Review of Ueviews, ll/,/l3. 



139 



WHO WILL RULE THE AIR? 



THE PRESENT AERIAL POSITION. 



Britannia rules the waves, but who 

 will rule the air? Is the control of the 

 waters of the globe going to secure our 

 safety in the future as it has in the 

 past ? This is a grave question uideed 

 on the correct answer to which our very 

 existence may depend. Our statesmen 

 at home, who have always regarded an 

 invincible fleet as absolutely essential, 

 have ever considered the frontiers of the 

 Empire the coasts of the enemy. That 

 is why as an island power Britain has 

 set her face steadfastly and unhesi- 

 tatingly against any form of conscrip- 

 tion no matter how cunningly the 

 National Service League wrapped up its 

 designs. And British statesmen have 

 been right. Are they still right in rely- 

 ing solely on the fleet to protect their 

 shores? Hitherto the narrow riband of 

 the English Channel has proved an in- 

 surmountable barrier to all would-be 

 invaders, and will ever be so long as the 

 only means of crossing it is by boat, 

 but with the conquest of the air the 

 value of the command of the sea is 

 greatly discounted. Whether the air has 

 actually been conquered or not is the 

 real probleii those responsible for the 

 defence of the country have to solve. 



England has ever lagged behind in 

 orisfinating new methods of offence and 

 defence. She has copied and improved 

 on the work of her foes. The oak battle- 

 ships with which Nelson crushed the 

 power of France were modelled upon 

 French ships of war captured by the 

 British. The first ironclads were seen in 

 America, not in British waters ; the sub- 

 marine was a French invention ; the first 

 heavier-than-air machine flew in 

 America ; the first dirigible in France, 

 and the first rigid lighter-than-air 

 machine in Germany When we ask 

 how much England has copied other 

 nations m the creation of fl)-ing 

 machines we find that she has done prac- 

 tically nothing. The development of 



the flying machine since Wilbur W'right 

 first astonished the world with his some- 

 what primitive machine which yet flew 

 for miles, and since Bleriot led the way 

 across the Channel in 1 909, has been 

 absolutely phenomenal. Has this ad- 

 vance reached a stage where the ship of 

 the air is sufficiently stable, or reliable 

 enough to give the power having aerial 

 preponderance entire command of the 

 situation ? Some people are convinced 

 that tnis condition of things has already 

 arrived, that Britain is now open to at- 

 tack by air, and that if she does not at 

 once set about creating an aerial fleet 

 capable of defending her against all 

 attacks her end is near. Others — 

 amongst them those who are charged 

 with the adequate defence of the Em- 

 pire — do not believe that the air menace 

 is at all serious yet, and that before it 

 can be ver\- great advances must be 

 made in the construction of aerial craft. 

 They prefer that others should make 

 the experiments, and that we should 

 delay the building of an air fleet until 

 such time as the airships have passed the 

 trial stage. 



Much has been written about the 

 machines that have been built in France 

 and Germany, of their wonderful reli- 

 ability, and the menace they are to Bri- 

 tain, but when we come down to actual 

 achievements matters do not wear so 

 serious an aspect. One thing is quite 

 obvious — an invasion b\' airship is quite 

 out of the question. To land only a 

 thousand men would mean the use of 

 twenty of the largest Zeppelins yet 

 built, or at the ver}- least 250 areo- 

 ])lanes, which would require many 

 square miles in which to land. 

 The need of creating a conscrip- 

 tion army to meet a possible invader is 

 no more imperative since the advent of 

 the airshin than it was before the days 

 of Wright, Parseval, or Zeppelin. 

 Troops can still only reach England by 

 water. It is as scouts and bomb drop- 



