Apoplectic Advice

In the last 30 years, Marshal of the R.A.F. Sir Arthur Harris has progressed from attacking Iraqi and Indian tribes men in a bailing-wire kite to crumpling the huge Nazi war machine with his powerful, purring Bomber Command.

Fortnight ago, in one of the first books to be published by one of Britain's service chiefs (Bomber Offensive; Collins, Lon don), the pink-mustached, apoplectic "Bomber" flew back over his career, then scattered some incendiaries closer to home.

Some were duds, but others might burn brightly.

Roared angry Sir Arthur, the strategy required to defeat the Germans was minuscule compared to the strategy required at home to allow him to beat the Germans. With few kindly words for anyone (exceptions: Churchill, Eisenhower, Marshal of the R.A.F. Lord Portal), he rates the enemies of Bomber Command as: 1) the Royal Navy; 2) the British Army; 3) the German air force; 4) British civil service; 5) the politicians. After the Air Ministry under Sir Archibald Sinclair, "who went cap in hand to the other services," came the German Army and Sweden.*

His solution: abolish all three services, have one defense force more & more dependent on science, "which would show no more regret when it relinquishes an older weapon than a scientist shows when a hypothesis is exploded."

In his haste to consign the airplane to obsolescence, Sir Arthur harrumphed that the atomic bomb does not even necessarily have to be carried by anything resembling a missile (much less aircraft). "There is no reason why the parts of an atomic bomb . . . should not be brought in bit by bit by seemingly innocent people and assembled anywhere where cover can be found, in an embassy, attic, lodging or in a ship in harbor." Many atomic authorities would agree. But his theory that "once a weapon is used it becomes obsolete" is a bit sweeping considering the long bow (1,000 years), the rifle (six centuries plus) and the atomic bomb (18 months plus).

His bitter conclusion: "I cannot doubt that if there is a war within the next quarter of a century it will certainly destroy a very great part of the civilized world and disrupt it entirely. Perhaps after all that may be the best solution.

"The only alternative ... is world federation, a government of the world powerful enough to determine the policy of every country."

* "At the time when we were paying Sweden enormous sums of money for not delivering such things [steel, tools and bearings] to Germany, the Germans were paying enormous sums of money for orders originally given and then paying extra on top of that to have the finished products smuggled out to them."

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