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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0211.PDF
APRIL IO, 19.C9. THE AWAKENING OF PUBLIC OPINION. SOME VIEWS EXPRESSED BY PROMINENT MEN AND LEADING NEWSPAPERS. MANY significant statements have been uttered during The Times, the passing week as a direct result of the important meeting convened by the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House on Monday. Several of the speakers who sup- ported the Aerial League on that occasion, and many of the editorial writers in the British daily Press, have—effectively, it is to be hoped —driven home the crying need that there is for the people and the Government to bestir themselves in the encouragement of aeronautic progress within these islands. Not a few of these utterances may find a fitting place in FLIGHT, if only by way of permanent record, and hence we append herewith a striking selection of them :— The Lord Mayor. I confess that at first I was rather doubtful as to the value of air- ships, and, like many other people, could hardly conceive that in the thin and invisible air around and above us ships could be made to float which would be a menace to us if they belonged to an enemy and which would be our safeguard it they were our own. But wonderful things were happening every day. Indeed, the navigation of the air has become a reality. We have taught the world how to navigate the seas, we have shown them how to build ships, and we must not now admit our- selves beaten in building or navigating airships. The only airship to hang over the Bank of England or the Mansion House must be one flying the Union Jack. Prince Louis of Batten berg. It is time we woke up, seeing what is being done on the Con- tinent. Bishop Welldon. Aerial navigation is fraught with possibilities which no patriotic Englishman can disregard. Lord Curzsn. I am glad to think that responsible persons are turning their attention seriously to the position occupied by the country in respect to aerial navigation. Thai position, it cannot be denied, is a back- ward and, to that extent, a discreditable one. The maritime frontiers possessed by this country should make aerial navigation a matter of almost vital significance for us ; as a means of communication or as an instrument of war it will admit of development in which nations as well as individuals will compete. Mr. Stephen A. Marples. England will have to strain every nerve if she wishes to make up the enormous leeway that she has already lost. The League is not an association of scaremongers. It prefers to attain its objects by an aggressive propaganda conducted in a businesslike manner, rather than by the adoption of an alarmist programme. It will be the role of the League to teach the nation that in order to think Imperially, we must at once begin to think aerially. Lord Montagu. I am convinced that unless public opinion is aroused on this question we shall have to regret bitterly a few years hence not having taken measures to provide ourselves with weapons of offence and defence in the air. Vice-Admiral Sir Percy Scott. Aerial ships will come over in the dark, and I have not yet met any gunnery person who could teach me how to hit an object that one cannot see. The only defence, it seems to me, that we have against these flying machines will be to meet them with flying machines. We ought to proceed at once to form a two-power standard in airships. Dr. Hele-Shaw. The building of airships must be undertaken by the Government. It is a costly work, and we cannot rely on private enterprise alone to place us in the position that we should occupy with regard to airships. Nothing could be better calculated to impress the public with the idea that the whole thing is a farce than the perfectly futile manner in which driblets of money are expended at Farnborough. No one who rightly understands the significance of what has been done by Count Zeppelin in Germany, and by numerous experi- menters with aeroplanes in France and other countries, can fail to see that quite a moderate advance upon the present achievements would suffice to impose very grave disadvantages upon any nation that had failed to supply itself with an efficient aerial fleet. With all these possibilities ready at very short notice to become actualities, this country is doing nothing worth naming to meet the danger. Probably we shall ajrain be told that the Government policy is one of masterly inactivity combined with economy, and that, when we have seen the best that other nations can do, we shall be better able to begin doing something for ourselves. It is a beautiful policy for dreamers ; but, if we follow it a little longer, we may be compelled to practice further economy by not having the chance to build airships at all. The Daily Telegraph. - Our scientists have not received the same official encouragement, and the recent advances made in the building of aeroplanes and dirigible airships are all associated with the names of foreigners. The question now is not the conquest of the sky, but which nation shall secure its sovereignty. The former was a scientific problem merely ; the latter is a national one, and it behoves this country to wake up at once, and become alive to the facts of the situation. If a new order of things has come to the birth, then we must make what haste we can, and take up seriously and strenuously the study and practice of aeronautics. Great Britain must at once set about building an aerial navy. Though there is no need for scare, there is abundant need of careful preparation, and we cannot suppose that the British Govern- ment will require much pressure to induce them to increase the paltry sum of ,£19,000 which was set aside in the Army Estimates for aerial experiments. It is manifestly inadequate, in view of the Zeppelin successes, and the enormous importance attached to these airships by the German military authorities. No Englishman can read the telegrams from Friedrichshafen without feeling a keen sense of patriotic regret that we have nothing similar to show in this country, and without the conviction that our neighbours are getting a very long and, unless we at once bestir ourselves, a very dangerous lead. The Morning Post. ^ ; We hope that the meeting organised at the Mansion House by the Aerial League of the British Empire will help to arouse the people of this country to the need of active and sustained effort in connection with the navigation of the air. It is curious that hitherto the nation has played such a small part in the movement, and has regarded it with comparative apathy and indifference. Whether as a means of communication or as an instrument of warfare, aviation seems destined to make a rapid advance, and the nation that takes the lead in this new form of locomotion may find itself in a position of overwhelming superiority-over its neighbours. The English nation must devote serious efforts to investigation and experiment in both fields, and the Government must be ready to construct in sufficient numbers such airships as are found adapted for naval and military operations. Reliance must not be placed on Government action alone. Private enterprise can serve both to guide and spur official effort, and the activity of the War Office and Admiralty will be stimulated by the influence of public opinion. The Daily Graphic When Zeppelin airships take an appointed place in German military manoeuvres, it is time for the most lethargic intellect to speculate on the part which aeronautics may play in future problems of national defence. While we have every sympathy with any attempt to encourage the solution of the problems of flight, and though we are certain that the public mind would be better occupied in considering aero- planes than professional football, we are by no means certain that the formation of public opinion on these points is a necessity. We are an intensely practical nation, and it is, perhaps, our national failing that we like to see results before we pledge either our interest or our purses. If the English aeronauts would show us 213
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