PEACE IN EUROPE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19809, 2 December 1927, Page 11

PEACE IN EUROPE.

EFFORTS MADE BY BRITAIN, REDUCTION OF AIR FORCE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received December 1, 6.5 v.xa.) A. and N.Z. HUGBY. Nov. 30. Ihe Secretary for Air, Sir Samuel Hoare, dealt with some aspects of the British contribution toward peace in Europe ia a speech at Cambridge University last night Referring to the Treaty of Locarno,, which he claimed was the result of an effort by Britain; he said iv represented for the first time since the war a mutual treaty that was willingly signed between tho victors and the vanquished. On the more general field of peaceful endeavour, there was no oocasion on whkh the British Government had not thrown the whole weight of its influence into the scales of peace. Dealing with aerial disarmament, Sir Samuel recalled that Britain had scrapped her great air force of the war tims, -and had decided to embark on a programme that would give in the course of several years a modest force for defence. So anxious, however, had the Government been to avoid any premature or unnecessary expansion, that when the Treaty of Locarno was signed the programme, which in any case was to be spread over a lengthy period, was deliberately retarded The situation that found Britair. even now, with an air force about hall tha size of the force of her strongest neighbour, was accepted. It would not be remedied for several years to come. There was no comparable instance to be found in Europe of such a sincere desire to restrict armaments.