NOTES 315 



the over-endowment of the played-out Classics in their colleges robs them of even 

 greater powers for good than they at present possess. Still, you can get the best 

 of modern education at either Oxford or Cambridge, and no doubt at Edinburgh, 

 Dublin, Glasgow, Birmingham, and Manchester. But the false note in Education 

 is set by our Government, especially by the Treasury. They lay down or cause to 

 be laid down the curricula of the examinations for entering the Army and all the 

 important branches of the Civil Service, and to meet these out-of-date curricula 

 the preparatory and the public schools continue to maintain an out-of-date type 

 of education no longer applicable to the needs of the twentieth century. In order 

 to pass these Government examinations the boys who leave the great schools of 

 the country pursue similar out-of-date studies at the Universities ; and thus our 

 Army and our Civil Service is staffed with people who, unless they are extra- 

 ordinary individuals (and fortunately a proportion of them may be so styled), are 

 sealed up for all their working lives with poorly furnished minds unable to rise to 

 their great opportunities. We have only got to induce our Government to adopt a 

 curriculum at these examinations answering to our most modern needs, and the 

 schools and universities will shape themselves to meet this enlightenment. 



H. H. Johnston. 



A Lost Aeroplane (Lord Montagu of Beaulieu) 



(At the request of the Editor, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, whose claim to speak 

 on aerial matters is admitted, has furnished the following note on one of the most 

 remarkable events of the war — the loss of a new and valuable aeroplane F.E.2D., 

 fitted with a Rolls-Royce engine.) 



It is natural that the recent case of the loss, under unusual circumstances, of 

 one of the F.E.2D. (A. 5), a very modern type of areoplane fitted with one of the 

 new 250 h.p. Rolls-Royce engines, should have excited a good deal of public 

 interest. 



This aeroplane started from the aerodrome at Farnborough on June 1, and 

 two and a half hours later was in German hands at Lille. Another pilot who hap- 

 pened to be on the ground at the time when this aeroplane took its departure 

 gives the following account, which was quoted in a question put by me in the 

 House of Lords on June 27. 



My correspondent writes : 



"The War Office sent down and asked for two F.E. pilots (the machines being 

 F.E.'s in which the engines were placed) to fly them over-seas. Owing to an 

 error in the delivery of the message, it was understood that the pilots were to fly 

 ordinary F.E.'s, with the result that in one case an inexperienced pilot was sent." 



After describing some technical points my friend continues : 



" I was at Farnborough at the time and saw the pilot, who complained that he 

 was not an experienced F.E. pilot ; also that he had never been overseas and 

 was not sure of the way. The authorities there who heard all this took no notice 

 of his complaint, and told him to take the machine ; not only was he inexperienced 

 as regards the machine, but he also had never been overseas before and therefore 

 did not know the way. 



" Later a report came through that an F.E. had crossed the lines at Armen- 

 tteres, and had disappeared in the direction of Lille. That evening the German 

 wireless communique stated that an F.E. had landed intact south-west of Lille, 

 the pilot having lost his way. 



"Thus it will be seen that within three hours of its having turned out of the 

 factory our newest and latest machine was handed over intact to the Huns. I 



