BRITAIN'S AIR DEFENCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20480, 4 February 1930, Page 10

BRITAIN'S AIR DEFENCES.

The fopdness of tho present British Government for gestures of peace has prompted no more foolish proposal than its reported intention of reducing Britain's air defences. Enthusiasm for geace, a praiseworthy instinct, is not a monopoly of tho Labour Party. All parties share it. But the other parties have been less prone to forget that no immediately valuable measure of disarmament can neglect the need for national security. This need has been accepted as axiomatic in every international parley of recent years, including the discussions of the League Council and Assembly. It is acknowledged in the Briand-Kellogg Pact. It has been indicated as vital to the proposals to be put to the Naval Conference.- As noted by the Daily Telegraph, there was framed in 1923 a minimum standard of air defences. This minimum was approved by the- Labour Government afterward in office. A total of 52 squadrons was laid down as desirable, the first intention being to add some three squadrons a year and so to complete the strength by 1929 or 1930. Later, there was agreement to retard the rate of progress, but not beyond a point making completion possible in 1936. Now only a fraction of the accepted annual addition is provided by the Royal Air Force estimates, the reduction amounting to a crippling of the defences. It is significant that, while France will have 1350 first-line aircraft and Italy 1000, Britain will have only 772 in. all, operating over sea or land. Arguing for naval disarmament, Labour leaders have emphasised the point that the next war, if and when it should happen, would be fought in the air. Now, with an utter abandonment of logic, they are bent on reducing aerial defence to so absurdly low a strength that it can do no other than invite attack and leave Britain naked to her enemies. This is quixotic in the extreme. At the present time it can serve no good international purpose, and may complicate rather than simplify the task of the Naval Conference.