Defence of Airfields
After Crete, Malaya ; and after each of these demonstrations, one of them disastrous, of the supreme necessity of provision for the strong defence of airfields, there has been much questioning about the state of aerodrome defences at home. We know that after Crete the R.A.F. themselves began to train their own men for ground defence, and Lord Trenchard suggested in the House of Lords that they did so " because the Army had not provided adequate protection for airfields." What is the authority primarily responsible? The division of responsibility between the Air Ministry, the War Office and the Home Office is bound to produce confusion ; a scheme for unified responsibility is an urgent necessity, and there will be grave concern if such a scheme is not soon forthcoming. The Home Guard, if invasion should come, are capable of rendering valuable service, but there would be just cause for resentment if it were found that in some localities units of the Home Guard were expected to provide, so far as the Army is concerned, the whole defence of airfields in their neighbourhood. Great and undisguised uneasiness on this score exists ; and it will not be allayed until the War Minister or the Air Minister is in a position to make a re- assuring statement.
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