War in the Air The attitude of Members of Parliament
in protesting against any suggestion that the British Air Force should be abolished is hard to comprehend. What is under dis- cussion is not the abolition of the British Air Force, but - of all air forces—in particular of an existing French Air Force which could blow London to pieces in half an hour. What the strength of a potential German Air Force may be is problematic, but no one supposes that Germany will remain permanently unarmed in the air while the rest of the world is armed. No great country is as vulner- able to air attack as our own, and it is accepted doctrine that there can be no real defence against a concentrated assault. The abolition of military aviation—with its necessary concomitant, some kind of internationalisation of civil aviation—may or may not be practical politics, but from our own point of view there would seem to be everything to be said for it. And in regard to the question of practical politics, it has been found perfectly practical to prohibit military aviation in Germany and it is worth observing that the two European countries most powerful in the air—France and Italy—have both of them proposed to abolish military aviation and internationalize civil. Their idea of what is practical must count., at least, for something. * * * *
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