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Hokitika Guardian, 9 May 1936, Page 6

through the other’s formation a panorama iof some' 200 vessels coulu be seen. ■ To the north was the Battle Fleet, to the 'south the Battle and - Light Cruisers . i;.; numerous' ' destroyers attended- the,..various units, on the: southern'horizon dots weye visible ■ representing {ihe tf aw ieraon mine barrage patrol.. , : ; •

How' extremely vulnerable, I thought, would such an armada be from the air if: and when the developments in aviation—which we then only visualised—matured.

y Those developments have’ now: taken place, ail 4 ; aueh a protected, by a'.inighty'fleet by minefields,/ ( wojild'vbe ai -the iuei‘cy ; of modern squadrons of. bombers.

\Just imagine an Atlantic food convoy now. approaching onr shores. It .would be perfectly feasible for a Continental Power to launch a series of attacks by air bombers supported by fighters. The convoy-would be greeted not. by dozens bi\f by hundreds of ’platies loaded with and a good maiiy would reach their objectives.

This aerial force might he attended by fast submarines, equipped with super-speed torpedo skiffs for use in favourable weather. - V - .

The chaos and destruction resulting frpm such an .attack .would be .appalling, and at/the present moment we could do little it; because we have not sufficient warplanes.

The Only Hop©.

It may be that the enemy would consider such an effort a "waste of time and power, and as no part;of Britain is .more than' a few hours from the Com ‘tirifent lid;- might choose to concentrate 1911 the more important military object destroying our internal organisa- * • ) - : rj .>' <y ; ; • . "Our only hope of defeating this is. by repelling him in the air or ing his air bases]/;/ -A"■ The' writing js: in the sky-and .one should dd“S-ou - have- been warned/’

In- February, . T909,' Lord -Nortlicliffe watched the demonstrations' of -the Wright aeroplane, at Pau, in the south of France, and wrote to Mr Haldane-, War Minister (as he then was), urging the need for some British official to be present, as French hnd German milijtary representatives were in attend-?-a nee. . 1 ‘ Mr Haldane’s reply was that nava| and military experts had demonstrated that dirigibles and, still more, aerojplanes were .a very Id'ng way off being of the slightest practical use in war}

Where Danger Lies.

About that time the brothers Wright offered to sell the patents in--.their heavier-than-air machine to the British Government, who refused on thepieij that it was of no use to the Nhvy. ? To-day, one may. say, with sure 1 j more chance of being right: “We dp not want big ships] they are of no use to the Air. Force. . . . The danger lies in the air and ihe Air Bomber rules the Waves!” ,/* ] . • - ’ Let- us concentrate while we have breathing space and put our-house in order]/ Let us stop building monstrous, archaic ships and-divert(the bulk'of the money, after providing for the naval requirements in light cruisers, probably submersible* destroyers, and sub-, ■marines, to bringing our air arm to its proper strength relative to the forces of Europe.