GREAT BRITAIN: A Matter of Life & Death

“The air defenses of this island,” said Under Secretary for Air George Reginald Ward in the House of Commons last week, “would be woefully inadequate if we had not powerful allies . . .” It was hard talk to a nation whose political leaders, on both the Tory and Labor sides of the aisle, often act as if U.S. air bases in Britain are provocative to the Russians.

Black-mustached Group Captain George Ward, 44, a veteran R.A.F. staff officer, was presenting the R.A.F.’s $1,255,280,000 budget for 1952-53. It was his first parliamentary mission, but what he had to say sent R.A.F.-proud Britons into a jittery slow roll. “The House is aware,” said Ward, “of the enormous numerical strength of the Soviet Air Force. But it is not only in numbers that we are inadequate. Even more important is the fact . . . that we are in some respects inferior in the performance of our aircraft . . . It is a hard fact that we have temporarily lost our lead . . .”

Ward was quick to identify the pinpoints of weakness:

¶ The R.A.F. has no fighter plane to match the MIG-15 or U.S. Sabre jet. To remedy this, the government will give “super-priority” to the swept-wing jet interceptors.

¶ Except for two squadrons of Canberra bombers, the R.A.F. Bomber Command is flying World War II aircraft. The Vickers Valiant, Britain’s four-jet atom carrier, is not yet in production.

¶ The R.A.F. Coastal Command, with its old-fashioned equipment, is “likely to be less effective” than it was in the last war. In one of Winston Churchill’s favorite phrases, Britain must present the hard back of a hedgehog, not the soft paunch of a rabbit, to any enemy.

“These things,” said Group Captain Ward, “are a matter of life & death for every one of us.” The sense of urgency and peril convinced Tories and Socialists alike. In the tense debate that followed, not even the Bevanites, who oppose the scope of rearmament, questioned the urgent need to increase R.A.F. appropriations by 33%. The biggest air force estimates in Britain’s peacetime history passed the House of Commons without a division.