PROPOSED AIR PACT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23178, 26 October 1938, Page 13

PROPOSED AIR PACT

GERMANY AND BRITAIN NAZI IDEAS ON PARITY LONDON, Oct. 20 "The specific purpose of recent Berlin reports regarding an Anglo-German air pact is clearly to test British opinion," states the diplomatic correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. "Germany," ho declares, "does not want aerial parity with Great Britain. It is even doubtful whether she would accept parity with the combined British and French air fleets. "She might accept a ratio of 100 to 35, or, at the most, 100 to 50, with Britain. German aerial rearmament, which is now receiving a most powerful impetus from the acquisition of Czech aeroplane works, is being urgently speeded up, and, failing a special British and French effort, Germany, owing to Czechoslovakia's elimination, will secure an easy command of the air, "It is believed in- London that if Britain does not accept a permanent air inferiority, Germany will cancel the Anglo-German Xaval Agreement and attempt to challenge British seapower. Germany, it is asserted, wants colonies, in order to establish naval and aerial bases overseas, and also as a justification for the larger fleet and air force that would be needed to defend them. Her demand for colonies, therefore, is an organic pjirt of Germany's determination to become a world Power."