Give Our Airmen a Fighting Leader.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 167, 20 April 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

Give Our Airmen a Fighting Leader.

IF mm BRITON GAMT STOP THE AIR RAIDS SHE has lust mmim of the am,

WE HEED FISHER AND THE FISHER TOUCH AT THE ADMIRALTY,

By ROBERT BLATCHFOIID in "Weekly Dispatch.'

I am an old man in years, and I have to confess that the world 1 knew has ceased to be. There is no such world as that I believed in. I have looked on the dreadful pageant of this war with growing wonder, with increasing horror. I have been a witness of infamies, to treacheries, to baseness I did not conceive as possible. Which of us had imagination so daring as to foresee the ruthless butcheries, the devilish cynicisms of the tragedy of Armageddon? The revelation of the craven spirit and the insatiate greed of certain neutrals. The swinish money lust of the men, and Britons among them, who grow fat on the blood and tears of the women and men of their own race. The disgusting traitors who have sold or tried to sell their country for pieces of silver. Who could have conceived these degradation? And, on the other hand, the unsuspecting heroisms of the plain, unknown, unassuming women and men of France, of Russia, and of Britain, do they not excel our hopes?

It is a wond I did not know. It is a world greater and meaner and more terrible than I b.ave ever dreamed of. .Most of us, 1 suppose, have learned more in the past eighteen months than in the previous eighteen years.

One lessen I hope we shall all learn; that our flag is not a "rag," but the emblem of the national soul; that we have .1 great future before us, and that to be worthy of it we must stand together through storm and trial as a united nation: stand together as a regiment stands together on the stricken field. We have a debt to the children, even to the unborn, and we have a debt to the dead; to the brave dead who died without asking for any bargain, without making any complaint, without even so much as thinking any boast. —Robert Bl.itchford

" They are a very discomfiting thing, these air raids," said the landlady of the Nine Bells, leaning her plump arms on the bar counter; "what I should call a very discomfiting and disquieting thing." She smoothed her white hair and lookedat me with a pair of light blue baby eyes, and smiled'. "I suppose," she continued, "you could not give me any idea where the rascals have been this time?" "I only know that the official report says the est and north-east coasts," I told her, and added, "Therefore the raid has probab'.;<• been somewhere else."

dastardly assassins, is the strongest man in Britain left idlv on the shelf ?

SWIFT, UNMERCIFUL REPRISALS

There are two ways of checking the ardour of the Zeppelins. The first is by means of swift and unmerciful reprisals ; the second is by continual raiding of the aerodromes and l the lines of the enemy. Both these methods coul 1 be used —if we had the i>irsh:ps and if we had a man in sile command.

With regard to reprisals. The first fact we have to recognise is that the Germans have discarded all ideas ot civilised warfare. They have extended the scope of war so as to include unarmed towns and unarmed civilians. This has been made apparent by them on sea and land as well as in the ajr. The German submarine policy and the German air policy are both aiming at civilians, at unarmed' ships or towns, and at women and children. Brutal murder of the kind penetrated in the sinking of the Lusitania and in the recent air raids fills the hearts of the German people with delight. Now, we will admit that as civilised people we do not countenance Britisi air raids on German towns for the mere sake of reprisal or revenge. But if by such reprisals we can check the Hunnish haste to shed blood l it seems to me that it is our duty to our women and children to make reprisals, and to make them relentlessly. That it is a horrible kind of warfare, I admit, but wo have allowed the Germans to use it for more than a year. For my part I hold that we are quite justified in using against tho Germans any means which they use against us. CHANCE THAT WAS MISSED.

The landlady nodced her head several times, and at every nod a new wrinkle seemed to form on her smooth brow. "If you ask my opinion," said she, "I think it wants a good deal of explaining, and somebody ought to explain it." I said I thought so, too, only more so. "What I mean," said the landlacy, "if you can understand me, is that, considering all the trouble they have put us to, turning out the lights and shutting up the bars most of the day, and putting up blinds to all our windows, and everything a body wants double the price it used to be, I think it wants explaining how those Germans manage to fine the towns and murder little innocent children in their sleep in the way they do. I'm sure it isn't war; and us with command of the sea and Sir Percy Scott in command of the defences of London, and my nephew, who'?: in the Army Service Corps and has only been home once on leave, told his uncle and me in this very bar that our new guns would blow every Zepp. into confetti, as one might say; ana after all I don't understand how they get here and get away again, any old time, and I think it wants explaining; and whoever it is, whether it's Mr. Lloyd George or Lord Kitchener who's responsible, ought to explain,"

I hav been told, and I hope the statement will be challenged so that my informant may have a chance to defend' it, that had Lord Fisher remained at the Admiralty we should ere now have been as supreme in the air as we are at sea. Lord Fisher is not otfy a sound strategist, he is a fighter. Most of our readers will know the difference between a boxer and a fighter. Lord Fisher is both. He understands that the best kind of defence is attack. But he not only understands it; ha acts upon it. How long will it be before our Government of Happy Explainers will rival the aerial attack on Cuxhaven ? Every practical airman understands the situation. When the German airships or aeroplanes have got over our capital or our towns it is too late to deal with them. They should be attacked oefore they start." Had Lord Fisher remained in command at the Admiralty we should before now have had a powerful fleet of some 3000 aeroplanes witn which to attack and) destroy the enemy aerodromes and the enemy's 'ines of comunications.

