AIR SAFETY FIRST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18458, 23 July 1923, Page 9

AIR SAFETY FIRST.

* • '- —— .:• .-- .'. ■ WARNING TO THE EMPIRE. PRESENT INFERIORITY. , We run the risk of being a subject nation or a dead nation unless we put our Air Force in the right position at once," said Admiral Mark Kerr at a meeting held under the auspices of the Air League of the British Empire at tho Mansion House, London;:. ' . . Lord Birkenhead) speaking in support of a resolution pointing out that national security depends on the establishment of a one-Power standard in the air, said: "We are now in a position of such hopeless inferiority that if a nation now friendly were, in consequence of any misunderstanding or quarrel,; to direct its power against thege . shores we should almost for the first time in history be found entirely defenceless.' "The need of economy is great, but the need of security and existence .is even greater." : To-day we are tin island no longer. We have never been permitted in centuries past to allow the existence of the couctry to depend on moods and friendships. It has been the habit of the citizens of: this country to see that they are able with : their own strong arm to protect their lives/' ; :•'•.'. . ) • Loud, applause followed Lord Birkenhead's declaration that ;•'" no security is adequate which does not make us at least as strong in ■. the air as any other nation in the world." J - • An appeal which amounts to a call to arms", against attacks was '.' issued by the Air League. It bears the signatures lof Lord Askwithj Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Sir Arthur Shirley Benn, Lord' Birkenhead, Sir Woodman : Burbidge, Lord Burnham, Mr. Philip S. Foster, Sir R. S. Home, Admiral Mark Kerr, the Duke of Northumberland, Major-General J. E. B. Seely, former Secretary of State for War, Captain Sir John 0. /E. ShelleyRolls, and others. " At one time before, the war," says the appeal, "the strength of. the Navy fell below the standard required by security. It. was" only due to organised public opinion that we were able to reaoh that .standard which gave to us a supremacy essential to 'our national life. Such strength in the air is now as vitally neces. sary to this country -and to the Empire as it was on the sea in the past."