IN THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 August 1915, Page 5

IN THE AIR.

MEAGRE REPORTS OF RAIDS, REPLY BYMrT BALFOUR, \u v, it , London » August 29. ■All. Balfour lias replied to a correspondent who asked why the English reports of German air raids are meagre, while the German narratives of the same events are rich in lurid detail. The correspondent points out that the German narratives are widely believed 'by neutrals, while the reticence of the censored British press suggests a suspicion that unpleasant truth is hidden from the nervous public. Mr. Balfour quotes the Admiralty's announcement of the air raid cabled on August 10, and compares the story in the Deutsche Tages Zietung, "Our naval airships carried out attacks on the fortified coast towns and harbors of the east coast of England, and despite strenuous opposition bouibed the British warships in the Thames dock 3, the London torpedo craft base at Harwich, and important positrons on the Humber. Good results were observed. The airships returned safely] from their successful undertaking." (The report referred to was as follows:—Official.—German airships killed thirteen and wounded thirteen on the East Coast last night. One Zeppelin was destroyed. Flight Sub-Lieutenant Lord, one of the pilots who engaged the enemy, was killed while landing in the dark. RETICENCE IS JUDICIOUS, Mr. Balfour commented that if one story were true the other was false, why not explain the discrepancy and tell tho world wherein the Germans had distorted facts. The reason was simple. The Zeppelins attack at night time, preferably when there is not a moon, when landmarks are elusive and navigation difficult. Thus errors are inevitable sometimes. The Germans constantly assert and mmy sometimes believe, they dropped bombs on places they never approached. Why make their future voyages easier toy explaining blunders, since their errors are our gain? Why dissipate them? Let us learn what we can from the enemy, and teach him only what we must. This reticence is therefore judicious. ONLY INNOCENTS SLAIN. It. may still be asked whether reticence is not merely used to cmbarass Germans, and also to unduly reassure the British. What have Zeppelins done, how ought we to rate them as weapons of attack. What can they do? 1 cannot prophesy the future of a' method of warfare that is still in its infancy, but can say something of the past result. It is unhappily certain that it has caused much suffering to munv innocents, but even this result, with all its tragedy, has been magnified out of all proportion by ill-informed rounior. The Home Office states that during the past year seventy-one civilian' and eighteen children were killed, IS!) ; civilian adults and thirty-one children injured.

BRUTAL WARFARE, OF NO MILITARY VALUE. Judged bv numbers, the cumulative result of the many successive crimes are not equal to the single effort of the Lusitania, when a submarine, to tlio unconcealed pride nf Germany and to the horror of the rest of the world, sent 1198 unoffending civilians to the bottom. Yet the result is bad enough, and wo may well ask what military advantage has been trained at the cost of so much innocent Wood. No soldier or sailor was killed, and but seven wounded. Only once was damage inflicted which, by any stretch of_ language, could be described :h of the smallest military importance. The Zeppelin raids had been brutal..but so far had not been effective, and had served no hostile purpose, moral or material.

OVER HOUTHULET FOREST. CONCENTRATED ALLIED ATTACK. Received August 30, 0.10 p.m. Paris, August 30. Sixty of the Allies' aeroplanes bombarded Houtlntlet forest on August 2li, with excellent results. The forest was a vast military camp, and portion of it had been converted into a veritable town, with barracks full of troops, munition depots, and camps electrically lit. When the aeroplanes were sighted the lights were extinguished, and anti-air craft guns were used, but ineffectually, the moonlight rendering searchlights useless. Many of the aeroplanes made several journeys to replenish their supplies of explosives, whereof four tons were thrown on to the barracks and depots. There were Beveral explosions, and great panic was noticed.

SHORT, SHARP, AND SWIFT. THE DUEL OVER SENLIS. Received August 30, 11.35 p.m. Paris, August 30. The fight at Senlis with a German aviator was short and swift. Captain Broeard headed off the German over a wood, and succeeded in getting exactly over him at sixty feet distance. A machine-gun quickly did it< work, and the aviator ablaze,' fell. The pilot and observer were frightfully burned, and were probably dead before the fall.