TIRED OF "EXPLANATIONS." I was at first inclined to smile at the landlady's presentment of the case, but, after reflection, I decided that I would laugh to-morrow. For, apart from its qua.intness and its wordiness, the good lady's opinion is very typically English. It is a nuisance having the streets darkened and our habits interfered with, and it annoys ono to think that, after all, the beastly Hun manages to hit the United Kingdom and to get away in safety. Though not a great logician' the man in the street, like the landlady somewhere in the south, can see as in a glass darkly that jf the Huns can raid England and escape scotfree, it follows that we arc unable to prevent them from raiding England, and that we cannot prevent them from escaping with no loss or small loss. Therefore, says the Englishman, "Somebody ought to explain." No doubt somebody will explain; our responsible rulers are whales at explanations, and so long as explanat.ons will keep the country quiet Cabinet Ministers will continue to draw their salaries, and the Huns will go on murdering our women and 1 children. But it is just possible that before Irng, if the raids continue (and I fear there are very much worse to come), the country may get tired of explanations and may begin to get angry. TACKLE RAIDERS IX NAVAL WAY. For what is there to explain ? It is a 6imple proposition. An air raid is on the same lines as a land raid or a raid by sea. If it succeeds it cannot be explained away. The Germans could raid us from the sea if they were stroug enough. If they could cross the Norta Sea at will and bombard' cur ports, or land troops on our shores, it would bo obvious to all of us that we had lost command of the sea. As they can, and do, raid us from the air, and after inflicting death or miitilatjon upon our women and children, get away again unharmed, I think we are driven to the conclusion that we have lost command of the air. If wo lost command of the sea we should not ask for explanations. We should know that the Government were responsible, and we should insist upon their resignation. It would be so obvious to us all that a Government which neglected the navy was unfit to rule, that no Government could hold office after such a betrayal. ONE SUPREME FIGHTING MAN. Now it is obvious that we are unab'o to stop the air raiders coming here, oi to defeat them when they do come Those facts have been demonstrated. We have lost command 1 of tiie air, j\nl the Government are responsible. What the country wants from the Government is not explanations, but resignations. Two facts are obvious: the first is that the Government have failed to get command of the air; the second is that we shall be exposed to outrage and murder until we do t;et com.iiT.d <'f the a:r. As we know trut the enemy's air attacks will become vy much r ore serious, immediate business is to insist upon the air service being place 1 in competent hands. I have pointed out very many times in these columns that we have still in our midst one supreme fighting man. This man, who has given proofs of the highest genius for war, is not in the Cabinet, is not at the Admiralty, has nc control over the air service. Why when our air service is disorganised and impotent; why when tho Huns can raid six or seven counties in one night, killing and wounding hundreds of civilians: why when we are apparently to b? left to the teeth and claws of these

THE THUMB-TWIDDLERS. In most of the daily papers I see letters suggesting milder means of the Germans pause. Mild means are a waste of time. It is no use threatening the Huns with various kinds of commercial or social punishment after the war. The Huns despise threats and laugh protests to scorn. To them the justification of any crime or atrocity lies in its success. If by assassination or slow torture they can trample another people underfoot, it is quito justifiable to use poison or fire or steel. Nothing appeals to the Huns but a hiding. Our Navy put its foot on tm.ueck of von Tirpitz's submarine piracy, and chased the Scarborough raiders off the seas. President 'Wilson, with his patience, his cignity, his euphuistic Emersonian notes, lias acheved notning, and never will achieve anything, until he makes it plain that he means to use force. The Zeppelins will cease to come here when we compel them by defeat and disaster to stay away. It is not impossible to stop Zeppelin raids; it is only impossible to stop them by a policy ot twiddling our thumbs and ejaculating "Kismet." . I agreo that if we wait for our £l wobbling wonders to stop them, tno " Express'' is right. But we nave a man who would stop them as he stopped the naval raiders, if our people would cast their patience to the wines and insist upon his being given the position he has won. THE ONE THINO NEEDFUL

The Government lack knowledge, tirniness, promptitude, and decision The Government have proved that at every step of the war. There is ou? thin" the Government could do, and should he compelled to do, and that .s the one thing needful: they lioulu make Admiral Lord I'isher the supreme head of the Navy. With Lord lis ie> as First Lord of the Admiralty the Government might sleep comfortably .n their beds and leave the air service rn:i the Zeppelin raiders in stronger hauls tahn their own. Let me put it to on rreaders as a plain, common-sense proposition, tint, Lord Fisher has proved his nerve, nis courage, and his genius, and has su? ceed'ed brilliantly in all he has undertaken. Secondly, the Government have always blundered and have always been too late. Their record is a record o: unreadiness, of incompetence, and e, failure. Who, then, ought to comniar. i our air service and our Navy—t.-.t strong and successful Lord Fisher, or the vveak and unsuccessful Government? I can nnlv see one answer to such a eucstion.

WHAT IS IT? Here is another question for out readers, which 1 beg them to consulei with the seriousness it deserves. What. malign influence is keeping Lord Fisher out of office? As there is no good reason why our greatest sailor is ben:ignored there must bo a bad reason. What is it? What can it be?

And of what use to tell us that "much has been done." It is perfectly obvious that not enough has l>eon done. If all that has been done allows ih-i Huns to sand over a fleet of Zeppelins and drop bombs on sis counties, I thin'; the less we talk about what has been done the better for ourselves and our women and 1 children.