SHORT OF TARGETS

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1935, Page 5

SHORT OF TARGETS

BOMBING GROUNDS FOR RJLF. PROTESTS FROM RESIDENTS. (By Air Mail—Special to News.) London, June 27. The RA..F. is between the pierrots and the deep sea. It has only four of the nine practice bombing areas it needs, even including the Chesil Bank one in Dorset, to which there is strong objection, not only because it interferes with ancient fishing rights but also because it might disturb the Abbotsbury Swannery. A pilot who is a keen naturalist has testified that birds soon become used to bombs. He might call Ypres in evidence. After five years’ intensive bombardment, ruined Ypres, still had its population of “Goddes jocund little fowles.” The trouble is that the R.A.F. must have coastal practice grounds, and, debarred by local prejudice from choosing popular seaside resorts, some of which might be vastly improved by aerial bombardment, picks just those few remaining quiet unspoiled spots •which are the last sanctwwies of sensitive souls. Might not a reasonably adjacent bombing ground be an additional attraction for the sportive multitude who crowd Margate and Blackpool?