AERIAL BOMBARDMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22955, 5 February 1938, Page 14

AERIAL BOMBARDMENTS

| Are. the Powers likely to agree that there shall be no aerial bombing of defenceless towns? There can be no doubt of the growth of a widespread revulsion against the practice. Happenings in Abyssinia, Spain and China have made the world painfully aware of the tragic horror of such bombardments, and now an effort is afoot to promote ah international agreement to ban them. A "surprise debate" in the House of Commons on the question has been marked by a strong speech from Mr. Eden and a Labour motion, carried without division, urging the Government to exercise its influence to this end. The Government is taking steps accordingly. These follow an exhaustive survey of the subject by departmental experts, as a consequence of a Note sent by the Loyalist Minister of Defence in Spain to Britain and France. 3ihus should be rapidly crystallised the general feeling expressed in various protests, including that of workers' delegates to the International Labour Organisation. Already Britain, France, Belgium and Germany: have been allied by official statements with the endeavour to secure a prohibitive agreement. China's pleas to European Powers have helped, indirectly, to bring this alliance about. But Mr. Eden has reminded the House of the very formidable objections that may be raised against the prohibition. Memories of the opposition, at the Washington Conference of 1921-22, to the British proposal for the abolition of submarines give weight to Mr. Eden's reminder. The perennial argument of "military necessity" will undoubtedly be used, shamelessly callous though * it : is. And even a general agreement would have limited value. Civil aircraft can be speedily transformed into bombers, and the Great War saw deluges of poison gas employed in spite of a long-standing Hague Convention forbidding its use. Yet the crusade against this : latest-brutality should go on. ..• >