May II, 1016 
LAND & WATER 
It 
Prior to the War, from April ist, 1912, to October ist, 
1913, Colonel Hirschauer (now General Hirschauer) was 
Permanent Inspector of Aeronautics and is looked upon 
to-day as a most capable organiser and the man who made 
Service aeronautics in France. At the time of the 
outbreak of war General Bernard was in command of 
the French Flying Corps, but he resigned on October 
loth, 1914, and was replaced by General Hirschauer 
who, under the title of Directeur de l' Aeronautique was at 
tiie head of the l-Vench Flying Corps until September 
loth, 1915. On this latter date the French Government 
created an Air Ministry, at the head of which was placed 
a civilian, M. Kene Besnard, whose official title was Sous 
Secretaire dc' I'Etat Mililairc ; the actual date of this 
appointment was September 12th. On February loth 
of the present year, M. Rene Besnard resigned, and the 
newly created Air Ministry was dissolved after a brief 
existence of but live calendar months' duration. 
Parenthetically it may be stated as a curious com- 
mentary and as a reflection on the bona fides of those who 
have talked loudest in this country, that scarcely a word 
has been said as to the history and achievements of the 
ill-fated Air Ministry of the French Government. The 
creation of the Air Ministry and the appointment of 
M. Besnard on September I2tli, 1915, was duly announced 
and trumpeted in certain sections of the English Press, 
but the failure and dissolution of the Air Ministry fi\e 
months later was received in silence. It is difficult to 
say ]>ositively that the matter passed without mention, 
but I have searched in vain in the papers which affect 
to inform the public on matters aeronautical, and have 
failed to find even a reference to so important a fact, 
or a word of discussion as to the circumstances which 
led to the final downfall of the Air Ministry and the 
restoration of the previous method of administration. 
The present Director of Military Aeronautics in F"rance 
is a soldier, Colonel Regnier, and his position is the same 
as that formerly held by General Hirschauer, hijj official 
WiXeheing Directeur dcl'Aeronauti'quc Militairc Frattfaise. 
A Lesson of History 
Now whatever individual views a man may hold as to 
the defects of our existing aeronautical organisation, be it 
in the Army or in the Navy, and whatever views he may 
have expressed prior to February of this year as to the 
advantages of direct ministerial control, that is to say, 
the advantages of the management of Service Aeronautics 
by a civilian Air Minister, he cannot (if acting in good 
faith) ignore the teaching of history in the French tenta- 
tive or experimental Air Ministry. He may be able to 
show reasons why an Air Ministry in I'rancc proved itself 
a failure, he may bi' able to point to defects in its organisa- 
tion or in its personnel which would account for its failure. 
He may be able to show that the conditions in Great 
Britain, with our naval first line of defence, differ so 
radically from those which obtain in France, as toucliing 
the Air Service, that what may be wrong in France, what 
may fail in France, may yet be right in Britain. He 
thus may be able to establish some plausible case for 
an Air Ministry in England in spite of its failure 
in France, but he cannot with honesty ignore the history 
of the French Air Ministry without rendering himself 
open to the accusation of ignorance or of deliberate 
suppressio veri. When we find that one of our leading 
journals has taken up a line of policy and will stick at 
nothing — even suppresrsion of the truth — to support its 
own doctrines, we are inevitably led to the conclusion 
that its aims and actions are not wholly dictated by 
patriotic motives. 
We will go into this history of the French Air Ministry 
in greater detail ; there is not a point or tmn in the" 
experience, and I will say, the ordeal through which 
the French Air Service has passed which has not its 
intimate bearing on the present agitation in this country. 
