The Commons and the Air Force The Air debate in
the House of Commons on Monday followed the expected course. The Government was strongly armed against both schools of its critics, for it could assure Major Attlee and Sir Herbert Samuel that the programme was capable of being slowed down at any moment, and Mr. Churchill that it was capable Of being speeded up. The most notable feature of the debate was the speech in which Mr. Churchill, with a - moderation which gave his contentions added force, specified the grounds for taking a grave view of Germany's aerial preparations. Sir John Simon, touching on this question with necessary caution, conspicuously avoided any repudiation of Mr. Churchill's suggestions. Unless the Opposition was prepared, as it was not, to advocate total disarmament in the air by this country alone, it could find no convincing argument against the Govern- ment's flexible programme of moderate expansion. But every word spoken in the debate went to emphasize the necessity of exerting redoub!ed efforts to secure international agreement on the abolition of naval and military aviation, with whatever consequences that may entail in the field of civil aviation. If the Government fails to press that to the point of a definite decision it will expose itself defenceless to its critics. * * • * "
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