Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



373 



THE COMMAND OF THE AIR. 



By Mr. W. Joynson Hicks,. M.P. 



The science of aviation, says Jlr. Jojnson Hicks 



::i the National Review, has burst upon the armies of 



lie world with all the force of a revolutionary 



isiovery. A\iation may mean national life or 



:..aionard<,ath,and unless the French, German, and 



Russian War Offices are entirely wrong in their views 



njr national position is one of distinct jeopardy. 



the general staffs of Germany and France realise what 



. ir War OiTire apparently does not— that victory lies 



A ith the Tower which obtains the command of the air. 



1 he frigates which were in Nelson's time the eyes of the 



;leet will be superseded by hydro-aeroplanes, which 



uiU accompany every war fleet of the future. Mr. 



joynson Hicks says: — 



When will. in ihe zone of hostilities they will launch their 

 nvions, which will sweep over (he seas with a speed twice or 

 ■lirice as great as the swiftest cruisers, and will bring back 

 iiiformaiion of the strength and situation of the enemy's ships. 

 'Juiie recently I saw an .\merican hydro-aeroplane in the course 

 f experiments in the Mediterranean rise from the sea, sweep 

 : ackwards and forwards over the French Navy. The Command 

 of the Sea, so long as we retain it, is our chief national asset ; 

 but the value of the Command of the .Sea, henceforward, will 

 depend largely on the Command of the .\ir, which carries with 

 it the Command of Information. 



Mr. Hicks deplores the slackness of our War Office 

 in dealing with aviation; we have only two really 

 effective aeroplanes capable of flying at sixty miles an 

 hour. The French at the last autumn manceuvres had 

 !.)rty-four aeroplanes attached to the opposing armies 

 i:i three sections. Colonel Benard, after seeing the 

 ivork of the aeroplanes, said that " two batteries and 

 ■ Jiie aeroplane are five times as redoubtable as three 

 batteries without an aeroplane." France has at this 

 moment 20S militarj- aeroplanes actually ready for 

 use, and a grand total of 234 machines built and 

 building : and at the end of this year she will be able 

 to dispose of 344 military aeroplanes. It is practically 

 certain, however, that France's total at the encl of 

 1912 will be. not 344, but between 500 and 600 machines 

 built and building. 



It is the admitted intention of France to have a fleet 

 of 2,000 to 3.000 aeroplanes within the ne.xt three or 

 lijur years. French military airmen are being ca'-cfully 

 trained at twenty-six militarj' aviation centres. Besides 

 her aeroplane^. France has twenty-three airships, while 

 (lermany has thirty dirigibles; and, besides boml>s, 

 rhey are armed with many other instruments of 

 destruction : — 



The most interesting and, .as yet, most useful invention of 

 ihe kind is an "aeroplane bullet," with which cxprriments 

 were' rectn'ly made. It h.is a conical tip, and its sides arc 

 grooved. It is about six inches in length, of the circumference 

 of a pencil, and is made of steel. It was fouml that when 

 .Iropped on a plank of hard pine from a height of three feel the 

 1 ullcl penetrated the wockI an eighth of an inch. The conical 

 steel tip i^ svilli !• n; to niainlain the bullet in a perpendicular 

 f.ishion, al;li'u-li .i device is fixed to the end of the bullet in the 

 fdiM) of a cr. ■- which is designed to ensure a perpendicular 

 fall. These bullets can l>c thrown out in hamlfuls by an 

 aviator. They wilgh .exactly one ounce, and will kill when 

 dropped from a height of 2,300 feet. 



Germany has pinned her faith to airships, but is now 

 rapidly building aeroplanes. Last February she had 

 160 built or building. In a short time she will have 

 400 to 500. Our position, compared with France and 

 Germany, is ludicrous. The Go\ernment has only a 

 paper scheme to enable us to hold our own with our 

 Continental competitors. 



PLOUGHING WITH DYNAMITE. 



In the World's Work for April Mr. F. A. Talbot 

 writes on farming with dynamite. The ordinary 

 plough does not reach the deep subsoil. A farmer in 

 desperation buried d%-namite in holes drilled in hard 

 soil, which, exploding, broke the ground up into small 

 pieces for a depth of several feet, letting in the water, 

 and so dissolving the essential nutriment, while the 

 roots were able to descend to a greater depth. The 

 idea is now spreading throughout Canada and Mexico 

 like a prairie fire. The method is used for ploughing 

 fields deeply. It is also used for clearing stumps 

 from the soil. Nay, more ; dynamite is used for 

 planting trees. The spade-made hole leaves the sur- 

 rounding soil in a hard condition, and the roots find 

 it difficult to start. With dynamite a large clean 

 hole is blasted out, and the soil on all sides is loosened 

 for five or six feet. So the trees planted in the dyna- 

 mited holes grow twice as quickly as those set in the 

 usual spade holes. A new profession has arisen, of 

 expert dynamite farmers. In the cotton-growing 

 Southern States dry weather no longer inflicts wide- 

 spread damage. Though the streams and lakes are 

 dried up, the cotton roots, having penetrated deeply 

 into the d\namite-shattcred soil, are able to obtain 

 enough moisture. " The use of dynamite is proving 

 the salvation of the cotton country. The number of 

 farms which are being ploughed in this way are 

 increasing by thousands." Nay, it is found effective 

 in draining swamps. \ farmer in Kansas was handi- 

 capped by a swamp extending for forty acres on his 

 farm. At last he blasted a row of holes across the 

 lowest part of the swamp where the collected water 

 was about three feet deep. The water sank into the 

 ground, and ever since then his forty acres have 

 produced four crops of alfalfa every year. 



The Twenty Greatest Men. 

 Letters continue to drop in from \arious quarters 

 from correspondents who were too far away to con- 

 tribute to the first symposium. An Indian corre- 

 spondent writes to protest against the omission of 

 Shankarachaya, the .Absolute Monist. the great philo- 

 sopher who influenced the whole of Indian thought. 

 He also demands the right of place for .\kber and 

 Shiwajee. The former was the first man to begin a 

 systematic crusade against intolerance, and the latter 

 w'as a successful empire-builder who changed the fate 

 of India as well as that of the world. .Xnolher Indian 

 correspondent pleads for the inclusion of Omar (scconil 

 Caliph), Sadi (Persian poet), Avicenna, .Averrocs, 

 Saladin, Jenghiz Khan, and Gibbon. 



