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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0479.PDF
Flight, May 10, 1913. -^ f ^\Cr First Aero Weekly in the World. Founder and Editor: STANLEY SPOONER. A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 228. (No. 18, Vol. V.)] MAY 10, 1913. tRegistered at the G.P.O, as a Newspaper. "I r Weekly, Prloe 8d. J I Poet tfree, 8*d. Editorial Officf. 44, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Trudltur, Westrand, London. Telephone: Gcrrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom ... ijr. ad. Abroad sot. ad. CONTENTS. Editorial Comment: The Mansion House Meeting Men of Moment in the World of Flight: Mr. W. H. Ewen The Dep. Hydro-monoplane (with scale drawings) To the Sunny South Royal Aero Club. Official Notices The Mansion House Meeting The Garuda Propeller Questions in Parliament Armchair Reflections. By The Dreamer From the British Flying Grounds Flying at Hendon Foreign Aviation News Models. Edited by V. E. Johnson, M.A. FAGH • 5°i • 503 • 5°4 . 508 . 51° • 5" 5M • 515 • 5i6 • 5«7 • 531 . 5=3 • 525 EDITORIAL COMMENT. Those who attended the Mansion House M Th? meeting organised by the Aerial Defence House" Committee of the Navy League on Meeting. Monday, May 5th, had an excellent opportunity of bringing away with them a variety of tritely-expressed principles that are well worth while bearing in mind. " The chief object of this meeting is to strengthen the Government," said the Lord Mayor in his opening address, and that in itself is an attitude of mind worthy to be made the keynote of the National Aeronautical Defence Association, which it was in part the object of the meeting to inaugurate. No Government cares to go very far ahead ot public opinion, nor, for that matter, to lag very far behind the lead of the people, but aeronautics has developed so quickly that the Government of this country has seen fit to suppose that much of the recent outcry has been of the " scareship " order. A meeting such as that held at the Mansion House was just of the kind required to give the proper note of serious import to the whole movement. The Daily Mail has suggested that more people might have been interested to hear what experts in aeronautical matters might have to say on the subject. That may or may not be so, but we venture to think that the real object of the meeting in question was somewhat removed from that underlying the regular meetings organised by existing aeronautical bodies. It is not a matter of great consequence if eminent nun like Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, Admiral Sir John Hopkins, His Grace the Duke of Argyll, Lord Kinnaird, Sir Edward Beauchamp, and other distinguished speakers admit their comparative ignorance of the technique of the subject. On the contrary, we believe it lends weight to their attitude, for those who addressed the audience at the Mansion House on Monday are not in the habit of saying things they do not mean, and least would they have spoken at the Mansion House meeting to such resolutions as were then passed had they not been in every way sincere on the broad issues. One of the things that the meeting very properly avoided was any discussion of the relative merits in types of aircraft. It was convened so that the citizens of London might have an opportunity of publicly voicing their desire to have England supreme in the air irrespective of the cost. It was an opportunity for them to say that they recognise the broad significance of the phenomenally rapid progress achieved in aeronautics, and are willing to bear the cost of England playing her proper part as a great power. There were those among the speakers who frankly admitted that they wished flying machines had never come to pass, but in the same breath they acknowledged themselves at one with a broad-minded and progressive age by adding that, since they had come, England must lead in the science of building and the art of using them. Sir Edward Seymour, who proposed the first resolution, to the effect that Great Britain should forthwith take the necessary steps to achieve complete security against attack in the air, admitted that this was not purely a naval question, but rather a national question with which he was dealing, yet, as he said, it is proper for a naval officer to bring it forward, seeing how much the security of Great Britain is bound up with the sea. " Because we are an island, aviation is more important to us than to Continental nations," said Sir Edward, and while opinions might differ as to the magnitude of the tasks that could be performed by aircraft, the fact remains that aeroplanes and airships could visit this country from abroad, and for that reason alone " we ought to be as prepared as possible to resist them." Sir John Hopkins, who seconded the first resolution, expressed himself as being cordially in agreement with Sir Edward Seymour, and gave it as his opinion that we <
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