14 
LAND & WATER 
April 27, 1916 
bined means of defence are to be put under a command 
which is independent of our military Home Defence, we 
have the unprecedented state of affairs of two commands 
of a miUtary character under two different Cabinet 
Ministers operating in the same area. Some who have 
no knowledge or experience of the question of respon- 
sibility in connection with mihtary operations will 
possibly not be aware of the fundamental nature of this 
dif'hcult\- and the clash of authority which must inevitably 
result. Those who are conversant with the military 
aspect of the question will not need to be told. 
Dual Responsibility 
It is useless of course to suggest the Air Minister and the 
Minister of War will act in agreement and conjunction 
in all matters relating to Home Defence for the reason, 
if for no other, that the respective commands must each 
be given to an othcer in the lield whose authority must be 
imquestioned. There will be two such officers in any 
area, and the combined Home Defence will depend upon 
the two in some wav pooling their authority or working 
hand and glove together. This, to say the least, would 
be a precarious state of affairs. An. alternative would 
appear to be that the Minister of the Air and the Minister 
of War should decide to put both services in relation to 
Home Defence under one command. In case of dis- 
agreement as to which sen-ice the senior officer should 
belong, it might be laid down that the air command will 
be subordinate to the military Commander-in-chief of 
Home Defence. Manifestly there is nothing absolutely 
unworkable in such a suggestion, but considerable detail 
would have to be worked out. One is tempted to ask 
what benefit is to be derived or expected from the initial 
division. We may presume that if the said state of things 
is to obtain in time of war it would also be the most 
appropriate disposition in time of peace. It is bad to 
change a system in its essential features on or after a 
declaration of hostilities. 
The alternative possibility, that the counter aircraft 
artillery and searchlights should be put under military 
control and the flying defensive force be under the control 
of an Air Minister, is scarcely worthy of discussion. We 
should certainly have our own aeroplanes shot at and hit 
more often than those of the enemy, and the enemy 
would only need to come plausibly disguised to ensure his 
own immunity. 
It inevitably occurs to one that if it is a military 
necessity that the aeronautical home defence shall be 
l)laced under miUtary command, then half the case for 
• the Independent Air" Service (that is to say, in relation 
to Home Defence) is gone. It is only necessary, in the 
first instance, that the King's advisers decide once and 
for all that home defence against aircraft, so far as based 
on land, shall be definitely under military control and 
throw the responsibility oh to the Ministry of War to 
provide for the matter being adequately dealt with. 
The War Office would then no more neglect the problems 
of home aeronautical defence than it would neglect the 
other problems of defence which are committed to its 
care. If there are critics who would scoff at the War 
Office and hold the contrary, the reply is to reform the 
War Office and not employ others to do its work. 
Our Second Line of Defence 
When the above has been said it is to be remarked 
that the Home Defence conducted from our shores is, as 
in the case of Home Defence conducted on our territory, 
essentially our second line of defence. The first line of 
defence will consist of aircraft acting in co-operation with 
vessels of our Navy, whether cruisers or destroj'ers of 
existing type or of special type, is one of the yet unsolved 
problems. Again, when we endeavour to visualise the 
naval aircraft acting under a separate command from 
the Navy proper, we are faced with difficulties analogous 
to those" which concern our land defence. Is the Inde- 
pendent Air Service and the Minister at its head to control 
the section of the fleet with which the air service (naval) 
machines will co-operate, or will the Independent Air 
Service confine itself to the aircraft alone, and be working 
in continual and close co-operation with the Navy ? 
Will the Air Minister abrogate his control of the aero- 
planes or other aircraft which have been allotted to Home 
Defence and place this branch of his air service under 
naval command, and if this -is done in time of war, will 
it also be done in time of peace ? In brief, how will, the 
responsibility be defined and authority be allocated ? 
The above may be taken as the bare outlines of the 
difficulties which must inevitably arise in relation to 
Home Defence. They cannot be slurred over, they cannot 
be covered up by eloquence or rodomontade however 
i)lausible. They are difficulties which will have to be 
faced and dealt' with, not only as to broad principle, but 
in every detail before a Ministry of the Air, so far as Home 
Defence is concerned, can become a reality. Do not let 
us attempt to hustle the Cabinet and the Government into 
taking some precipitate action to satisfy popular outcry. 
We know that the (lovernment is not a strong (iovern- 
ment such as we should like to have seen to conduct the 
greatest war in history. I am quile certain in my own 
mind that if at the present juncture a Ministry of the Air 
were appointed to carry out the multitude of suggestions 
which are daily being thrown out by irresponsible Mem- 
bers of Parliament and still more irresponsible Press 
critics, it would be as great a failure as the late lamented 
Derby Committee. We do not want an Air Minister 
" in motley." The task of surmounting the many 
ditficulties which will have to be surmounted if a real 
Ministry of the Air is to be created are such as cannot be 
negotiated by mere hustle, whether it be described as 
" ginger," or"" push and go," or " bluff and bluster." 
In the present article I ha\'e dealt with the (piestion of 
an Air Ministry from the point of view of Home Defence. 
In the article which follows the question of aggressive 
action of indirect military value will be discussed in the 
same relation, and some of the more serious proposals 
which have been put forward in the direction of air 
reform will be reviewed ; as outlined in my own " Aircraft 
in Warfare," and as comprised by the scheme which has 
been developed and put for%ard more recently by Lord 
Montagu of Beaulieu. 
The Agony of Serbia 
To the Editor of Land & W.\ter. 
Sir,— Referring to Mr. Alfred Stead's article in L.\Nn lv 
Water of April 6th entitled " The Agony of Serbia," we beg 
to inform you that our Swiss Committee for relief in Serbia 
has made "arrangements for sending and distributing food 
and clothes in Serbia through its Own Commissioners. Any 
one wishing to contribute to this work of assistance may send 
his donation through the committee. 
1 am. Truly yours, 
E. A. Naville, 
President Comit6 de Secours aus Serbe.s, 
Geneva. April 17th, 1916. 
The Bristol branch of the British Red Cross Society ought 
to benefit largely from the profits accruing from the sales of 
Tommy's Red Cross A. B.C., wliich is published by that branch 
of the great national undertaking at one shiUing. The rhymes 
of " J.R.G.H. " are well illustrated by " CT.," the whole" 
forming a humorous recital of the alphabet from the point of 
view of the soldier in hospital. 
The Daughters of Germany (Holdcn and Hardingham, 5^' 
net), is a scathing indictment of German morals, which shov s 
clearly that, instead of having borrowed the manners and 
customs of the French Monarchy in the eighteenth century, 
Germany had nothing to learn in" the way of immorals at any 
period of history. The book is an ugly but unimpeachable 
record of German grossness, and a refutation to the most 
strenuous German claim to racial superiority. It deals with 
the subject mainly from an historical standpoint. 
Under the ungainly title of Let Priest and People Weep 
(Gay and Hancock, 6s.), Mr. Richard Shanahan gives a viyid 
and stirring account of German machinations on the Belgian 
frontier during the three years preceding the outbreak of the 
war. The book begins at about the time of the Agadir incident, 
and ends with the first German massacre of civiUans in Bel- 
gium—that of Francorchamps, east of Li^ge. An e.Kcellent novel 
and an interesting contribution to literature of the war. 
Mr. Richard Marsh's last book. The Great Temptation (T 
Fisher Unwin, 6s.) opens just as startlingly as The Beetle, and 
is in some ways reminiscent of that famous story, although 
the mystery concerns " pills " rather than horrors. It forms 
one of' the best mystery stories that have appeared for a lon^j 
time, the interest being well maintained througliout. 
