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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 0333.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEER AND AIRSHIPS bounded in 1909 Fmsr AERONAUTICALC1VEEKLY IN THE^WORLD OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB No. 1364. Vol. XXVII. FEBRUARY 14, 1935 Thursdays, Price 6d. By Post, 7Jd. Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: Telegrams : Truditur, Watioo, London. DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telephone : Hop 3333 (50 lines) HERTFORD ST.. COVENTRY. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2 Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham, Telephone: Midland 2371. SUBSCRIPTION RATES : Home and Canada : Tear, £113 0. Other Countries ; Year, 11 13 0. 260, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER. 3. Telegrams: Ilifle, Mao/mester. Telephone: Blackfriars. 4412 26B, EENPIELD ST.. GLASOOW, C.2. Telegrams : Hide, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. 6 months, 16$. 6d, 0 months, 17s. 6d. 3 months, 8s. 3d. 3 months, 8s. 9d. The Peace Pact T HE first signs of the reception of the peace pact proposed by Britain and France are favourable. France, on the whole, is enthusiastic. Germany seems inclined to think that recognition of her right to re-arm will make her adhesion to the pact worth while. Italy has indicated approval in principle, while remarking that she is too far away from Britain for a pact of mutual assistance to be really practicable. On that point Sir John Simon gave a hint that the best plan might be to have two similar pacts, one dealing with the South and one for the North, in order to limit the liabilities of Britain and Italy towards each other. Such an arrangement would not interfere with the principle of the pact, but would be only a matter of major detail. None the less, we may remark that in the event of an unprovoked attack the other partners will be required not to fly into the country attacked but to Pumsn the aggressor. The only sort of case in which difficulties might arise would be if, say, Britain made an unprovoked attack on Belgium. Then Italy could hardly be expected to bomb Woolwich Arsenal or Uxbndge. But if France were to attack Belgium, then the Italian bombers could pav attention to the seaplane station at Etang de Berre. One rather cynical criticism of the pact has been made oy a certain " General X," writing in L'Adro. He takes ne line that the reprisals upon an aggressor can only be undertaken by long-range bombers, which is, generally ^peaking, correct. The majority of Britain's Air Force, h e says, is -organised for home defence, and not for it is true enough that we have in this country sffence. "inlv fi ~"""5ii mat wo nave ill li ,, A Jfe Sfluadrons of heavy bombers, and, if we ex iomh Au,xiliary Air Force, the numbers of our light nw Ls ,-!,n:„fighterlare about e(iuaL stm>our Air UdL*e Au,xi]iaiy r Force, the numbersof 'out EJ? ^ Process of expansion, "and'the value of our rf that pWord.ls not to be measured by the composition 'oes on i? m FebruarY. IQ35- The unknown General state that 70 per cent, of the French Air Force is devoted to army co-operation, and would be useless for long-range bombing operations. Italy has the Alps for a frontier, while Russia—but Russia is not suggested as one of the signatories, so that the General need not have mentioned her. Belgium he does not mention at all, despite her excellent "Foxes" and "Fireflies," pre sumably because she, too, is not equipped for offensive bombing. The General then goes on to say that the aggressor, being "master of the hour," will have the advantage of surprise, and he asks if it is possible to make the signatories to the pact keep their Air Forces in constant readiness. For our part, we believe that Britain would find no difficulty in that. Whatever may be the number of our squadrons of heavy bombers two 3'ears hence, we feel convinced that it would take but a very short time to get them all into the air, loaded with bombs, on receipt of the news that one of our Allies (for Allies the other signatories would be) had been attacked. Military Objectives The General then questions whether the peace pact would be effective if towns were not attacked, but only military objectives. We cannot conceive any aggressor being so besotted as to neglect military objectives in his first surprise onslaught. If the first raid put all the French long-range bombers out of action, and Britain had no more than five squadrons of heavy bombers, the aggressor would have done something to minimise the chances of reprisals. The pact, when it is drawn up for signature, must certainly cover the case of attacks on military objectives. This article is obviously a plea that France must rely upon her own air strength rather than upon alliances. Admittedly, the question as to what is an unprovoked attack is always liable to delay action by signatories to a pact of this description, but it is easy to make too much of that point. Foreign Offices watch the trend of international events, and attacks without a previous disagreement are not likely to occur. Before the first blow has been struck interested nations usually know
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