GREAT BRITAIN AWAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 26 March 1907, Page 4

GREAT BRITAIN AWAKE.

It is a relief to know that Great Britain has no intention of lotting her neigh-! tors get the better of her in that aerial warfare which we are told 13 to be possible before long. That ingenious romance by a German professor, in which Cor-n-any subdues the world in her aerial warchips, does not in the 'east alarm the British officers who are working at the conquest of the air. In fact, these experts ridicule the professor's theory, and the Daily Express, which is inclined to be alarmist, and does nol love the Government, say, that a tour round the- camp occupied by the balloon section of the army at Aldershot shows that there is good ground for this optimism. "If a ease of Mr Thomas Holloway, prince of foreign Power wcro to launch an aeria' fleet against Great Britain to-mprrow,' the Express was told by an officer, "Great Britain would bo able meet it in thcair." For some time the British Government has 1-een making experiments with a view to a possible aerial w.iv, and arrangements are being male for a- home and an attacking force of balloons. U'.te-s and aevoplanjs. .Vcarly 500 men arc being trained for aerial service. The commander of the balloon section at Aldershot, Colonel Cnp|er, says that an aerial Heel attached to tho army is an absolute n-(cs;ity if Great. Britain is to mainia'n her position in the wtorld, and predicts that in the future—perhaps in twenty years—airships will be so common that there will be legislation for them as there is now for motor cars. The Colonel's only regret is that he has not greater secrecy for experiments. The test photograph ho has seen of his work was published 'n a French paper, and he is naturally rather indignant, for if he look a photograph of experiments on the Continent his camera would be. smashed and he himself thrown into prison. It is significant that an association has been formed to do for British progress 'in aerial warfare what the Navy League discs for the Navy. Hie Assechticn for the Promotion cf Flight hopes to stimulate interest in aeroplanes in England, and impress on the Government the necessity of keeping abreast of its rivals. It will also co-ordinate the experiments in aerial navigation of various inventors, and bring them so far as possible under one control. Tt is not founded as a commercial scheme, but to provide those most- suitable to eonduct experiments with sufficient funds to enable them to bring their experiments to a successful cfonclus'on.