EXPANSION OF AIR FORCE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20556, 6 March 1935, Page 7

EXPANSION OF AIR FORCE.

Britain Takes Step To Protect National Interests.

EXPENDITURE OF £23,851,100.

British Official Wireless. (Received March 6, 1 p.m.)

RUGBY, March 5. THE AIR ESTIMATES for 1935 were issued this morning. They total £23,851,100, a gross increase of £3,685,500 on those of last year. In a memorandum accompanying the Estimates, the Secretary of the Air Ministry, the Marquis of Londonderry, points out that the Government made it plain, when publishing the Air Estimates of 1934, that it could not, in the interests of national Imperial security, accept the position of continuing as an inferior power in the air.

Accordingly, last summer, in view of the rapid development of foreign air forces and the absence of concrete results from the Disarmament Conference, the Government reluctantly decided that it had no option but to undertake the long-delayed expansion Of the Royal Air Force.

The programme announced to Parliament last July provided for the addition of forty-one and a half squadrons by the end of 1938, and when completed the total first-line strength of the Royal Air Force, in regular squar rons, would be approximately 1330 aircraft, plus some 130 aircraft in non-re-gular squadrons. Four of the fortyone and a half additional squadrons were formed in 1934, and a further twenty-five will be formed in 1935 and 1936. In 1935, twelve new squadrons will be added to the home defence force, which will then consist of fifty-four squadrons, forty one being regular and the remainder an auxiliary air force of special reserve squadrons. The fleet air arm will be increased by nineteen first-line aircraft. Nineteen of the existing squadrons will also be re-equipped in the course of the year. The new formations will raise the total strength of the Royal Air Force, including the fleet air arm, to the equivalent of 106 J squadrons, being ninetythree and a half regular squadrons supplemented by thirteen non-regular squadrons of the home defence force. The programme is being so arranged that it will be possible to retard or accelerate it in accordance with the requirements of the international situation. The Government believes that the conclusion of the proposed air pact to afford security against aerial aggression in Western Europe, would be of the utmost value in the maintenance of European peace. * The Government earnestly hopes that the pact may facilitate an early limitation of the air forces of the world by a general international agreement. Civil Development. The net increase shown in the total vote for civil aviation is £82,000 over the figure for last year. This is mainly due to the urgent necessity for the improvement and development of the ground organisation on the Empire air routes, and to facilitate operation by night as well as by day. Improved ground organisation will also assist in the inception of the projected Empire air transport scheme for the carriage of all first-class mails by air, whenever possible. Negotiations are in progress for an air service to connect Hongkong with the main Australian route at Bangkok, and plans are under consideration for the linking of the British West African C olonies with the trunk route to South Africa. It has not yet been possible to inaugurate the projected air service to

connect Bermuda with New York, but it is hoped this will be in operation towards the end of this year or early in 1936. The to light aeroplane clubs has been increased to £25,000, as compared with £16,000 last year. The necessity for the increase in the defence estimates is reluctantly admitted by most of the newspapers this morning, although Liberal and Labour journals are critical and consider the increased expenditure on defence to be premature and provocative. Too Fax Behind. ** The Times ” points out that while British armaments by sea and land will not be on a larger scale, Britain, undoubtedly, has fallen too far behind in the air arm, as also in anti-aircraft defences. It is unworthy of • Britain s position in the world that she should remain fifth or sixth in the scale of air Powers, and it renders her less fit to perform the treaty obligations, which she has already assumed. There must be political foundation for the limitation of armaments, and in spite of all efforts of the last three years this has not yet been laid. The negotiations, which Sir John Simon and Captain Anthony Eden will carry a stage further at the end of the week, afford the best prospect that has yet appeared of the establishment of a system of security, and the logical sequence to a properly organised collective system will be the diminution of national contingents. The British Government particularly emphasises the fact that the measures now proposed are elastic and may be modified downwards if circumstances permit. The British policy of peace will not be affected by the decision to spend more on defence, and despite the troubled state of the world the British Government still proclaims its confidence in the ultimate triumph of peaceful methods. Weakness of Locarno Treaties. The “ Daily Telegraph ” says the statement on Imperial defence underlines the important fact that the value of the Locarno Treaties has been seriously weakened.by the knowledge that. Britain’s contribution would have little decisive effect. For the same reasons. Britain’s counsels in Europe were becoming progressively less effective. The important increase of British influence, noticeable at Geneva and in all leading capitals during recent months, can be traced to the. knowledge that Britain was looking to her fighting forces.