Salt Lake Telegram | 1928-09-02 | Page 19 | England Fears Wartime Raids by Air Forces

fN ENGLAND FEARS fAR i WARTIME RAIDS Of BY AIR Continental Europe Only I Short Distance From British Shores By MILTON BRONNER NEA Service Writer LONDON Sept English I-English statesmen states states- 1 men concerned with the safety and I welfare of Great Britain have one fear In fact it amounts amounts' almost to an obsessIon This is not caused by industrial depression though that Is bad enough Nor by unemployment although the figures are again mounting The thins thing that S-Iv S gives s the English the nightmare is the Immense danger to London from hostile hostilo aircraft If England ever Is involved in a war a continental power Throughout her hel history England always has feared foreign invasion from the continent In the old days das she counteracted this fear and this danger by having the worlds world's strongest navy which thus assured the tight little Island from the landIng landing land land- Ing of hostile troops troops' and the born born- barding bardins- o of her Important seacoast ports But the development of modem modern mod mod- em ern war lr in the air has put England face to face with a situation that is not so easy to meet SHORT HOP FROM FRANCE Tie Ti nearest French ports are from three twenty to thirty five miles away away-a mere hop bop for an airplane Belgian ports and Dutch ports are arc eighty to miles away also a amere amere mere hop There are other othel continental continental conti- conti countries which could be mentioned whose distance from England Is not very great In another great war it is admitted admitted admit admit- ted the great thronged cities would be an immediate objective o of air attAck This attack would take the form o of dropping Incendiary bombs and bombs loaded with poisonous gases To test the matter the British air forces recently staged ed an air war game over London and the star sur- rounding area On the very first day it was announced the defending forces theoretically either brought down or drove away eight squadrons ot of enemy bombing machines But two sq squadrons of the enemy either broke through the lines of defense defense de- de or evaded the defenders They reached their objective which was the British metropolis In real warfare an enemy would rai l-rai raNe e thought the loss o of eight ht squadrons cheap at the price if the theother theother other two got through For those two could do untold damage It Is not too much to say that two such squadrons could bring t the agonizing death o of several hundred thousand people people-civilian noncom noncom- DEFENSE DIFFICULT TASK Great Oleat authorities on air warfare In Europe are becoming more and moro more convinced that it will be almost almost al- al most impossible to defend completely complete complete- ly the great cities from attack by determined and darIng enemies The more this sinks In the better I It will be for all so so called civilized nations For or then there Is a chance that they will get s-et together and sign signa a solemn agreement to forego o attacks attacks at- at tacks on noncombatants They might even S-O S farther and outlaw the use ot of gases But even then there would always be one outstanding danger In the o of bitter conflict enemy I nations probably would make scraps of paper o of all agreements 1 If by doing doing do- do ing so they thought they could win the war Its It's not a very comforting I thought i iI I