BRITISH AIR STRENGTH

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4809, 12 July 1939, Page 2

BRITISH AIR STRENGTH

REASSURING STATEMENT. BUT STILL BEHIND GERMANY. A reassuring statement as to Britain's new air strength has been made by the Secretary of State, Sir Kingsley Wood. The machines now going into service, he said recently, are as good as the best anywhere in the world, and nearly £2,000,000 a week is being spent on aircraft alone. This huge sum is not to be wondered at, for in introducing the Air estimates on March 0 the Minister announced that provision had been made for the expenditure of £205,000,000 in the coming financial year on aircraft production alone. He considered then that by April 1 there would be 1750 first-line aircraft at home, that the end of the year would see the creation of a metropolitan aii' force of 2370 craft, and that the oversea strength would be 500 first-line aircraft. To judge from reports since to hand, notably a British official wireless message concerning Sir Kingsley Wood's review of the position, these figures need by no means be taken as maximum ones. The Aim of Germany. Though the British air defence programme is substantial, the necessity for it is emphasised by the recent words of Field-Marshal Goering, head of the German Air Force, spoken at a time early this year when Germany, with at least 3500 first-line machines, was admittedly far and away the strongest air Power. *'lt is for us Germans," he said, "not only to maintain, but to increase the advantage we undoubtedly have in the air. We must produce aeroplanes in numbers and quality which seem unimaginable, but which in the Reich of Adolf Hitler, in the Reich of authority, are possible if the co-operation of all quarters is purposeful and devoid of friction. We should think only of securing finally for the air force an advantage which can never be overtaken, happen what will."