FUTURE CONFLICTS

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3182, 26 May 1932, Page 7

FUTURE CONFLICTS

A GRIM WARNING FROM SHANGHAI.

"It is only an Oriental accident made possible by China's weakness and Japan's strength that the attacking infantry and naval forces have been able to get in sudden blows in this conflict. "It is no accident that, the Japanese 'planes are able within a few minutes to get within striking distance of any point they may •choose for attack. The aeroplane has not made the cruiser obsolete nor has it done away-with the necessity for infantry, but it has brought about a vital alteration in the mechanics of warfare. " It has brought a new speed and cruelty to the first blows of a campaign. It squats with a sinister crouch at the backs of the peacemakers, making their labours at once more urgent and more difficult. " For the first time in the history of conflict it has provided an instrument that can sweep over a neutral zone and in a matter of minutes undo the work of years. It offers to the blind forces of armed aggression the perfect weapon by which to achieve its designs. " These are grim reflections, but if the ordinary citizen is to understand how real and urgent and truly domestic are the concerns now being debated at Geneva before the lurid background of Shanghai his imagination must be fed on the facts as they are. " Aircraft of all catergories crouch in their hangars in every country in Europe, and no greyhounds are easier to slip. We see in the Far East the spectacle of a military caste pledging its country to action in advance of the civil will. That manoeuvre can be repeated this side of Suez. And the modern aeroplane is its instrument ready to hand. " We set these things down not with the intention of exciting fear, for fear feeds on itself and brings about as often as not the calamity it dreads, but in order to sharpen the public wits for a true understanding of the problem of humanity which is the subject matter of the Genevian discussions."