APPALLING WARS OF FUTURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18467, 19 May 1928, Page 19 (Supplement)

APPALLING WARS OF FUTURE.

PROPHECIES OF FAMOUS AIR LEADER.

BOMBING aeroplanes that will rise a good deal higher than Mount Everest, and travel about as fast as Webster when he won the Schneider trophy, are forecast for the war of the future by Lieutenant-Colonel P. T. Etherton, the famous commander of the 51st Anti-Aircraft Brigade in the London Air Defences, who organised the mimic air raid on London three years ago. Colonel Etherton discusses the air attack of coming warfare in one of the later chapters of his thrilling book, “Adventures in Five Continents” (Hutchinson), a record of his astonishing travels and adventures all over the world, just published. “It is anticipated.” he writes, "that the declaration of war will synchronise with the departure of the enemy air fleet from the capital city'. In the case of London, as the administrative centre of the Empire, its destruction would be the main objective.” London. Colonel Etherton points out, is from one hour's to six hours’ flight from any point in Europe, and there are now “super-bombing planes” able to cover 4000 miles, non-stop, carrying four tons of bombs, and equipped to move in safety through dense fog in the blackest of nights. A hostile force of 1200 aeroplanes, a “reasonable estimate,” would, if it penetrated the defences, “spread death and destruction in several forms. . . . The

damage to property would be enormous. the poison gases and vapours released from chemical bombs would render entire districts untenable. “It is difficult to estimate what the resultant casualties would total within a week or ten days; so much depends upon the element of surprise. This is the leading factor, for future war will be characterised by its amazing rapidity. “If gained by’’ the opposite side, not only would the point assailed be reduced 'to a gas-flooded, wrecked, and burning area, but the moral effect would be incalculable, with a population flying from tfie doomed area harassed by fast-swooping aeroplanes dealing out bombs, spray's and poisonous vapours with pitiless persistency'. "After such a raid little would lie left of a once prosperous city teeming with life and industry, but now reduced to a condition that would prevent any approach until the atmosphere had been thoroughly' cleared. In the meantime the problem of supporting the survivors would not be easy' of .solution, especially in winter, under adverse climatic conditions.” The fast bombing-’planes, able to travel at not less than 300 miles an hour, will move in the sky at a height of 35,000 feet to 45,000 feet, and singleseaters, having secured a favourable position above the enemy, will dive at a speed rising to more than 800' miles an hour- “a speed,” observes Colonel Etherton, “actually in advance of sound itself.” The fighting aeroplane will, he states,

“resemble the submarine: it will .penetrate to heights hitherto undreamed of, and tc enable the pilot to resist the low temperature and rarefied atmosphere he will wear electrically-heated suits, and be enclosed within his ’plane as are the crew of a submarine beneath the water.”

The immense height of the future air war calls for super-searchlights, and Colonel Etherton states that the French now possess the most powerful searchlight in the world. “It is,” he says, “ a searchlight of one thousand million candle-power, and in clear weather the beams penetrate to a distance of ninety miles, while the light is visible at a range of just over four hundred miles. At the moment this particular light is established on Mont Afrique, near Dijon, at an altitude of one thousand nine hundred feet above sea level.” Colonel Etherton arrived at the command of the Anti-Aircraft Brigade in 1925 by' way of a journey which began when he set out for West Australia to dig gold, at the age of eighteen—thirty years ago. Ilis course embraced the Himalayas, the Rockies, the seven seas, the roof of the world, the South African war, where he was one of Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts, and the w'orld war, -when he brought the Gliarwal Rifles over from India to the western front. After the war he was Consul-General in Chinese Turkistan, where the Chinese governor and commander-in-chief gave him a banquet, which included “ Chinese delicacies, such as sharks

fins, bamboo root, seaweed, fermented eggs, stags’ tendrons, sea slugs with at least a score of legs, lotus seeds, roast dog, eggs preserved in chalk—the older the egg the greater its edible value--ducks’ brains and grilled rats. “A grilled rat restores the hair when you are bald.” observes Colonel Etherton, “ while a stewed black cat will cure a fever. The leading dish, however,” he. adds, “ was a number of new-ly-born mice, served alive, to be dipped in treacle and swallowed whole like a prairie oyster. I have eaten the food of thirty-eight different countries, but I could not face the mice, and the host was much upset, remarking that I failed to recognise a good thing when I saw it.” Colonel Etherton’s experiences have been of a rich variety, from working his passage across the Pacific in furious weather as an ordinary' seaman to shooting tigers in the Indian jungle and crossing the Gobi Desert on a journey over the Pamirs to the frozen north of Siberia. Incidentally-, he has been an assistant judge of the British Supreme Court for China. ('olonel Etherton’s book is full of stories, like a new “Arabian Nights.’ He tells one of the most tragic murder stories on record -how an Albanian innkeeper murdered his own long-lost son, who returned home “ incog.” with £4OOO. The old man, not recognising his boy, stabbed him while he was asleep, and buried his body'. lie was just going to be hanged when Colonel Etherton was passing through Albania.