Air Force Needed.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 184, 5 August 1931, Page 6

Air Force Needed.

To the Editor. Dear Sir,—Thinkers, scientists and many military authorities, as well as thousands of our own countrymen who served in the Great War, predict that the next war will be fought in the air, and that land forces will be of little use. Whole population* will be wiped out by means of high-explosiw* and poison-gas shells dropped from aircraft; and land armies—no matter how well they are trained—will be forced to flee for shelter from the unholy rain. At the present time any up-to-date battleship or cruiser could stand a few miles off our shores and blow our cities to blares in a few minutes. Of what use, then, are our land forces, even if they were the best trained and best equipped in the world? Under these circumstances why do we not go in for a thoroughiy-efficient air force (on voluntary lines, if necessary) and see to it that it is equipped with the very latest devices—machine-guns, high explosive and deadly gas bombs—so that any attempted invasion could be repelled before it got within striking distance? There are thousands of our youth who would volunteer for the service, and the last war proved that the courage of the native-born is in no way inferior to that of any other nation. Owing to our insularity and isolation any country desiring to attack us would have to transport its troops over thousands of miles of sea, and if we had an efficient air force we could send their troops to the bottom as soon as they approached our shores. Therefore, it would be very diffident about attacking. What a feeling of national independence and security this would give us, and what a positive, uplifting, character-building effect it would produce in everyone of tss. We should develop our own national characteristics, do our own things in our own way, and rely less upon outsiders than we have done in the past. These lines are not penned with a view to obstructing enlistments in the voluntary system, if such a system is the more efficient, but at the present time, when thousands are on the verge of starvation, it behoves us all to be extremely careful how we move.—l am, etc. VIGILANT.