Evening star., 1938-10-15
Nazi Air Supremacy?


When Chancellor Hitler served notice
that Germany would look with disfavor
on British government headed by IAN
Eden, Churchill or Duff Cooper" one
might have thought the height of Nazi
turbulence had been reached. This
does not seem to be the case. From
London now comes word that the next
demand on Great Britain may be an
agreement binding her to inferiority to
Germany in air force. Under its terms,
the Reich would predominant in the
ratio of three to one. The plan, If
effectuated, would make NaZi power in
Europe supreme almost beyond possibility
of challenge 1t is motivated by the fact
that in 1885 the Germans pledged them
selves to accept corresponding naval
inferiority to the British. Hitler ap-
parently would now impose reprisal
in kind on the mistress of the seas"
He seeks, with British consent, to make
the Reich the master of the air.
That his reported purpose, when it
is understood by the British people,
will arouse resentment and hostility
cannot be doubted. The Well-informed
authority who assumes responsibility for
disclosure of the alleged Nazi scheme,
recalls that former Prime Minister
Baldwin announced long ago that
Britain's air strength must be at least
equal to that of any power within
striking distance of her sea-girt shores,
for John Bulls frontier" he said, was
now the Rhine. "And Lord Baldwins
declares, "stil stands"
Americans are persuaded there is a
limit beyond which the patience of our
British cousins, despite their anxiety for
peace, cannot be stretched. The Saar-
brucken speech and the demand, If
demand it proves to be, for German air
supremacy are assuredly bringing that
limit nearer day by day.
The violent German press campaign,
just launched against the "effrontery"
of both Britain and France in project
ing armament expansion programs as
the aftermath of Munich, is the sort of
curtain-raiser the NaZis are fond of
deep-laid project like three-to-one air
ratio. The audacious plan is said to
originate with Foreign Minister Won Rib
bentrop, who has vaulted into the one
hundred per cent confidence of Hitler by
rightly predicting that neither the British
nor the French would go to war to main
tain the Czechoslovak boundaries.
Germany negotiated the naval pact
three years ago on the theory that Britain
and the Reich each should have only
enough sea power for defensive needs.
Berlin is now ready to argue that London
should recognize that Germany's necessi-
ties, because of her greater vulnerability
to attack, entitle her to corresponding air
predominance. What would really be at
the back of Nazi heads would be the GER
tainty that three-to-one air ratio would
make Germany unassailable in Europe
for years to come. If Britain could be
persuaded or browbeaten into thus
mortgaging her future for peace in our
time" the German path across Central
Europe to the Black Sea and beyond,
into the heart of the British Near East
would be virtually unobstructed. Ma
poleon at the zenith Of his might never
knew such power as Hitler would possess.
The Fuehrer has worked wonders this
year by the statecraft of intimidation.
The whole English-speaking universe
will wait anxiously for Britain's answer
to the reported air pact proposal.