THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1909. THE TWO-POWER STANDARD IN AIRSHIPS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3168, 20 April 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1909. THE TWO-POWER STANDARD IN AIRSHIPS.

The call of Rear-Admiral Sir Percy Sc°tt for a two-Power standari in airships will not tend to allay the uneasiness now prevalent in England regarding the effect of modern developments on the question of defence. Especially as Sir Percy Scott is a man who knows what he is talking about, and by neither instinct nor interest inclined to discount the supreme importance of sea power as the Empire's safeguard. Evidently he thinks that another factor has now appeared in the defence problem, by which the supremcy of the fleet may j be jeopardised. It is the unknown i that is always terrible, and in this category so far rests the fighting capacity of the airship. When by the successful trial of the "Gustave Zede" France demonstrated the possibility of submarine navigation there were prophets who said this was the writing on the wall of destiny, foretelling the immediate relegation of the world's existing navies to oblivion. But although the Russo-Jap-anese war since brought an opportunity for the display of the submarine's power, it took little, if any, part in the conflict, and to-day the faith of the nations in floating battleships is stronger than e«er. It is well to keep these facts in view when panicmongers predict the ruin of the Empire by explosives rained down from airships, but at the same time RearAdmiral Sir Percy Scott is no panicmonger, and if he had any selfish interest in this matter it would lie in the direction of minimising rather than exaggerating the necessity for taking precmtions against aerial invasion. To ask England to maintain a two-Power standard in airships is. however, assuredly a large order. It is questionable whether some nations have not got a start of her in this line already, and are able to build airships quicker than she can. Only recently Mr Haldane announced in the House of Commons that Germany had constructed six dirigible balloons for war purposes, and was building six more. This may be a serious item of intelligence, or it may not. Over twenty years ago Boulanger proposed to drop

infinite on berlin from balloons, but "the Kevanche" seems still as far off as ever. There is no need, therefore, to attach too much importance to all the talk now heard about capturing London by an attack per medium of the clouds. It would be just as unwise, however, to ignore the serious possibilities of recent developments in air navigation.