AEROPLANES OR SHIPS?

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11296, 23 August 1922, Page 6

AEROPLANES OR SHIPS?

admit!AT, SIR PERCY SOOTPB YIEWa Apropos cf the above subject Mr R. Darroch, secretary of the Wellington branch of the Navy League, forwards a copy of the letter written by Admiral Sir Percy Scott to the London “Timee”:— No one can deny that our air force is inadequate (writes Sir Percy), and as a result of this inadequacy we are to-day at the mercy of any European country that possesses more aeroplanes than we have. . The security of this country ha* from time immemorial depended on our navy, but new weapons have changed this. That “Britannia can no longer rule the waves unless she rules the air” is a truism that no one can deny, and practically it should be the basis of our national defence. We muss have an air force, and it must be an adequate force, and money baa to be found to equip and properly organise it. Where is this money to come from? I am told that there Is no money. Although we have no money for whs# is now our first line of defence te safeguard our country, in August next the taxpayers are to be asked to pay a first instalment of what will eventually turn out to be fifty millions of golden sovereigns for two battleships which will serve no useful purpose when they are built. They will involve an enormous amount of money for their upkeep, and if we go to -war with any European oountry it will be impossible for us to find a safe harbour to put them in. Building these two duns (if we had monev to waste) would only be foolish, but building them now when we want and must nave the fifty millions for our air defence is positively criminal, for it is asking a European country to come and destroy us. Some time ago I was informed that the Admiralty had had a brain wave and were not going to persist in theix foolishness. Tbeh- Lordships denied having had this brain wave, but their statement was rather shaky. Quoting from a newspaper, they said the plans for the ships were not ready, but if the labour position was favourable the ships would be started in the course of a few months. This clause leaves them a loophole to get out of their folly, and it is to be hoped that they will take advantage of it, and in so doing either save or devote to some useful purpose (for example the air) the fifty million golden eovercigus which the taxoayers will have to find.