There Are Now No Coasts

NZ Truth, Issue 997, 3 January 1925, Page 2

There Are Now No Coasts

.- . ■ . ■ - ' - - ■■■ ....■■. «, ___ . -■•-.. / Abolished By Airplanes The Qceap is the Air, and the Coastline is No Barrier An American View of What the Airplane Means to Shore Defences That President Coolidge is up p. gainst a very real problem m, the clash of opinion m the United States on defence matters lids betfn clear for many weeks. The present stir of public opinion follows on a wide press campaign. A sample of the articles that have marked this campaign is given below.

A sample* of how the American newspapers mobilise public opinion and direct it upon the politicians is fourid m the following letter, which is presented along with an invitation to readers' to copy it arid send it to ;the President and Congressmen: ■•.,-. Dear Sir: !' .■■■■-, . I.call your attention to the article enclosed.' As a citizen of the United States I request that the defence of the country be brought up to date. I protest against reliance on coast defence guns that are a mere^ joke, as no enemy will ever come within range of them, and against squandering tens of ■ millions on battleships that are entirely out of date. I believe that the. United States of America should - have not only the biggest flying.fleet m the world, but a flying fleet able to deal with ALL the World's air fleets efficiently sent against U „ ■ a • ■ 1.1 ' By spending on flymg^achin^es onetenth of .1 per cent, of what she owes us m c|sh, Europe could come over tf,» e fand^ WipeS l • y hilating the creditor. Name • • <•» No. arid Street ............. .. City, and State ..........i The article that includes the above letter-form contains a discussion on aircraft and an illustration of the sort of waivplanes that Japan is alleged to be building. Since the article was written the question of; the American fleet's Pacific movements has become a burning issue. ■'....■ Iri old days (says the writer) danger of attack interested those that lived alohg the edge of the water. Ships -might bombard seaports, troops might land and attack people along the shore, But people INLAND paid little attention to war talk. It is different now. Huge airplanes will be crossing the ocean m a few years. Such craft transported on gigantic freight ships, could be brought across the Pacific or the Atlantic now, turned loose m, the air a hundred miles from either c'oas of,the United States, and within a few lioUrs half a dozen such ships could destroy San Francisco, or Los Angeles,' or Seattle, or New York, or the Capitol at Washington, D.C. r Or they could fly a few hours mland and lay waste Kansas City, Chicago, Cleveland, Detriot, St. Louis. Every human being is interested i war to-day, because every foot of ground m this country is on the edge of the .ocean. . The reason is that the ocean now is the air. Sea power is a part of past history. Air power is the .thing todayV The nation that controls the air can control the world. The Japanese and the French know it. ' France has-two thousand fightin air craft m the first line and two thousarid m reserve. The Japanese, as rapidly as mechariics and money can do it, are building' up a great fleet They are not wasting their ,time on floating battleships, they are buildin tot this coming world's battle, which will be m the air. . The Japanese are building not onl m their own shops at home, they are also, getting machines built m France, and. hiring German mechanics to: buil them. - ■ V , This editorial is not published t frighten anybody. .Americans are no going to be frightened, .and they don' net'd to.be frightened. :V; ; If they have common sense, if the^ act with the intelligence that an ordinary high school boy should possess they won't have any need, to worr about foreign airship building. , We have;^the money, we have th skill, we have good fliers and can develop thousands' at short notice. . " . - - - - -■■■■ •.-' ■-1..'/- V ;■■.:. -.: -, .

