Times, submits that the aims of the British air policy should be: (1) To build as rapidly and economically as possible a striking air force for home defence, lest the heart of the Empire be open to sudden direct attack from the air; (2) to provide an army and navy with specialised ah* forces with essential efficiency ; (3) to create a Royal Air Force organisation to carry out the duties at present performed by the army and navy; (4) to maintain and develop the aircraft industry. Civil aviation had suffered in the past because it had not been definitely and clearly identified with national defence. State grants were the only possible method of creating defensive air fleets or exploiting and utilising civil aviation, of which the bulk of the material and personnel should be promptly available at the outbreak of war. We are forced with the intensive growth of air power throughout the Continent and the world, and are not creating adequate means to»-meet that force. Nearly four centuries ago our great sea captains laid the foundation of our sea power and gave England peace and security. We no longer may look to our sea power .to protect us. We stand upon the threshold of a new age. To us is given the greater task of building up a mightier force to safeguard the future of the Empire.