12 
LA.Nl) .S: WATER 
May II, 1916 
this country), that although the complaint of the chief 
would-bf refornuTS is expressed as a general plea that 
the Air Service is thoroughly mismanaged, and that the 
men in charge do not know their business, the attack has 
been almost invariably based on the success of the Zeppelin 
raid. In other words, although the very exponents of 
reform liave been and arc loud in their protestations 
that they are not endeavouring to take advantage of the 
fear and the shattered ner\es of sections of the populace, 
and repudiate any suggestion that their agitation is 
based on the success of the (ierman airship as a means of 
intimidation, this is definitely the point or pivot on 
which the press arguments are found time after time to 
liinge, and it is tlie Zeppelin raid which has been ex- 
ploited more than any other one fact as an alleged proof 
of the so-called " air muddle " in this country and of the 
" crise de I'aviation " as it has been described in the 
French press and Chamber of Deputies. 
I give the following examples both from the press and 
from political speeches in I'rance in illustration of the 
above statement. 
Effect of the Zeppelins 
The outcry against the I'ronch .\ir Ministry, more 
particularly as touching the Zeppelin raids, is wonder- 
ful in its singleness of purpose. When reading the dis- 
cussion, either as it took place in the I'"rench Chamber or 
in the Press, one cannot escape from the continual talk 
of the Zeppelin. 
The following horn L' Homme Enchainc is an intcr- 
pellation of (ieneral (iallieni : 
(i) What are the mea'-ures taken by M. Le Ministre 
de la Guerre against the raids of Zeppelins on Paris ? 
{z) How have these instructions been followed on 
the nights of the aqth and joth Januarv. 
.\nd on the day following in the same paper : " The same 
day that we had the visit of the Zeppelins on Paris we 
announced that M. R. Besnard had organised a tour of 
the bonne presse amongst our aeroplane factories and 
amongst our works for the construction of dirigibles." 
J.ater in the same article they refer to M. I^. Besnard a? 
" the disorganiser [dcsorgauisatcur] of our aeronautics." 
One day later, February 5th, a letter is published over 
the name of I-. Bleriot, which begins. " I hav^e felt in a 
manner particularly acute the affront of which Paris 
has been the victim. It is the main motive of this letter." 
Later in the letter M. Bleriot complains that everything 
would be right if a certain list or panel of pioneer con- 
structors were embodied in a " comite superieur de la 
dcjcnse aerienne de la France." The names he suggests 
are Voisin, Caudron, Breguet. Saulnier, Bechereau, 
Delage (Nieuport), Farman, which .vith the names already 
cited would practically mean the control of French 
military aeronautics by a trade committee ! 
On h'ebruary 9th the same paper announces the resigna- 
tion of M. Besnard and its acceptance by the French 
Minister of War, General Gallieni. M. Besnard's com- 
plaint in his letter of resignation is in brief that the 
French Chamber wished to saddle him with responsibility 
which was quite bej'ond the powers conferred upon his 
ofike. 
Wc have in the above a most clearly and intimately 
related history of cause and effect. But in the same 
paper of February ist we lind the disclaimer with which 
our press also has made us familiar — " If the German 
' psychologues ' have believed with their Zeppelins and 
their bombs to terrorise the Parisian population they 
ought to be undccei\cd. Never has Paris shown less 
fear, one may say more indifference, to danger." 
My comment on the above is that either the boasted 
indifference of the Parisian to the German bomb is a 
farce, or else the wa\e of displeasure previously expressed 
on account of the Zeppelin visit was a pose assumed by 
an industrial or political clique to remove a Minister 
who was distasteful. What greater triumph could the 
authors of the Zeppelin raids on Paris boast than of 
■having been the means through popular clamour of the 
overthrow of the French Air Ministry ! The alleged 
ineffectiveness of the Zeppelin bomb is curiously enough 
reflected in article after article in the same journal, 
and yet, on the strength of the failuie of the defence, 
mud is continually thrown at the ill-fated M. Besnard. 
The same history will be found in other French journals 
of the same period. From the ist February to the time 
of the Minister's resignation we have the same story, 
indignant complaints on the subject of the Zeppelin 
raids and scornful attacks on the Air Minister up to 
the date of his demission. 
