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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 1348.PDF
DECEMBER 20, 1917. MINISTERS AND OUR AIR POLICY. THE Prime Minister and the heads of the Air Service were the guests at a dinner given last Friday night at Gray's Inn by the Treasurer, Sir Frederick Smith, K.C., M.P., the Attorney- General, and the Masters of the Bench of the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn. The gathering included the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Home Secretary, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice, the Duke of Westminster, the Italian Ambassador, the American Ambassador, Admiral Sims (U.S. Navy), Lord Rothermere (Air Minister), Sir Edward Carson, General Smuts, Lord Derby, Mr. Churchill and Mr. G. N. Barnes, M.P. Sir Frederick Smith, in introducing the Prime Minister, said one object of the dinner was to mark and place on record their appreciation of that great consolidation of our Flying Services which had produced' the new Air Service. They had present men who in almost every department had made that service. Mr. Lloyd George, at the commencement of his speech, said :— Let me express how honoured I feel to be invited to this historic building to meet representatives of the most romantic service in this war. In the House of Commons I gave what I fear must be regarded as inadequate expression to the gratitude and admiration which the nation feels for this gallant service. I have some times felt that the operations of the Air Service will, probably, have greater effect in deter- mining the nations that this must be the last war than any other weapons, however terrible their effect. They bring home to the people, who in former wars dwelt in security, something of the perils and the horrors of the battlefield ; and, as the war goes on, these will spread and increase and intensify. These winged messengers of death, therefore, may well be angels of peace. But we must also remember that, while all that is true, they also give a greater significance and permanence to either victory or defeat. For, however unjust or oppressive might be the peace imposed on us, the new terror added to war by this new weapon of dismay will create an increased reluctance on the part of the world to challenge the issue anew. It is, therefore, more important than ever that the peace we secure should be a just, an honourable and a beneficent peace. Sir Frederick Smith, in proposing the health and prosperity of the Air Service, s§id that it might well be that in the next twelve months the future of the war would be determined jyy the conquest of the air. That could only be if there were ~***harmony and co-ordination among all those who were mastering the enemy in the air. If there was competition between the Army and Navy and a third element of com- petition by some neutral, or hermaphrodite, board, it was evident that there could never be success. There was present that night the new Secretary of State for the Air, and they believed that the great task which lay before him would not be complicated by inter-Service jealousies. His difficult task would be made more difficult, and even insurmountable, unless the military and naval Services determined that they would make it easy, and his (the speaker's) appeal to them was that they would make up their minds that there should be ho controversy between Army and Navy. Lord Rothermere, in reply, said that in the creation of the new force a great work of consolidation and unification was called for. When, in succession to Lord Cowdray, he decided to go " over the top " with the Prime Minister, and accepted the position of Air Minister, he did so with the full confidence that the two senior Services, the Navy and the Army, would extend ungrudging assistance and support to the new Service, the Air Force, which is now being established. Lord Rothermere continued:—My brief experience of a fortnight has proved to me that my confidence has not been misplaced. I feel that, instead of the rebuff which people prophesied, I shall, whenever I require assistance, find a helping hand extended to me both by the Navy and the Army. Without such assistance it would be impossible for any man to make a success of the position I hold. It is no easy matter to dissever the aerial branches of the Navy and the Army and weld them into one whole. It is a gigantic work of organiza- tion. The Royal Naval Air Service and the Flying Corps are two distinct bodies with different ranks, different rates of pay, and different organisations. At the Air Board we are wholeheartedly in favour of air reprisals. It is our duty to avenge the murder of innocent women and children. As the enemy elects, so it will be the case of •' eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," and ia this respect we shall slave for complete and satisfying retaliation. General Ludendorff proclaims the war a war of nations, sug- gesting that the civilian population is as much a mark for the airman's bombs as the righting man. We detest these doctrines, holding them to be grossly immoral. But in fighting for our lives and the lives of our women and children we cannot, and we will not, consent to their one-sided applica- tion. We have too much at stake in this contest to concede any advantage to a treacherous enemy. He has to learn in this as in larger things that it does not pay. We are determined, in other words, that whatever outrages are com- mitted on the civilian population of this country will be met by similar treatment upon his own people. The great asset of the Flying Services, Lord Rothermere added, was the young Briton, whether born in these islands or in the Dominions oversea. He made the ideal fighter, courageous, daring, with heaps of initiative. Our duty was to see that he obtained all he wanted. His brief experience taught him that the production of aircraft in great numbers was not the easy task that many people imagined. If the aeroplane had reached its ultimate development the task would not be anything like so difficult, but hardly a month passed without some step, very often a great step, being made in the improvement of the aeroplane. The output of machines had increased in a most satisfactory way, and he had no doubt that at the present rate of progress it would not be long before the many criticisms which have been levelled at the Air Ministry were silenced. He was reminded by that gathering in so famous a place that the greatest of their Treasurers, Lord Chancellor Bacon, had perhaps given an Air Minister of to-day the best advice that he could gain from the " wisdom of the ancients." " The conditions of weapons, and their improvement," he said in his famous essay " Of Vicissitude of Things," " are, first, the fetching afar off." (And what hits or " fetches " farther off than an aeroplane ?) " Secondly, the strength of the per- cussion " ; and " the third is, the commodious use of them ; as that they may serve in all weathers ; that the carriage may be light and manageable; and the like." Lord Rothermere concluded :—Here, if I need it, the great ghost of Gray's Inn give me not only inspiration, but actually sound advice. My coming here to-day has served to remind me of it. Commodore Godfrey Paine and General Sir David Hen- derson responded for the naval and military interests of the Air Ministry. General Henderson said that the only rivalry between the naval and military air forces was theanevitable rivalry between any two organisations which were doing practically the same work by different systems. He was confident that there was no cause for apprehension and that the two services would amalgamate, so far as personnel was concerned, without any grudge of any kind. He was confident that the Air Services would trust Lord Rothermere, and would join up and make one service, and a very good service too. The R.F.C. and the R.N.A.S. had never lost touch altogether. He knew that they would now come together once and for all. Commodore Paine said that the greatest of the achievements of the Navy had been silent with monotonous watching, and with none to applaud. The competition between the Naval Air Service and the R.F.C. had been one to test which was the best in the air. He believed that it had been greatly exaggerated, and he hoped that the new service would guarantee the security of the country. Two British Airships Lost. THE Secretary of the Admiralty made the following announcement on December 15th :— " A British airship of non-rigid type, with a crew of five, which proceeded on patrol on December nth from an East Coast base, has not returned, and from information available it is believed that she has been destroyed by a hostile seaplane in the southern part of the North Sea. " A second airship of similar type was forced to descend in .Holland through engine failure on December 12th." _• According to unofficial information, the British airship No. 26 fell on some houses at Eemes (Utrecht), at 6.30 a.m. on December 13th. The engines—12 and 14-cylinder Daimlers —were still working, but no one was in the car. Four of the occupants had jumped out in an effort to anchor the airship, but a gust of wind carried it away. The remaining occupant, William Wasman, the wireless operator, was found near Dordrecht, having apparently fallen out of the car. He stated that the airship, owing to engine trouble, drifted out to sea and lost her bearings in a thick mist. 1348
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