/ We killed one excellent flier the I oilier day because he was sent up m a worn out machine, a flimsy plane intended for three months' use only, then to be scrapped. ; ■ >p hat wag( to put it pp]ite]y «an vn _ avoidable homicide," a better name for ' it is stingy murder. We need not continue that. We can build the ships if We want to.. We can rule the air if we want to. And what's more important, m a couritry that considers defence dollars ho carefully, while it- lends ten thousand millions to help Europe's fight, we can make these flying machines pay their own way m the post office and forest service m peace times, keeping them ready with their fliers and their power td carry. bombs and poison gases m case .war should come, At -'„ . „„_<.„«„ tvrih nf hi«h p^red/ Tghting^Slane" is ° on^ls wav to Japan. One battleship of ■ dt£ dnough?-claßß costs forty.flve milllon dollars- For that sum \ he nation CQUId buiJd and mobiliae two thousand ot these flghtirig airpiahes. Does the President or an| othfer sane man ask . what chance a battleship would have against two thousand fighting air machines dropping , TNT from the clouds? While Japan builds these gigantic and efficient engines of war, we are amusing ourselves and deluding ourselves with popguns, out of date, iidi-, culous little cannon placed along the edge of this gigantic continent. • Our army men—some of them ought to be sent for a few years to a good military school m Europe —announce with intense delight that these 16--inch guns can shoot to a distance of thirty-flve miles an explosive "weighing one ton. : Of course, they can, but what of it? Look at this Japanese fighting ma- , chine. It could fly across our terrltory,/and just m passing* drop on this little defence" popgun enough TNT to wipe it out of existence, then t pass on to bomb and gas, New York, Chicago 6r the Capitol''at Washington, as the commanding .officer might choose. . \ . And this isn't imagination. Could there be any greater joke than building battleships at 45,000,000 dollars apiece when the price of one battleship would build two thousand first-class n flying fighting machines? Could there be anything more idiotic than relying on 16-inch guns, with a poor little 35-mile firlrig capacity, to meet fighting fliers that would come across the ocean, or be released from great airplane-carrying ships one-hun-dred miles out, beyond the reach of these little coast popguns? Those flying machines with the g deadly charges of the highest .explosives and poisonous gases would fly over our ■. out-of-date battleships, 25,000 feet up m the afi*, so fast thi.it , the sleepy elderly admirals wouldn'teven know they were there. Released g for flight, one hundred iriiles off the coast, before dawn, they could borribard and lay waste New York or y Washington and fly back to the fast ships that brought them, before our modern "civilian warriors", knew what d happened—^except for the explosions and the poisoning. And there are s"ubo marines rtow building,. big enough to t carry fighting planes, that coijld travel t under water elbse to any coast city. What's the use of talking about a y cbast defence gun, able to fire a oneton shell thirty-five miles, m thfs day , when flying machines, released on the y ocean east of New York m the morn^ ing. could be m Chicago at noon, do c their, dpstructive wbrk there, then fly across Lake Michigan, land m Canacia and' allow themselves to be "interned ?" ...■•..■ .■.- '; ■ •-; ■■ •. '. - • ' ■■jg ■'■-.•'

What difference would it make to a rich nation fighting the United States if it could destroy such a city as Chicago, pdison half its inhabitants, with a fleet of battle planes, at the price of having those inexpensive planes arid a few dozen flying men interned m Canada? , Contrast m your mi,nd the puny, ridiculous power of this little coast defence gun, popping away on the edge of our coptinent, firing futile shells thirty-five miles out on. the ocean, with this huge, deadly fighting ship that could drop enough explosive v to wipe out half a dozen such land guns, and then go on with its cdmpanions to destroy a city. ' Ask yourself why Japan wants these flying machines. She doesn't need them to deal with sleepy old China, cursed with civil war. The French have just finished a war that cost millions of men, thousands of millions of money. They barely escaped, thanks to the United States arid other countries, with their national existence. The French know j what war means and what the next war will be. What has France done to prepare against danger across her border? France has a first line of air defence, consisting of two thousand 'fighting air machines, with a reserve of two thousand more. ■ <i And that fighting French air fleet )s what makes England, -with-fall her lumbering battleships, cruisers, etc., "the .world's greatest battle fleet," . so polite to France. . King George reviews his hearts of oak and ships of steel m peace; quite solemnly, but you noticed that even m the last war battleships were kept carefully inside the harbor, away from fliers and submarines. To-day, they Would hot be safe even m the harbor. England is building fighting planes, and great, queef, lop-sided ships to carry them, arid > will sing low until her air fleet is ready. ' The two thousand first line fighting planes that spell security for France, cost, m Europe, less than half the cost of one first-class dreadnought m the United ' States. No wonder Frarice insists that Germany shall build no fighting planes. . We continue spending millions on big guns arid ammunition for practice. They also will sooii be classed among museum curiosities, used to make a loud noise m the Presidential salute. or tickle' the vanity of some admiral returning to his ship. They're as obsolete now as the bows and arrows that Japan used when Perry arrived. A sixteen-inch gun costs as much as two fighting airships. It lasts only long enough to fire one hundred and twenty shots. Then, it is burnt-out scrap iron.' The life of a fighting plane, costing half as much as, a single big gun, is equal to that of an ordinary forty-five million dreadnought. . The plain truths about our present absolute lack of preparation must be repeated over and over.. It is the business of the country's editors to do by repetition what old Cato did m Roman days, when he finished every speech m the Senate with the words, "Carthage must be destroyed." In the end Carthage was destroyed, and by that destruction the life -of Rome was preserved. And our civilisation is what it is, instead of being a Carthaginian civilisation. . Given a flying fleet; with anti-air-craft guns — not for popping out thirtyfive miles to sea, but for shooting up m the air— and given a -reasonable number of submarines to patrol the waters around our country and meet any big ships bringing over airplanes, this country would have no cause to worry. ' • v The Japanese are not neglecting the power of the flying machine m future wars, or the danger that war may come at any time. They know that if they attack others they, will be attacked. And while they, get ready to attack others, which is their international right, if they choose to make war — they are planning (.0 protect their own cities from airplane attack. ! The United States thus far is sound asleep. We are not prepared to defend ourselves against attafck by airplanes. And we are not equipped with airplanes that, If we had them, would make it certain that no other nation woiild attack us. ■ , P.S.^ — One of the greatest experts m England says "bombardment of a great modern city by a few airplanes, with the explosives and deadly gases now manufactured, would produce more fieadlv results than ten earthquakes like the great earthquake m Tokio."