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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0204.PDF
MARCH I, 1971. IT was^ Lloyd George who was really supposed to attend the Allied Mission to Petrograd recently, but he was too scared to venture by reason of the new German submarine frightfulness. So now we know all about it, and as the news comes via the Cologne Gazette, why it must be true. The same paper is evidently very concerned under the circumstances, and has gone out of its'way to suggest other possible routes by which our Prime Minister could travel, without coming in contact with the U rulers of the sea. One of these routes is via Paris, Rome, Brindisi, Athens, Salonica, Monastir, Jassy (the last stage by aeroplane). Another suggested itinerary is Paris, Madrid, Gibraltar, Tangiers, Algiers, Cairo, Aden, Basra, Teheran, Tiflis and Moscow, the idea being, so as to avoid the attentions of the U-boats, that both the Channel and the Straits of Gibraltar should be negotiated in an aeroplane. IT is truly a marvel that this sort of twaddle is seriously served up to the German people with the object of impressing upon them the stupendous powers of the U-boat form of warfare. If these " explanations " are really accepted, an excuse for such docility and brain weakness may possibly be found in the change which it is said has recently come over the lives of the inhabitants of Berlin. According to the Frankfurter Zeitung, Berlin people have become quiet and introspective, and hostesses are acquiring the habit of reciting poetry to their guests. Had the German public only earlier realised that " frightfulness " might ultimately come home to roost in this manner, they might perhaps have exhibited less exultation in the past at the strafing of their much-loved British cousins in dear old England. • SERGEANTS and men of the R.F.C. as Press Photographersin the streets of London upon the occasion of ordinary non- military official functions and otherwise, sounds a bit quaintin these times of " every man wanted for war work " ! WONDER what the official explanation will be of this new " stunt " ? AND how many of the photographs so secured under official protection, were, when offered to the Press for sale, used ? WHY were the regular professional manipulators of the lens officially refused permits to photograph and hustled out of snapping distance by the police, whilst step-ladders with R.F.C. men to look after them and an R.F.C. lorry with its " appendages," in the form of two R.F.C. " snappers " and a stand camera outfit, were permitted to " obstruct " the roadway and route of His Majesty the King ? Looks as if the R.F.C. has men to spare for more important war-work elsewhere. INCLUDED in the list of names brought to the notice ofthe Secretary of State for War for valuable services rendered in connection with the war, will be noticed that of Capt.Mansfield Smith Cumming, R.N., who, it may be recalled, qualified for his pilot's certificate on a M. Farman at Etampeson November 10th, 1913, when he was 54 years of age. As Chairman of the Parliamentary Air Committee, Col. Sir Arthur Lee has done useful work for the cause of aviation in the Mother of Parliaments, but in his new position as Director of Food Production he will probably have little spare time to give to the air question. Is the aeroplane to be wedded to glue, rag, sticks and dope for ever and for aye ? Is it not time that designers and con- structors gave their attention to utilising better methods and materials with a view to making the flying machine a sound engineering job. SB" FOR the moment the " execution " of the Constitutional Club has been postponed, and the Air Board is to find the extra accommodation claimed for it, elsewhere. ' Had it been otherwise, there are those about who go sp far as to suggest that the whole squeezing-out process of the C.C. is an obvious political job legacy, its political rival's ejection and re-housing having been first most carefully planned and provided for, opposite the Houses of Parliament. WHAT a role of crime political jobbery has to answer for ! THE old proverb of a sprat to catch a whale will have to have a new rendering now : " A seaplane to catch a liner," or what-not. All the same, the story sounds a bit far-fetched of the Telegraaf in which it is related that the crew of the steam trawler " Groningen" reported that, while fishing between the Schouwen Bank and the Maas lightship, they saw a seaplane floating on the water with an airman in it. They lowered a boat and rowed to the seaplane, but on reaching it they found it to be a sham German seaplane and a dummy airman. A German submarine was lurking in the neighbourhood. On the boat's crew reaching their vessel again, the submarine began firing at the seaplane and sank it after the fifth shot. RATHER a curious idea of the Huns to include in an exhibi- tion of " German Air War Booty " in Berlin, the wreath of violets which was dropped by the R.F.C. into.the German lines in BSlcke's memory after the news of his death was confirmed. There must be one German at least with still a. touch of sentiment left in him for such a tribute to be staged in the special section even of the exhibition devoted to the late Fokker champion. FOLLOWING the recent important sale at Christie's of the glorious gems of the late Sir George White, a number of Sir George's pictures were last week also dispersed by the same auctioneers, these realising £7,223 12s. 6d. THAT " Unseen Hand " must have been at work to worry poor Skipper Martin, of the Grimsby trawler " King Stephen," who left the wrecked " Z. 19 " to its fate in the North Sea, into his grave at the early age of 45. The action of Martin rightly brought home to the Huns in a material form the value which is now attached to the honour of a German even when he is an officer in the Na\-y. It is a pity the writers of the anonymous letters which so distressed the unfortunate skipper and brought him to an early grave could not have been traced. There might be a chance then of " interning " these unclean fighters in our midst, and in about the same cubic capacity of space as the remains of Martin by now occupy. More power therefore to the work of those who are working so strenuously to expose and destroy the " Unseen Hand." It is not necessarily a German hand. There are others. A SOLILOQUY with a not unsound moral from the Daily News : "It is lamentable that the arming of merchantmen was so seriously interfered with last year by the clamour which diverted all the surplus energies of the arsenals to the provision of anti-Zeppelin guns, and made the protection of the merchantmen wholly subsidiary to the protection of English towns. Had those energies been fairly divided between the two tasks many thousands of tons of shipping now at the bottom of the sea would still be afloat. For a year ago the comparison of the immunity of the armed vessel with that of the unarmed was as ten to one." APROPOS the great speech of the Premier last week, which, has had such a rousing effect throughout the world, including official Germany, the American papers are particularly- complimentary. Thus the New York Times upon the tonnage problem proposals : " British ruthlessness is of a different kind from the German ; it slaughters no innocents and breaks no commandments, but in its own fashion it is just| as vigorously applied, not to neutrals but to the men and women of Great Britain. It is almost amusing to look back and reflect that this is the nation which Germany imagined she could scare into begging for peace by a few Zeppelin raids and by bombarding fishing villages and summer resorts." 5 To protect the Parthenon Frieze and Metopes and the- Assyrian bas-relief at the British museum against hostile aircraft, it cost the country a little overt £3,000. That is. S
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