LONDON AIR RAIDS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19502, 10 June 1925, Page 8

LONDON AIR RAIDS.

IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP BOMBING. AIR STATIONS OF THE FUTURE. (From Cuat Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April 21. The idea that we could stop an enemy from bombing Loudon was a myth, de clared Ah' Vice-Marshal Sir W. Seflun Brancker in his London Society lecture on “Impressions of London from tho Air.” Sir Sefton Brancker said it was hard to see London from tho air. He had flown over it many times, but it was only on very rare occasions that he had seen any considerable proportion of it. Visibility here was extraordinarily bad. Wc had the worst visibility of any’city in the world. There was a short foreground of streets, an occasional background with glimpses of the Thames, a certain number of clmrch spires and chimneys. It was hard to fix upon any particular street or building. As to landmarks thpse that bad struck him were, first and foremost, the Crystal Palace, Alexandra Palace, which was a good second, and Hampstead. Another outstanding landmark was the big electrical works at Chelsea. From the military point of view London was extremely easy to find with modern means of navigation, but, having found n, it was difficult to locate a definite objective. Wc had made great strides in aerial navigation since tho war. The idea that wc could stop people bombing London was a myth. During the war we always looked to fin© weather as the sign of the raid. During the next war they would find that periods of bad weather would be selected as the times for approaching London and bombing it. It was extremely hard to stop bombing, a fact which might act as an incentive to the stoppage of any war in the future. PLATFORM OVER WATERLOO. It was said that Croydon was too far out for its purpose, but it had the great advantage in visibility', which was oho keynote of regular and safe transport. The future of the air port of London was an interesting problem. He had no doubt that we should soon get to a state of technical development which would enable us to use Hyde Park with perfect safety, but he could not see the British people consenting to its being given up to *uch a purpose. A platform on tho top of Waterloo Station was a practical proposition, but the time was not yet quite ripe. It would cost something like £3,000,000 or £4,000,000, and he did not think the present volume of traffic would justify such an expenditure. He was not at all sure that that would not ho the solution in London—a superstructure over some place such as a big railway station. Tire money spent on Croydon was not wasted.