Evening star., 1926-10-24
Continued from First Page.

France was IS months, And when
the war closed we had 36 American
planes at the front 1t is this inevi-
table slowness of preparation for these
fastest of fighting weapons that makes
forethought Indispensable.
X X <
The four or five thousand planes
mentioned at the opening of this ar
ticle. with which a little country like
Belgium or Switzerland, Holland or
Japan-any alert people-might con-
Quer the greatest Nation in the world,
ourselves included, almost overnight.
would take a long time to build and
equip. In the first place, il takes
about two years thoroughly to train
military aviators. Next, 1t requires in
the United States, with all our facil-
tiles and skill, Is months to make an
ordinary airplane. II months to make
an attacking plane and Is months
the emergency like that which struck
US at the entry of the Great War,
we found the war nearly over before
we began TO produce fighting craft.
This renders it absolutely essential
for our proper defense that we should
Immediately lay the foundations for
the building and maintaining of an
adequate Air Force to defend the
United States. Our military experts
have declared that the Army alone
should have q minimum Air Force
for ! 800 fighting planes. and this is
based on the smallest Army which
any Nation of Importance in the world
maintains-an Army of a little more
than a hundred thousand soldiers to
guard and protect the vast territories
of a Nation of more than a hundred
million people.
Granted that economy a regards the
cutting down of our military force
which. by the way, can be much more
rapidly recruited and outfitted than an
air force it seems the most abysmal
folly to cut down and destroy the.
quickest. most effective and yet most
economical branch of our defensive
service by allowing our aviators
trained during the war to lose their
skill for lack of drill. and to scrap our
Old planes without building new ones.
In contrast to this policy of being
asleep in the air, I should like to call
attention to a few things being done
by other nations since the armiStice.
The writer has observed the air activ-
tiles of various European countries.
No country in which | travelled evinces
any feeling of safety from future wars.
None of them even boasts a easOn:
able hope that the war clouds have
vanished and the sun of peace started
70 shine for the millennium. All of
them, desperately straitened financial
ly, are seeking the greatest possible
defense measures with the funds with
in possible reach. And because of their
need of economy and in the feeling
that they must defend themselves
against whatever ills are lowering In
the air, they are without exception
turning to defensive wings.
In France-which today. of course.
is the one big military power of the
world-the movement is to cut down
her standing army as rapidly as posi-
BILE, but at the same time increase
her air force. Her present program
calls for the building and equfppine
of airplanes at speed which will this
year give her 500 squadrons of mill
tary airplanes-an exceedingly formi-
dable force. France is not doing this
with the view of conquerine Europe;
France is not essentially a belligerent
nation; she is doing it because she
is obsessed by fear-a fear, by the way
which is not groundless-that she will
sooner or later face an air conflict
Russia and Germany.
1t is an open secret in Europe
that Russia is building 5000 all
metal airplanes. This construction is
under the protection of the Soviet
but the planes are heing
built mostly by Germans: will he
equipped by Germans. and. most OBJ
servers believe, will be used by Ger
many. These planes are not like
great many air projects, principally
on paper. but they are actually being
built. The Fokker company in HOl-
land is sending continual stream of
planes to Russia and a
great many plants are turning out
parts of these all-metal planes which
1t is expected can he assembled much
more readily than any plane we build.
In addition to this. Germany has re-
Gently started on a submarine of
10 0.000-ton capacity. with a cruising
radius of $4,000 miles.
In view of the fact that the United
States itself has recently built sub
marine that will carry and release an
airplane, this German submarine
might be made to carry whole squad
ron Of airplanes. What deadly com
biration. An underwater cruiser that
could go almost around the earth and
rise at any spot, releasing a flock of
these. devastating man-birds to lay
waste with explosives and poison gases
a whole territory. then return safely
to ne engulfed few hours later under
the protective sides of this huge
terror.
Added to all this France knows that
Germany, although forbidden by the
treat of Versailles to construct air
craft. is Yet Gevoting money which
should be paid as indemnity to chem
ical research and experiments in dead
lv poison gases: designing and testing
in friendly countries the most power
ful types of planes in existence today.
With Sa antanic and almost uncanny
foresight. Germany is moving steadily
as nation toward one objective
the development of air power-and
bending the combined efforts of her
people on the accomplishment of this
purpose.
France has some Is air services in
operation, hut Germany is not far
behind. In the face of this. France is
taking no chances. but is building and
the one swift. deadly retort
which she will have ready if attacked
by Germany--a cloud of fighting air
craft.
Another lesson learned from the last
war is that practically the only de-
fense against attacking aircraft is air
craft Gen. Patrick recently said
Il was in London and Paris at the
time of the German raids, and these
cities were ringed about with anti
aircraft guns and defenses of this
sort. Their results in repulsins these
attacks were practically negligible.
They had TO get into the air in order
to meet an attack from the air
And. too. recent experiments snow
sA f,,t e . ,nti q II