A Spectator's Notebook
THE French have thrown out an idea worth fastening on in their proposal for the formation of a League of Nations Air Force to be staffed by voluntary recruit: inent The same idea has no doubt occurred to many people in many countries—it has certainly occurred to some—but it is another matter to have it put forward officially by a Great Power. On the face of it the plan is perfectly practical. Its sponsors may have had consciously or subconsciously in mind their own Foreign Legion, which draws its recruits from all the world, but whereas the Legion is composed largely of ne'er-do-weels, a League 'Air Force could count on attracting a rush of recruits of the best type, particularly since (ex hypothesi) national air forces would be abolished and that road to an adventurous career closed. The superficial objections to the proposal can most of them be easily answered. The force would no doubt be large enough to enable any member of it to be dispensed from taking action (if action ever had to be taken at all) against his own country, and the so-called language difficulty need not survive six months. If members of the force took an oath to the League, as a British recruit takes an oath to the King, and pledged their loyalty with their word, it might mean a great deal psychologically.
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