Viewing page 131 of 181

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

sert its maximum efficiency if called on to act in those places. This will be done by creating air ports, airways, fuel stations, materials for repair, and means for the support of an air force. Canada as well as Australia, South Africa, and other places are being handled in this way.

In the countries which are not self-governing, such as India, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, strong air forces of the regular service are on duty. Under conditions such as exist in these places, the maximum effect can be obtained from air forces because the disturbing elements and enemies at the present time have no air forces. Therefore, much more can be gained, dollar for dollar, by air power than by land power or sea power. The British regard Mesopotamia as the important link in their whole empire -- in fact, as the keystone of their structure -- because it is on the route to India, it is on the flank of the Sues Canal, and also on the flank of Persia which contains the high roads to India and the Caucasus and the means of ingress and egress from Russia. A radius of six hundred miles from the line of the Euphrates-Tigris Rivers takes in all of Persia and the Caucasus, the Sues Canal, the Island of Cyprus, the Gulf of Alexandretta and a part of the Black Sea, as well as all of the Persian Gulf and a large part of Arabia. This

-84-