AIRCRAFT IN WAR.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 562, 26 April 1913, Page 3

AIRCRAFT IN WAR.

Mr Andrew Fisher's announcement as to aircraft for the Australain Defence Department is inspired by the news from Europe and what is being done there: —

France has over 400 good aircraft, Germany 200. France and Germany have each a dozen or more airships, dirigibles, and aeroplanes capable of grappling the central blus and of offensive operations again9t each other, or against an army, or against a fleet beneath them. The recent manoeuvres by no means spoke the ! last word sb to the value of the aeroplane or the monoplane for scouting purposes in time of war. The Allies in the Balkans have reaped immeasurable advantage from the information obtained by their airmen circling over Adrianople in their machines, spying out the position of the Turkish guns, the location of the troops, the constitution of the arsenal an,l the powder magazines; while a French force, beleagured in the desert beyond Magador, had fought itself to a standstill, and was on the point of surrendering to the tribesmen, when an aviator swept over the horizon and carried to them promise of every buccour from a rescuing force. On the heels of this came the feat of a Greek aviator flying over the Turkish fleet in the Dardanelles, directing and throwing bombs at them. That he missed his mark does not much matter. Practice will remedy the defects of aim and direction, which every airman worth his salt will be able to gauge ir the near future. In France the nation takes a pride in the new fifth arm of its defence. From the president to the poorest beggar in the street all are filled with a desire to see every encouragement given to the pilot* who are gradually but surely conquering the air. Yesterday it seeAied an absurd dream that any nation should be able to send up a fleet of airship 3 capable of destroying every airship by - gun fire. France has given the lie to this notion by equipping several staunch aircraft with two light but effective quickfiring guns, which would make short work of any slower or unarmoured airship, balloon, or dirigible, no matter how large its proportions. The Government has gone out of its way to encourage enterprise in the manufacture of machines, has offered very large prizes for competitions, has rewarded every inventor who has improved their construction, has even decorated the moßt adventurous of her pilots, so that to be an aviator in France is to have assurance of employment, with pros pects of amasiing a substantial competency, and a certainty of hearty recognition from the nation. In Germany much the same policy has been adopted and pursued. The Emperor, who had the wit to concentrate public patriotism upon the navy in order to obtain a fleet capable of challenging Great Britain, has now transferred public thought to aviation, so that the whole of the Fatherland is watching its development with intense eagerness and enthusiasm. Every officer in the army who resolves to fly obtain i rapid promotion and material benefit, Every civilian who puts cash or his labour into airship construction is fairly certain to obtain contracts from the Government sufficient to keep all his hands employed and to return him a good interest on the capital invested, while for those who excel in their command of the air a special order has been created, and a speciaf badge has been designed by the Em peror himself, so that the German aviator basks in the sunshine of the Honhezollern smile. In Germany and in France hangars capable of giving storage to a very large number of aircraft of different tpyes are dotted all over the country in strategic positions. Only this week Germany has shipped across to Heligoland, and is building there a wonderful aerodrome in the natural hollow which exists in the centre of that island, and from this vantage point, so egregious'.y ceded to her by Great Britain, she will be able to keep perpetual watch upon the cliffs of Dover and ward over the doors of Germany.

As against all this activity Britain is doing little. It is not that her army is unaware of the dangers it is running, it is not that the two branches of the forces are not producing men of sufficient nerve and patriotism to conquer the air, as they have mastered the land and sea, it is not that Saxon inventiveness is not equal to planning effective and formidable areoplanes and airships. The men and the engineering skill are here in abundance. It is the money that is wanting, and a proper spirit on the part of those who control the exchequer. For lack of a few thousand pounds Britain is starving out all the home manufacturers, and placing most of her paltry orders with foreign firms. First of all the Government, in its pacificist policy, closes its eyes to the arrival of the airman t.s a super! Iv dcstru:t ; vs assailant, and then, with its free trade fetish, it needs must patronise the European manufacturer, while the British tracer slowly drifts into bankruptcy.