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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0469.PDF
AUGUST 7, 1909. the War Office. He pointed out that the Morning Post have a contract for one dirigible in addition to the other ship which is coming over under the auspices of the Parliamentary Committee, and that if they are satisfactory he understood that one will be presented to the nation while the War Office proposes to purchase the other, provided that it comes up to the prescribed tests. Hence Mr. Haldane claimed that we ought to be in possession of three dirigibles of a new type before very long. As regards aeroplanes, two are to be obtained for experimental purposes without delay, and on these experiments are to be carried out de novo. Experiments are even now being carried out by the Advisory Committee, and with the efficient staff of engineers now available at Aldershot, rapid progress is anticipated by the Govern- ment. Monetary Estimates. The total prospects are, therefore, as already stated, one large rigid dirigible for the Admiralty, three non-rigid dirigibles for the War Office, in addition to their present war balloon equipment, and two new aeroplanes, in addition to such apparatus as the country already possess in this line. In all the Admiralty will be spending this year no less than ,£35,000, while the War Office will be spend- ing over ,£36,000, and the total expenditure of the country in this direction during the present financial year will be about £78,000 all told. These sums include considerable expenditure on machines, besides a shed which is being built at a cost of ,£6,000, and another sum of ^"6,000 for stores. Great advance is, therefore, being made over last year, when a very small sum indeed was spent on these things, and even as compared with other countries, Mr. Haldane contended that we are not so badly off. He stated that last year France spent, so far as we luiow, ^47,000, and Germany £123,000, of which £26,000 went towards balloon battalions. There was, however, also a large private subscription in Germany for airships, amounting to something like ^265,030. Austria-Hungary spent •£5i5O°> but the British expenditure was only .£5,270. Mr. Haldane's General Attitude. Other remarks which were made by Mr. Haldane in the course of his speech went to show on the one hand that he did not think very much of the practical use of dirigibles or of aeroplanes in their present state of development, but that on the other hand he deemed it essential for the Government to keep abreast in all matters relating to equipment for war. One remark, for instance, was to the effect that there never will be, so far as he could see, any very large private ownership of these machines (airghips), although no doubt a few country gentlemen will have their aeroplanes. And, per contra, he said we should nevertheless be very foolish if we were to neglect these possible instruments of war, and it is vital that we should push ahead. Similarly, too, as regards the confidence of the Government in the step they had already taken, he claimed that the Government had laid the foundation on which progress ought to be pretty sure, that there was abundance of time if they used it, but that the great point was that they could not give too much attention to the scientific side of the problem, although he agreed that they could not leave out of sight the practical side. He admitted that it was true the Government could buy very many machines of different types, but probably three out of four would be failures, and he did not believe that they would be so far on by that means as by working with selected types. Several of Mr. Haldane's statements quoted above were made in reply to criticisms raised in debate, but a better impression can be conveyed of his general attitude on the subject by classifying his remarks as has been done herein. Mr. Haldane's Parliamentary Critics. ' '' The two most important speeches criticising Mr. Haldane's state- ment were those of Mr. A. Lee, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee (Aeronautics), and Mr. Arthur Du Cros. Mr. Lee complained that foreign countries had been allowed to gain the initial advantage which in the event of war might be very serious, and he submitted that we were a little more behindhand than Mr. Haldane had admitted, because we not only lacked plant and the airships themselves, but also what was more important and more difficult to attain, experience in handling these craft. He thought that more confidence would be felt in the Advisory Committee if some practical aeronauts were members of it, even though the Committee had power to consult with any practical aeronauts they chose. He though, too, that we might go further than we had done in the way of purchasing the accumulated experience of other countries, and he urged that white the War Office is getting into working order with its promised construction department, it might give a contract for a dirigible abroad. He stated that the Parlia- mentary Committee felt strongly that this question should be taken up at the expense of the public funds rather than that reliance should be placed on private subscriptions. In France and Germany there were actual effective squadrons of airships in existence, and in both these countries very large sums