AIR SUPREMACY

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160725, 11 August 1920, Page 7

AIR SUPREMACY

BRITAIN LAGS BEHIND. GERMANY ORGANISING-. GENERAL SEELY’S WARNING. LONDON, June 10. General J. E. B. Seely, at a meeting of the Air League of the.British Empire, uttered a strong warning with regard to Britain’s aerial position, in a Mansion "House speech. In 1918, he said, they were in, the air incomparably the best equipped of all nations, but the position today was more serious. If it were a little more serious one could not talk about it. The position could be retrieved, but immediate action was necessary. “The State has practically gone out of business,” he continued. “Its own directly controlled establishments are restricted solely to the scientific side, but without practical demonstration, scientific research is of little value. Most of the great firms have gone out of business, and their designing staffs have dispersed, and unless something is done quickly the potential brain power we have ddspised will be at work in America or in other countries.” In Germany, according to information which General Seely had obtained from a sure source, there are millions of men who are firmly determined to win back by the air what they lost on sea and land. “There are 18 large companies or firms, with the most powerful financial backing in the whole German Empire, who are devoting themselves solely to the purpose of scientific progress and preparation for rapid and immediate development. These things may be denied, but I know them to be true.”. He did not want to create a panic. That was quite unnecessary. “We have only to lo_o'k at the facts in the face, and what I have said is the/fact.” He urged the Government to take appropriate steps, and first of all dissever the aerial arm from the paralysing and strangling hold of the old-fashioned military mind.