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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0854.PDF
I/UCHTJ AUGUST 14, 1914. LAW RELATING TO AIRCRAFT IN WAR. Bv one of those coincidences which occasionally occur, we have received Dr. Spaight's recently published work on " Aircraft in War" at a time when this country has become involved in what is likely to prove the most terrible conflict that has ever been since the world began, and in which aircraft will undoubtedly play a great part. The author, who is a well known authority on Inter national Law, deals exclusively with the subject so far as it relates to the status of aircraft in war—which, despite the attention it has received from various eminent Jurists in this country and on the Continent, is still far from definite. Moreover in many respects, in the opinion of Dr. Spaight it is defective. In this volume he has critically examined the various codes that have been formulated, particularly that of M. Fanchille—the full text of which are given, with other matter, in the form of appendices—in an exceptionally lucid and practical manner, free from legal phraseology. The author has suggested certain modifications, which are embodied in a draft code of rules in an appendix, that are intended to eliminate such defects and obscurities as at present exist. Whether the experience gained during the present war will be such as to render further extensive alterations imperative, it is impossible, at this early stage, to say ; but the arguments with which the author supports his contention leave no room for doubt that the matter is one that should be fully gone into at the earliest possible moment by all the Powers concerned. Nevertheless, we are, in the main, disposed to agree with Dr. Spaight in his remark that " questions connected with the use of aircraft in war are new and constantly changing with the progress of flight," and hence it is a matter of impossibility to secure finality in any set of rules that may be formulated. Apart from this aspect of the question, the part that aircraft will play in war is, at the moment, altogether too hazy and speculative to render it possible to dogmatise upon the subject; and what is of still greater importance is the fact that evidence is uniortunately not lacking, even at this early stage of the war now in progress, that the question of right will, in some cases, be governed largely, if not entirely, by expediency, rather than by the tenets of International Law. We recognise that all war is barbarous and brutal and the possibility of the use of aircraft has accentuated these qualities in no small degree. It is the object of the commander of an army to annihilate his 7HE JCIJ^ ,°? DISTANCES/' AS MADRAS IS CALLED.-Photographs taken bv Mr. Wilfred R. Wills from Mr. Madeley s Maurice Farman biplane, of the residential quarter of Madras at 6.45 a.m. Each house has <a large compound, and the town covers a very large area. The Ghosha people came on to their roofs in numbers to look at the aeroplane when it dropped to 300 ft. The photograph on the right was taken at l.OOO ft. On the left is seen the mouth of the Adzar river looking towards the sea. This was taken at 7.15 a.m., the best time for flying except sometimes in the evening. 854
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