BRITISH AIR DEFENCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23027, 3 May 1938, Page 15

BRITISH AIR DEFENCE

Sir,—ln regard to the opening paragraph of your leading article of April 26, 1 agree that the arrival of the air age makes island nations liable to attack bv aircraft, nevertheless the sea and tho Navv still guard our frontiers against invasion by an enemy army. Mr. Baldwin's injudicious obiter dictum "tho bomber will always get through was in four months amended by him to "some bombers will always get through," with a rider that with efficient ground and air defence the casualties of invading aircraft might well be so heavy as to give tho enemy funouslv to think. Mr. Churchill in the March defence debate stated that for the last three vears Germany has spent £2-10.000.000 sterling on air defence each vear. If this is so. Britain's expenditure of £102,000.000 this year, and verv much less in the previous two vears. looks small. He considered Germany's air fleet to bo more than twice the size of that of Britain, and, though Germany might be ready for an air war now that peace was probable for at least a year, as the German Army was not vet readv to meet the welltrained French Army of 4.000,000 men, counting trained reserves. Ho emphasised the unanimous and enthusiastic declaration of tho French Chamber, from Monarchist to Communist, that France would come to England's aid if England was the victim of unprovoked attack, and thought this was tho chief factor "in keeping the peace at, the present time; not Britain's late and inadequate air rearmament, which would take vears" to mature whatever money we might be willing to spend. Lieu-tenant-Commander Fletcher, the witty and forcible Labour M.P., in his informative speech in the March Air Estimates debate, touched on-so many specific items in Britain's air rearmament that gave grounds for alarm that it is difficult to select one or two quotations as more important than the remainder. He affirmed that "machines ordered two vears ago are not yet in production," that "the producing of airframes and aero-engines has not kept in step, so that many engines are in stock with no airframes to put them in." He pointed out instances of bad errors in costings, and quoted an occasion when "the Ministry's inspector showed there were 43 fitters at work, when in fact there were only six." He reported some leading aircraft manufacturers as estimating the German output as three times our own, and others at 600 machines a month; and ho believed that Germany was "years ahead of us in blind landing." and that tho Royal Air Force was still without blind landing equipment. He concluded with "Tt is the national security which is at stake. We in this country are engaged now in a very grim race indeed." H. Wan,sky Bayly.