of money had been spent by the Governments apart from any public funds that had been raised, whereas we in this country had not even ons effective unit. Mr. Lee also urged that these foreign airships had shown them- selves capable of performing great things in spite of the Secretary of State's plea that we must proceed in this matter with certainty and exactness. Mr. Lee, for his part, thought that much too severe a standard was being set up, and he pointed out that in regard to all these engines of war it had never been the custom of this country to wait until certainty and exactitude were attained. In his view, the Government should take advantage of the power it had to buy the accumulated experience of others, for in that way it would possess the best foreign types, and could then use them for the purpose of experiment. The money thus spent would be well laid out. Mr. Lee also asked the Secretary of State not to be too exacting in his tests. If the Parliamentary Committee were successful in its desire to bring the " Clement-Bayard " over here next month, he thought that the Government ought to buy it if it sailed from Paris to London and executed manoeuvres during its stay of a month with reasonable satisfaction, even though it might not satisfy certain ideal conditions which the War Office had laid down. On the subject of the training of men to man these craft, Mr. Lee pointed out the tremendous importance of this point. The present staff at Aldershot was, he alleged, extremely small, and had had very little practice, and he thought that Mr. Haldane had far too optimistic a view as to our position in this regard. In France the,, balloon division was better equipped and trained than any other in* the world. For a constant series of practical experiments were being conducted for the edification of the men comprising it, and the practice that they were obtaining was with really efficient warships. For this reason, too, he desired to impress upon the Government the necessity of purchasing representative ships of all types as soon as possible for the purpose of experiment, and for the training of our men, while obviously, too, the provision of adequate shelters was essential, and he claimed that a number of these sheds ought to be erected at different strategic points at once. Concerning the utility of airships in case of war, Mr. Lee con- tended that even though they could not be used for the transport ot troops, and even if their use was at present limited by the fact that they were fair-weather craft, it would yet be very rash to say that improvements in construction would not soon make them independent of normal weather conditions and cause them to be a very curious factor to be reckoned with. On the other hand, too, ships were already of enormous value for the purpose of reconnoitring by land and sea, with a wide range of action, and an area of observation which would enable them to cancel ordinary strategy as far as it affected the disposition of ships or of men. Aeroplanes, too, might at any time be invaluable for reconnaisance purposes, to say nothing of the moral effect produced by them as by airships upon an enemy. He urged, for instance, that in the case of some of our smaller punitive expe- ditions, these vessels might prove most efficacious, besides effecting enormous economy as regards expense. This country, in particular, he urged, would be in serious danger if it allowed itself to be without an experimental equipment any longer, in spite of the limited value of airships at the present time. The mere fact that it depended upon its naval supremacy for its security, meant that it was particularly vulnerable on the outbreak of hostilities as regards any of its warships that might be lying in dock or in harbour. But apart from that particular contingency, or, indeed, any other contingency that might be subject of controversy, he did not think there could be any difference of opinion as to the urgent and vital necessity of our keeping abreast of foreign countries in this calculable factor in the warfare of the future. That was why he ventured to press upon the Government the necessity of making use of the ample funds which were said to be available, and of employing them at the earliest possible moment for the purchase of experimental types. Mr. Arthur Du Cros complained that Mr. Haldane had told them nothing regarding the practical constructive programme of the Army department, even though his statement with regard to the Advisory Committee was eminently satisfactory. He fully understood that the Committee was intended solely to deal with abstract questions, not to initiate or construct anything. Its progress would, in fact, be necessarily very slow, and that being so, it would be a useful thing if some machinery were devised whereby the Army and Navy could consult and assist each other. He maintained that long before the Advisory Committee had been appointed, airships had become important from a point of view of national defence. The duty of the Committee ought, therefore, to have commenced at that point, and the Committee ought to have been in a position to examine airships to-day. On the other hand, Great Britain was the only European power which was not pos- sessed of a practical airship. 471
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