NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16160, 14 March 1918, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

AIR RAIDS AND REPRISALS. Four ot the principal Rhino towns have petitioned Berlin, we are told, asking for the cessation cf bombing reprisals, owing to the danger to German cities, and, apparently as an alternative, for greater anti-aircraft prolection. What they want, in plain language, is that Germany should cease making -air raids on England and on open towns and Red Cross hospitals in France, bccau.se tlitv induce the British and •French to adopt a poiioy of leprisals from which the towns ;n the Rhine province are the chief sufferers. A newspaper published :-.t Saarbruck, a town in the Rhine Province. which was possibly one ol the petitioners referred to, contained a statement a few days ago which. a.-> the cable in an Australian paper remarked, threw a si<!fiiiiicant on German official reports minimising .hn effect of tho air raids of the Allies, jt said that 74 bombs were dropped on the town on February tith, 22 being on the main railway station. Sixteen struck Rangier station, and thirteen liurbiidi Factory, while the roof ci Burbach's wat; blown off. . ft was possibly as the result of t.iis raid and others ol similar characiei that Germanv, as announced the other dav, began to move in the direction ot < omiiig to some terms with her opponents regarding air raids. She was credited with sounding Spain with tiio view of getting lving Alfonso to oio-iHj"-;e to the Allies the abandonment of such raids on towns which lie outside the war zone. It is quite probable that Great Britain at least would le willing to agree to such a proposal if theiv were any guarantee that '.Germany would keep faith, for she adopted a policy of reprisals reluctantly, and her ea'p'.-iity foi'C spreading ruin m German cities has always been ne'.a in check by her unwillingness to injure the purely civilian population. In the meantime, however, there is nothing to warrant the belief that Germany has actually made the proposal with which she is credited. Recent raids on London and Paris indicate that she still holds to the fatuous >dea that these raids are of .some material benefit to her.

WHERE BOMBING IS EFFECTIVE. There is no doubt that if Britain over entered upon a policy of air raids on open towns in real earnest &he could do an infinito amount of harm to German cities. As it is, most >f lier bombiug is done on railway stations, ammunition dumps', aerodromes, munition works, and factories turning out military work. In direction she shows far more activity than Joea Gennanv. In Jaimarv last, according to the British Press Bureau, the enemy dropped in the daytime "21 bombs, and at niglit 1261 bombs, m the area of British occupation in France, while the British naval and military and tho Australian air .services dropped 5900 bombs during the davtime, and 1753 at night, on areas occupied by tho enemy. Particular attention is paid by the British airmen to German lines of communication and -Transport, and some of the enemy's most important railway junctions are bombed almost every week. A "burst" on a railway centre inconceivably do as much "damage as a minor engagement.

GERMANY IN THE AIR. j ■ It was cabled "a day or two ago that Germany had 180 squadrillas of Aeroplanes on the Western "front. A squad-, rilla is a flight of sis machines, so that Germany's effective air-fighting strength, to-day is IQBO aeroplanes. The statement is probably approximately correct ; it agrees almost exactly witn an estimate of the number made some fewweeks ago and quoted at the time in this column. It the result of a violent effort by General von Bulow to increase greatly tho. German air-fleet before the big offensive, whejtsver that takes place. In pursuance of that plan, Swiss factories were laid undor contribution, and 29 new and important establishments for the production of aeroplanes and their accessories were erected in Germany last summer. For l>ombing formations heavy tnree-seater machines were built which can carry between J7oolb and 18001b weight of bombs. These have .Mercedes 260 horse-\ power motors, and. when loaded, can climb 12,000 ft in 35 minutes. In every type of flying machine the Germans have been feverislily producing new models for .long-distance scouting expeditions. The 1917 Rumple, with 260 Mercedes motor, is said to be tho best machine. They nave also a machine made entirely of metal, to operate in conjunction with, infantry on the battlefield. It has no great speed, and is a notably slow climber. And yet, in spite of all this activity, Germispy is "not in it" with the Allies •when it comes to fighting. The French alone in the first ten months of last yearf brought down within their own lines 517 German planes, and it was belioved that 518 more "crashed" within the enemy's lines, the total number thus destroyed or captured being almost as great as tho number now j>ossessed by Germany. And the British airmen w.ere as active and as deadly as their -French colleagues.

WHAT AMERICA IS DOING. Behind the: xJritishi and French v."cayalry of. the clouds" is the promise of tile air-fighting force that America has in preparation, a- force for .which over 120 millions sterling was voted last $ear, and for which a vast sum was asked this year. The present strength of that force is as yot unknown, hut the New York "Sun" at the end of January stated-explicitly that "the United States to-day could tAit more machines into aerial services than hav© ever used on a single day on tho entire "Western front. On December Ist last the Government had twenty times as many airpla&es as on Januarv Ist, 1917, and the number since Decoinber Ist has increased at an accelerating proportion. The nation's aviation programme is to be a reality on the Western front this year, and aerial fighting forces of significant proportions are in actual service now. "One explanation offered for tho results achieved in aviation is that every semblance of red tape has been eliminated, and none of the encumbrances of speedy actiou has been -permitted to choke progress. The "expenditures in army aviation average £400,000 a day. Contractors dealing -with tlie Government do not have to wait more than twenty-four hours for payment. Plans of prime impoctanco are conceived, passed upon at meetings of tlie Air-

craft- Production Board, and put into effect tho same day. •'lt is estimated tho Germans have m operation on the "Western front,_ ICOO airplanes on any single day. The United States Armv already has appropriations for 20,000, * without counting the new billion-dollar appropriation, and theso added to the British and French airplane forces indicate an overwhelming predominance over the Germans."