POLICE BOMBING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23067, 18 June 1938, Page 15

POLICE BOMBING

PRACTICE IN INDIA EFFECT ON OTHER NATIONS MORE HUMANE WARFARE BRITISH LEAD SUGGESTED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright British Wireless RUGBY, June 10 In the House of Commons Mr. Arthur Henderson (Labour—Kingswinford) asked the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, whether he was aware of an offer recently made by Mr. Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, on behalf of the United States Government to join other nations in seeking to make more humane, by a common agreement, the rules and practices of warfare.

The Prime Minister was asked whether he would make a similar offer on behalf of the British Government, and whether, with such an object in view, the Government would announce its willingness to forgo the practice of police bombing on the north-west frontier of India and elsewhere. Saleguaids Provided "These safeguards are expressly laid down in the regulations governing the employment of the Air Force on the frontier, and they are never departed from in any circumstances," said Mr. Chamberlain. Mr. Henderson: Is it not a fact that the official spokesmen in Japan and in Nationalist Spain and other countrieH are using this practice of police bombing in order to neutralise the moral effect of the protests the British Government has made regarding bombing of civilian populations both in China and Spain? Mr. Chamberlain: Yes. That is so. That is the reason why I am taking pains to state exactly the conditions under which bombing may take place on the north-west frontier. Sir Percy Harris (Liberal —Bethnal Green): Would it not be a splendid gesture to the world if the Prime Minister were to set an example by abandoning this practice? General Agreement Mr. Chamberlain: No, Ido not tbink it would bo a splendid gesture, but if it were found that this practice, which is in the main, I think, humane, were standing in the way of a general agreement to abolish bombing from the air we should certainly be glad to abandon it. Mr. George Lansbury (Labour —Bow and Bromley), who, over many years, has criticised the police bombing by British forces, questioned tho efficacy of conditions described by Mr. Chamberlain. The Prime Minister, in reply, indicated his view that attacks on the practice which Mr. Lansbury and another member had cited must be by persons who were unaware of conditions and safeguards which the Government imposed on the use of the air arm for police purposes.