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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1576.PDF
no FLIGHT JULY 30TH, 1942 An International Air Force ON another page of this issue we publish an article t by Group Capt. R.-E. G. Fulljames,. M.C., on the prospects of enforcing the peace of the world by international authority. The prevention of future wars is a subject in which all men of good will must be interested, and it was definitely alluded to in the Atlantic Charter. It is also certain that any future international authority, whether it be called League of Nations or by some other name,. will be impotent unless it has force at its command. That force must include air power, and some think that an international air force by itself would be sufficient for the purpose. Whatever the actual composition of the force most people will probably agree that such a body would be the ideally best thing. Some ideals, however, are unattainable. The League of Nations itself represented the ideals of many earnest people in 1918, but it proved in practice to be unwork able. Some spheres of conflict were too far away from Europe. Italy's attack on Abyssinia gave a very promising chance for the League to assert its authority, but Laval was then Premier of France, and further 'com ment would be superfluous. And nothing but force majeure at the right time could have restrained Hitler. These cases make one doubt if any new League would be more useful even if it had a force at its* disposal. The member States were unwilling to expend their1 energies over quarrels which did not directly concern them just for the sake of upholding the abstract cause of collective security. It is'easy to hold Allies together against one definite enemy, but to marshal the nations against some future hypothetical aggressor is quite another matter. The same unwillingness to intervene in other people's quarrels would probably be met again if an attempt were made to organise an international air force. In fact, the practical difficulties are very numerous and varied. The whole subject was threshed out in detail by the eminent international lawyer, Mr. J. M. Spaight, in his book Ajt International Air Force, published in the early twenties by Gale and Polden. He considered all the forms which such a force might take (and they are numerous) and found no possibility of making any of them into a workable proposition. He ended his preface with the sentence : " An international air force will be seen some day, but that day will not be ours." However, Mr. Cordell Hull is more hopeful. He b.a# just said that it is a plain fact that "some international' agency must be created which can—by force if neces sary—keep the peace among the nations in the future." That implies the effective disappearance of isolationism from the United States. CONTENTS The Outlook - War in the Air Here and There Steam in the Air Behind the Lines America's Fastest Fighter Aircraft Characteristics Torpedo Aircraft 109 III 114 US 119 120 120, a and b 121 Mustang Squadron - American Munificence Dr. Lanchester—-Prophet Fighter Take-off Weight International Air Control U-boat Hunting •*• Correspondence - Service Aviation - 122 124 125 126 128 129 130 131 TO LIGHT THE BEACONS : A train of fire bombs in their special containers, for a raid on industrial Germany/
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