AIR RACE WITH FRANCE IS ON.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16423, 6 May 1924, Page 7

AIR RACE WITH FRANCE IS ON.

BRITAIN WILL HAVE 200 ’PLANES AGAINST (500 ACROSS THE CHANNEL. DEFENCE OF IyVIPIRE. LONDON, March 8. Contingent upon the, ratification by Parliament, the Air Ministry's estimates just made public would givy England 200 aeroplanes for purely home defensive purposes by the end of next year, as compared with (300 machines for home defence estimated as the strength of France at the present time. Personnel of the British force will be increased from 33,000 to 35,000 men. This is the outstanding feature of the latest aeronautical estimates, and at the Air Ministry the fact is not disguised that France’s overwhelming air supremacy leaves no alternative for England blit to look to her own defences. MEDITERRANEAN SECURITY. With the warfare of the future destined to be more and more a problem of attack from the air, British experts declare England must take immediate steps to defend not only London, but her wealth-producing industries in the Midlands, arid the possessions of her far-flung Empire. Those upon whom the responsibility of defending the Empire devolves declare this is not jingoism, but plain common sense. With the present programme completed, Great Britain will have a total of (350 first-line aeroplanes for home and Imperial defence. This is about half of France’s estimated air strength, which experts here place around 1201) ’planes. But it is emphasised that France has an overwhelming advantage, (inasmuch as, in addition to her 600 machines at home, she has numerous squadrons in her Northern African possessions, so that, to use a familiar phrase, she can concentrate them all at home overnight, or “make a French lake out of the Mediterranean” when she pleases, with all that that implies respecting the safety of England’s communications with India. TAXPAYERS’ BURDENS. The present estimates are bound to raise immediate discussion regarding the responsibility for that and to furnish a subject for fruitful debates between the pacifists and militarists in which now and then would bo heard a still small cry asking for an international conference limit for air and land defences along the lines and principles laid down by the Washington Naval Disarmament Convention. Meantime, British taxpayers are asked to find funds for an ultimate home defence air force of 40,000 men, and to expand Jhe present Imperial air material from 38 to 90 squadrons. Despite the Labor Government’s congenital hostility to anything denoting militarism, the authorities of the Air Ministry are very sanguine over their present programme and make a strong appeal that it be ratified in all its essential details.