The downfall of General Hirschauer, who as I have said 
is rightly to be regai-ded as the creator, or at least the 
organiser of the I'Vench Air Service, as it existed prior to 
the outbreak of hostilities, was due to a systematic 
campaign of intrigue. It is to be recalled that the first 
term of office of General Hirschauer (then Colonel 
Hirschauer) terminated prior to the War on October 1st, 
iqi.;, from which date the connnand was in the hands 
of (ieneral Bernard, and from a. \'arietv of causes during 
the period which intervened after Colonel Hirschauer's 
resignation, the organisation had so seriously deteriorated, 
that the outbreak of hostilities was very speedily followed 
by the resignation of General Bernard and the recall of 
(ieneral Hirschauer to office. It is not possible to discuss 
in full detail the history of the opposition and intrigue 
by which (jeneral Hirschauer's authority was under- 
mined. His thoroughgoing methods of re-organisation 
resulted in his incurring the enmity of many of the French 
firms engaged in aircraft contracts, and raised a corres- 
ponding opposition amongst a certain clique of politicians. 
In other respects the kind of agitation by which General 
Hirschauer found himself opposed was very similar to 
that which has during the last few months been agitating 
l)olitical circles in this country. 
General Hirschauer 
Now General Hirschauer's strength lay in the fact that 
he had both the theoretical knowledge and the i)ractical 
experience. His weakness lay in the fact that he was a 
soldier and not a diplomat.- Owing to the fact that he 
was a soldier he had no means of replying to the attacks 
which were made upon him, and these as we know can 
take various forms, and are difficult enough to answer 
and refute when directed against a civilian who is free 
to use his pen and speech in his own defence : defence 
is incomparably more difficult when a soldier is the 
\-ictim of attack. Eventually the inevitable happened, 
j)olitical intrigue succeeded. General Hirschauer resigned, 
and an Air Ministry was created with the portfolio in the 
hands of the civilian, M. Rene Besnard, 
Now M. Rene Besnard was no clap-trap orator, as with 
certain agitators of whom we have painful experience 
in this country ; in this respect France was fortunate. 
M. Besnard made no pretensions to being a superman 
with a mission to put everybody else right. He was 
and is a capable and thoroughly honourable man, and 
one who was frank to state at the outset that he had 
neither the knowledge of the subject nor the experience 
of (ieneral Hirschauer, whom in a sense he succeeded. 
A consulting or advisory Committee was appointed 
shortly after the inauguration of the new Ministry to 
co-operate with M. Besnard ; the personnel of " this 
Committee was largely recruited from amongst prominent 
members of the .aeronautical industry; it included' 
amongst others, M. M. Esnault, Pelterie, Clement Bayard, 
and M. Renault, also M. Eiffel, the well known French 
engineer. The inclusion of so large a representation of 
manufacturers and aeronautical constructors may un- 
doubtedly be regarded as an attempt to silence criticism, 
or as a salve to opposition from the powerful trade in- 
terests to which General Hirschauer's downfall had been 
so largely due. 
As Air Minister he undoubtedly had given him 
greater power, and was less vulnerable to attack from 
the political side ; in spite of these advantages, however, 
his term of office may be summed up in the one word 
" failure," and as the failure of the regime which lie 
inaugurated became more and more apparent a new and 
powerful press outcry arose until ultimately his resigna- 
tion became inevitable ; it was accepted on February joti: 
last. Beyond this the five months' experience of ar' 
Air Ministry had convinced the French Government 
that the control was more appropriately to be delegated 
to an Army officer ; in other words the work was a soldier's 
work, and not that of a civilian ; Colonel Regnier was 
appointed and remains in power to-day. 
The failure of the French Air Ministry cannot be whoUv 
attributed to any one cause. The probability is that 
many of the difficulties set forth in the preceding articles 
became manifest at an early period ; but beyond this 
it is known that the work done under tlie Besnard regime 
was from a technical standpoint unsound. The trade 
representation was not found to be as beneficial as its 
advocates had hoped, and the new types of aeroplane 
adopted by the Air Ministry during "its brief existence 
(in many instances machines of large size) proved un- 
satisfactory : these machines are to-day recognised as 
having failed to establish themselves as serviceable types. 
It is a point of considerable interest, and it is in "itself 
eloquent of the character of the agitation which resulted 
in the futile upheaval in the Inench Air Service administra- 
tion (and of the agitation which is to-dav in iiropress in 
