OF A CROSS-CHANNEL PASSAGE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 610, 13 September 1909, Page 4

OF A CROSS-CHANNEL PASSAGE.

"ARE WE AN AWAKENING .PEOPLE?" (By. H. G.\Wei,i.s.) In an articlo in the "Daily Mail Overseas Edition," Mr. 11. 6: Wells, author o{ "Tho War in the Air," writes: , 'The telephone bell rings with tho petulant persistence that marks' a trunk-, call; and I go in: from some ineffectual gymnastics on tho lawn to deal with tho irruption. There is the usual trouble in oonncoting up, minuter voices in Folkestone and Dover and London call to 0110 another and aro swallowed up by buzzings and throbbinga. Then in elfin tones the real -message comes through; "Bleriot has crossed the Channel . .'. Ail article .., . about what it means." I make a hasty promise aud go out and tell my friends.from my garden I look straight upon tho. Channel, and there aro white caps upon the water, and the iris arid tamarisk are all asway, with tho south-west wind thatwasalso blowing. M. Bleriot has done very well, < and I think ilr. Latham'had jolly bad luck. That is what it menus to us first of all. It also, I reflect privately, means- that I have under-estimated the possible stability of aeroplanes. I did not expect anything of the-sort so soon This is a- good five years before my reckoning of the year before last.. A Swarm of Questions. ■ Wo all, I think, regret that being so near wo were not among the fortunato ones who saw that littla flat shape' skim landward out of; tho blue; suroly they -havo an enviable, memory; and then we fall talking arid '.disputing about what that swift arrival may signify. -.It starts' a , swarm of .questions. . ~A"" . First ono remarks that here is a-thing done, and dons : with an astonishing: effect of ease, that was■ incredible- not: simply ...to,, -ignorant people, but to - men well informed ...in these imatters. , It-cannot be fifteen years'qgo since Sir Hiram Maxim made the first riiachjno that could lift its" weight : from tho 1 ground, and I well remember how the Quality of: that success confirmed the universal aoubt that man could ever in any effectual manner fly. . i ... r.- Since 'then-, a conspiracy'.-of "accidents- has changed the whole problem; the bicycle and .its vibrations developed tho pneumatic,, tyro, the pneumatic tyro rendered a comfortable .meohanically .driven -road-vehiele possible, tho -motor-car-'.set all enormous premium onj tho development of very light, very -efficient eri-' gines, and' at last the engineer was. able to : .offer tho experimentalists-in gliding ono-'strong enough,and light enough for the new purpose. And'herb wo arel Or, rather, M. Bleriot is!/. . .What does it'mean for us? 1 :One meaning, I think, stands, out plainly enough, unpalatable enough' to-our national pride. This-thing from first to last was made abroad. Of all that made it possible, we ■ can only olaim 60 much as is due to the improvement of the bicycle. Gliding began abroad ; while- our young men, of inusclo 'and 'courage were'braving-the dangers of the cricket.ball. 1 The motor-ear ;arid its engine was being worked out / "ovor- there,"'while in this-country the meohanically. propelled road. Vehicle, lest it should frighten the carriage . horses. of: the gentry,, was going meticulously at four miles an hour behind a man-with a red ' flaigi , Over there, where , the. prosperous classes have ■ some regard for,,.education and some freedom of. imaginative play, where,people,.discuss all,sorts of things fearlessly,, and havo 1 a respect- for science, this has-been achieved; Our Insularity Broached. And now our insularity is breached'by the foreigner,who has got ahoad with flying. It means,. I take, it,-first and foromnst for us, that- 1 , • ■... . It is not tho first,warning wo have ,'had. -It has been raining warnings:upon ris—never was ■a smckitig, dull people so .liberally, served with' warnings of what .was in store for them. But this event—this foreigner-invented, .foreignerbuilt, foreigner-steered thing, taking our : silvbr streak as a bird soars across a rivulet —puts the caso' dramatically. -We have fallen-behind ,in the quality , of; our manhood. In the men of means and leisure ~iu this island .: there was neither enterprise enough, imagination enough, knowledge, or. skill enough to lead in this matter. I do not : see how',ono can go into tho history of..thiß,development,-and.'arrive at any' othteiconclusioni, flffleoErauoli'' aildii-Americans can; laugh at our aeroplanes, the Germans are' teri yeac« n pJio<j.d .pf .oijv.- poijr, daftM#. >:;Wo' are - displayed; a .soft,, rather, backward people. Jiither,: we aro, a people essentially arid incurably; iriferjor, l or'. there is something' wrong in' ;°J U ' trauimg;' sbiiiefhing• • be'iitimbing in .'our .atmospliereJ' and'r'oircuiiistance'si ' This :is ' tho feat'' i' 1 * 11 ' Bleriot's' V Tho; second is that; in'spite of our fleet, this is. no longor, from the military point of view, an inaccessible/island./ '. /. ; "; - ~" , ;So lorig as oiio'hiid fb consider the navigable balloon 1 . tho aerial :, 6ide ;of ■ warfaro' remained unimportant.. A'Zeppelin is little good'for any purpose but scouting and espionage. ' It can carry very.'little; weight in. proportion-to its vast size,; and, what is irioro important,' it cannot drop .things' without: Sending itself'up like a bubble' in soda, water. An arniada'of against this island': would end in a-disporsed deflated'state, chiefly in tho seas . between Orkney and; Norway—though I, say it : who should not. But these aeroplanes can fly. all round tho',fastest, navigable that ever: drove before; the- wind; ! they can drop' weights, take up weights, and'do all, sorts of able, inconverii., cut things.'.'. They aw'.birds. -. As for/the birdu. so for . aeroplanes there is an'upwa.rd limit of size. Tliey. aro never going to bo very big,' but they.are; going to be very able-and active, • What May Happen. ' . Within ii. year we shall have—or father, they, .will, have—aeroplanes , capable : of. / starting from Calais, let. us say, circling .over London, dropping; a'; hundredwoight - or; so' of : oxplosive upon tho printing machines of . the ..JDaily Mail," and returning securely to Calais ;for another similar parcel. They, are things neither. diffioult nor costly, to make./ For the prico. of a Dreadnought' orio might havo hundreds. They will ho extremely "hard to hit with any sort of missile. : I-do not think a large army of .'under-educated, ... under-trained,, extrcmclv, unwilling conscripts is goipj. to bo any 1 good against-this sort of. thing. • - ; , I do not think that tho arrival of M. Bleriot. means a panic resort, to. conscription. It is extremely desirable that people,:should --'realise that these; foreign- machines ,are, not a tern--porary and incidental advantage' that wo can make good by. fussing ..and demanding Eight aud saying we won't wait, and so on, and then subsiding-into'indolence again. They are just tho first fruits of a steady, enduring lead that tlio foreigner has won. Tho foreigner is ahead 'of us, in' education, .-and this './Is. / especially truo of. the middle and upper classes from which invention:and enterpriso come—or, ; in our own case, do not come. 1 Ho makes a better class of mari than we do. • His science is better than'ours. Hiß training is.better than ours. His'imagination is livelier. His mind is'more Active., His requirements in'a novel...for example, afe not kindly, sedative pap; his.uncensored plays deal with realities. His schools are places for vigorous education instead, of genteel athleticism, and his home lias books, in it, and thought and conversation. Our homes and schools aril: relatively dull and uninspiring; there is no intellectual guide or stir in them-, .and . to that we owe this new i generation of nicely-behaved, unenterprising sons, who play, golf and .dominate the: tailoring of the world, while Brazilians, Frenchmen, Americans, and Germans fly. . ; That,wo are hopelessly behindhand in aeronautics is not . a iact by iteslf. It is .merely an indication • that: wo are behindhand in' out mechanical knowledge and invention. , M. Bleriot's aeroplano points also to tho fleet. , Tho,: struggle for- naval supremaoy is. not merely .a struggle in shipbuilding and expenditure.- Much moro is it a struggle iu knowledge and invention. It is not the Power that has thi- most ships or the' biggest Bhips that is going to win in. a naval, conflict. It iB tho Power that thinks quickest of what to do, is most resourceful and inventive. Eighty Dreadnoughts. manned by. dull men are only eighty targets for liquioker adversary. Woll, is thero any reason to suppose that our 'Navy, is going to keep above tho general national level in those things? Is tho Navy bright? .

