Military Commitments in the 1930–38 Period: (2) Security

Abstract

The 1930s not only saw the difficulties of controlling the Empire worsened by increasing unrest caused by the Depression, population increases in many areas, and mounting nationalism; the decade also saw an increase in the specific military problems of controlling unrest and turbulence when these occurred. It was becoming clear by the end of the 1920s that the heyday of RAF ‘control without occupation’ was ending. The 1920s system — evolved into almost a set procedure by which the first signs of trouble were met with an aerial demonstration and perhaps a few non-lethal bombs, followed where necessary by committal of the local gendarmerie, local levies, and finally if absolutely unavoidable systematised aerial bombardment, and the deployment of local or British troops from their normal concept-of-power garrison and riot control roles — was becoming seriously inadequate in the face of larger scale and more sophisticated insurgency. The problems were worsened further by the wider dilemmas of the decade. At the start both the RAF and the Army were restricted by economies made necessary by the Depression. As the decade progressed the RAF felt less need to justify its existence by useful work in the Empire and more concerned with its technological revolution and the problems nearer home.