In examining this history of the French Air Ministry 
I ha\'e come across a paragraph in La Liberie over 
the pen of (ieorges Berthoulat which is worth quoting. 
The following is a rough translation. Referring to JI. 
Besnard : 
" He will not be replaced by a Sous Secretaire d'Etat 
(Minister). Aviation is in fact a department which 
must depend directly upon the Ministry of War which 
this multiplication of under secretaryships has threatened 
with dismemberment. General (iallieni has strong arms. 
He may be trusted to use them with energy to reorganise 
the Service as he reorganised the entrenched camp of 
Paris. At the outset let it be settlc'd that the technical 
section of aeronautics must cease to be a watertight com- 
partment of the Direction. Banished to the Invalides 
the technical section is ignored by the office of !\I. Besnard 
in the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Its remarks, its con- 
clusions, even the most interesting against the Zeppelins, 
have been condemned to eternal sleep. Another similar 
vicious system ; no connection between the direction 
of the artillery and that of aeronautics. But, firing from 
below against aeroplanes or Zeppelins depends upon the 
artillerj', whilst fire from abo\-e against the same objec- 
tives belongs to aeronautics. Inconceivable but true ! 
As for horizontal fire the. two departments dispute, 
amongst themselves without doubt." ^.■. , ,. , .. •,.,,'," '. 
But as to the main point— every French journal tells the 
same tale — the sequence is :— ' , , 
(i) Zeppelin raids. ' , ■ • , ■ 
(2) A furious agitation against the Air Ministry hiftcf-: 
ing on the Zeppelin raid. , 
(3) Air Minister resigns. 
in the article which follows I shall show how closely, 
a parallel history has been tlireatened by the present air 
agitation (the so-called " air-mud^le " ) in this country, 
a history which has kept French aeronautics in a state 
of unsettlement and ferment for a period of more tTi.rn 
six months. 
The dangers of an inconclqsive. peace, and; the. possibilities 
of submarine merchant ships,- form the main thesis. -of ; Mr.. 
Ridgwell CuUum's latest book. The Men Who Wrought. 
(Chapman and Hall, fas. net.) There is enougli of love story 
in the book to give a personal interest, and there are German 
spies, German secret dockyards, a genius of a Polish inventor, 
and a Cabinet Minister. Mr. CuUunj has adapted, to a certain 
extent, the methods of \\illiam le Oueux to his own particular 
style of writing, arid the result is rather heavy, Still, it is 
a good story, with enough of thrills to satisfy the most exact- 
ing reader, thougli few will agree with the writer's conclusion 
—the transport of the centre of the British Empire from these 
islands to some point of greater possible security. The 
author has evidently overlooked what happens in the case 
of countries possessing land frontiers, such as Canada must 
always possess. Power and the 'possession of power must al- 
waj's bring responsibilities and dangers, and the shifting of the 
centre would not make it less a storm centre. 
The study of Dostoievsky's life and career embodied in 
Dostoievsky, by Evgenii Soloviev (George Allen and Unwin, 
5s. net, is an appreciation rather than a criticism of the 
man. " .•\ return to the people — service of the masses in 
a spirit of Christian love and truth "--such was Dostoievsky's 
message— that is the keynote of the book. At the same time, 
much of the matter that the book contains will prove new, 
even to the majority of those who are familiar with the great 
Kussian through the translations of his work into English. 
His sufferings, 'imprisonment, and ceaseless struggle with 
life are outlined, and the persistent melancholy of his work 
is more than accounted for by the man himself. His appre- 
ciation of the better qualities of the people of Russia — the 
inarticulate peasantry— is clearly shown. " Under the dingy 
smock of the Russian peasant, under his inveterate barbarity 
and uncouthnessand 'be;ist-like ignorance,' Dostoievsky ever 
sought and ever found ' great depths of human sentiment' 
in the shape of the peasant's fine, almost maternal tenderness 
for whatever is weak or unhappy or in pain." 
The book is a stimulating inquiry into causes, and perusal 
of its pages will help readers of Dostoievsky's own work to 
understand not only the work, but the man behind it 
