CONTROL OF AVIATION

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18877, 22 February 1933, Page 6

CONTROL OF AVIATION

The remarks of the Marquess of Londonderry, the British Secretary of State for Air, on the question of the control of civil aviation, and abolition of military aircraft, are of paramount interest to the people of New Zealand. The whole question of militant aviation is one which has a profound influence on the security of the world, but its import to this country is one of vital urgency.

While we have viewed with gratification the great strides made in the last three years in the conquest of the air, we must now seriously reflect that our last line of national defence is for all practical purposes hopelessly shattered. New Zealand has been secure for nearly a century in the splendid isolation provided by the elements of time and distance, but to-day these obstacles no longer exist, and our country offers an attractive invitation to anj aggi.essivc foreign Power.

Our coastline is protected by two elderly cruisers, and a couple of sloops which could scarcely entertain the thought of an engagement, while our aerial defence consists of a few comparatively slow machines of no more than average efficiency. It is a sad but very reasonable prediction that the outcome of an aerial attack on the Dominion would be a futile and brief display of gallantry and nothing more. Our neighbours in the Pacific comprise two of the most imperially-minded Powers in the world to-day —Japan and the United States. New Zealand and Australia both offer attractive vistas’ of colonial expansion, and Japan is embroiled in a conflict to find outlet for her swelling population. This is a position that must lie faced with a little more than mere reliance on the hope of aid from Britain.

If the Air Committee of the Disarmament Conference succeeds in devising means for the effective international control of aviation, it will have succeeded in a large measure in securing the abolition of military aircraft. The majority of the Powers is in favour of limitation, if not of cessation, of expenditure on aerial armaments, and there should be every prospect of a satisfactory solution, if aviation can be so controlled (hat the misuse or abuse of civil aircraft is rhndered impossible.

The statement of Lord Londonderry will carry a good deal of weight, for it is the considered view of a nation which at present leads the world in aerial efficiency, both civil and military. As an expression of good faith on the question of naval disarmament, Britain lias drastically reduced her fleet, and (he Royal Air Force now constitutes her inns! potent medium of defence. Her willingness to abolish it for the sake of general disarmament is a gesture which rings of sincerity.

One of the most important points stressed by Lord Londonderry is that the control of civil aviation, while preventing the misuse of civil aircraft for military purposes, must not hamper the fullest development of aviation in every country for civil and commercial purposes. The devising of effective means for this purpose is the rrreafcsl problem before the Coinmiltee, and success in Ibis direction will mean tlml the abolition of military aviation will bo practically assured.

Whatever Hie outcome of the Committee's deliberations, its efforts will have a world-wide interest and the most earnest desire fun its success oil the part of all nations placed in a similar position to our own.