Bomb and Battleship The Report of the Sub-committee of the
Committee of Imperial Defence on the vulnerability of the battleship to air attack is a somewhat inconclusive and disturbing document. Its answer to the main question is unequi- vocal ; a battleship completely invulnerable to air attack cannot be built. We must, however, continue to build battleships. For, over the greater part of the sea's surface, battleships -are out of reach of air attack ; command of trade routes depends on them ; they are less vulnerable than other types of warship ; and the deadliness of air attack may be diminished by the greater deadliness of anti-aircraft fire. In the Government's view, according to Sir Thomas Inskip, the report means that " fleet must still meet fleet and must include capital ships." That is what the report means, but whether it is right is another matter ; according to Sir Samuel Hoare it is based on facts agreed on by the Naval and Air Force Staffs. The real difficulty, however, as the report admits, is that there are not sufficient facts on which to base a final answer. In such circum- stances the only safe reply would probably be that we should build battleships but also as many aeroplanes as if we had no battleships. But even expenditure on armaments must have a limit somewhere.
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