HORRORS OF WAR

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1932, Page 12

HORRORS OF WAR

£g -/ ■ ■ - PLEA BY MR. BALDWIN K' ‘ —— f! \ Alft FORCE DISARMAMENT. %. THRILLS IN COMMONS SPEECH. V V ■ ' Disarmament in the air was demanded iy Mr. Stanley Baldwin in the House of Commons on November 10, when he wound up the debate on disarmament with a remarkable speech. He declared that another war in the air would wipe ’ out Europe and in a voice broken by emotionhe pleaded for the young men w M achi«ye the abolition of all air forces. : Mr, Baldwin’s speech came as a strange ■’< contrait to the technicalities and bland V matter of factness of Sir John Simon, the diplomatic optimism of Sir Austen Chamberlain and the detailed arguments of othef members. It was a soul-reveal-F ink SpPtßl of age to youth to look where it Was -fcoing, to look to the horrors ’ ■ »wjdiirii it if the present path was followed.;. “The future of Europe is m the hands of the young" men,” said Mr. Baldwin. “Whan the next war cofries and. Europe is wiped, out, as it will be, let the young meh take the responsibility, and not lay it cm thfe old men, for it will be theirs.”

PREPARATIONS. ' Members listened in dead silence while £< he told them that adequate defence from ■ air attacks is impossible. “No power on /. earth,” he said, “can protect the civil from bombing. There is no & expert who says it can be done. The only defence” is offence, and we have to kill. ■ more women and children first if we ./ywant tri save ours from the enemy. ' That is. what the next war means.” •< r Continental peoples were being taught : to protect themselves from aerial attacks. “I Will not pretend,” he continued, “that ‘ we have not made our preparations— so far without publicity. We have to remerA- ; her that aerial warfare is in its infancy /and its potentialities are terrible and incalculable. The amount of time wasted at Geneva discussing the size of aero- < planes and the prohibition of bombing v.lyks reduced me almost to despair.

TERRIBLE INVENTIONS NOT USED.

“If we reduce the size of aeroplanes, scientists will discover how to pack into the size of a walnut the explosives of a full-size bomb.” Mi-. Baldwin said he had little faith • in any convention not to bomb. If a . nation had its back to the wall it would use any weapon. “War from the air,” he declared, “can be abolished only by -the- abolition of all flying.” There was not a sound in the Chamber ”:' 4s Mr. Baldwin painted a graphic and • terrifying picture of the incredible, horrors of aerial war of the future. Even in the last war, he said, there were, three SC inventions available which were so terr rible that we had not used them. It was possible that air forces might ba abolished, but where there was civil . aviation there could be bombs. It was all right saying there should be international 'f control, but no one knew exactly what that meant. Germany must be a participant in any discussion on aerial - disarmament. All disarmaments hung on the?ir. QUESTION OF ANOTHER WAR.

. “It is no cheerful thought for older . . men,” -he said, “that, having achieved the maittery of the air, we shall defile the earth from the air as we have defiled the air from the earth. This is a questhe young men. I do not think we have seen the last war, and I do not - - think the next will come for some time; / but it will be for the young men to deal

with it” , =*■' Mr. Baldwin’s voice trembled with emotion as he said: “I am still convinced that the air forces of the earth should be. abolished.”’lt was necessary for all the nations of the earth to devote all “ their minds to the question of civil aviation, to see if it was possible so to control it that sdch disarmament would be possible. Mr. Baldwin sat down amid cheers of sympathy and approval from all parts of the House. He had spoken as an idealist and he had moved the House as no one else had done during the debate.