Days-of Natural Democracy Ended. The arrival of M, Bleriot'suggests most horribly to mo how far bchincj we must bo in . all mutters of ingenuity, device, and mechanical contrivance. -1 am reminded again of the- days' during the Boer Wnr, when one realised that it had never occurred to our happy-go-lucky Army that it was possiblo to make, iv military us:,.of barbed wire or construct a trench to defy slirapnel. Suppose in .the North Sea-we got ;i half-drowned admiral explaining what a confoundedly slim, unexpected, almost ungeutleimmly thin; the enemy had done to him. Are \vo an awakening people? It is the vital riddle of, our time. I look out upon- tho;windy 1 Channel and think of all thoso millions just over there,who seem to got busier and .keener erery hour. I could' imagine tlio day of'reckoning coming liko a swarm, of birds, '-'"i-) . . Hcro tho air is full of the fclamour of', rich and prosperous 'peoplo .invited to pay taxes, and beyond:mcasuro bitter. • They aro going to ■live, abroad, out' their charities," dismiss old sorvahts,' all'sorts of silly, vindictive ,Wo soorn to bo doing feeblo neit-to..

nothings in tho endowment of research. Not ono in twenty of the boys of tho middle and upper classes learns German or gets more than a misleading smattering of physical science. Most of them never learn to speak French. Heaven alone knows what they do with their.' brains. The British reading and thinking pub- , lio probably docs not number fifty thousahd people all told..' It is difficult to see whence tho necessary impetus for a national renascence • is to come. . . . Tho universities are poor and spiritless, with no ambition to lead the country ■ I met a Boy Scout-tho other day. - lie was hopeful in his way,, but a little -inadequate, 1 thought, as-a basi9 for confidonoo in ' the future -of tho Empire. Wc havo still our. Derby, Day, of course. . . , Apart from these patriotic solicitudes If. Bleriot has set quite another train of thought ' going in my mind. The days of natural democracy aro surely at an end through these machines. Thero comes a timo when men will ; be sorted out into those who will, have the knowledge, nerve, and courage to. do these splendid, dangerous things, and thoso who will prefer the humbler level. I do not think num. . bers aro going to matter so much in' tho war. faro of tho future, and that when organised in. telligence differs from. tho majority, tho majority will have no adequate. power of retort. Plio common man witlia pike, being only sufficiently indignant and abundant; pould chaso tlio eighteenth-century gentlemdn as ho cho6o, but I fail .to see what ho can do in tho way. of mischief to an elusive chevalier with wings. ' But that opens too wide a discussion for mo to enter upon no'\j." . . •