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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0034.PDF
our counter-attack on the Somme ; and what will save London will be our counter-attack on Cologne. Can we accomplish this ? We can, if all concerned will do their best to hurry- on production, but if we are to be held up by strikes and labour troubles and all the crassness that was at the root of our troubles in 1917 we shall not. It is of no use to contemplate spasmodic raids by squadrons of fifteen or twenty machines. Mr. Joynson-Hicks is perfectly correct when he says that we must send them over at the rate of a hundred a day, until the Hun is either cured, or, preferably, killed. We have made a good start by the creation of the new Air Council, with a live head and an equally live personnel. Let us see that every influence that can be brought to the assistance of those we have made responsible for the conduct of the war in the air is used to its ut- most capacity. If we do that all will be well. If not, then the best that can be said is that 10,18 will not bring the peace we so ardently hope for and intend to get. There is no doubt that Germany isBr'er^Fox feding the pmch of the Anied blockadej His Tricks. and in all probability she is feeling it pretty severely. Reports from the land of the Hun all agree that the German people are tired of the war ; that they are anxious for peace ; that they are dying in hundreds of sheer starvation ; and have reached the extreme limit of their endurance. The reports spread to the air service, since prisoners seem to agree that the wastage in machines has been very heavy ; that large numbers of pilots have been killed or permanently incapacitated ; and that a great deal of difficulty is being encountered in getting good machines and pilots. There is probably some amount of truth in these stories. Indeed, it would be passing strange if Ger- many's tremendous efforts during the past three and a half years had not left their mark. We know from our own experience, comparatively untouched as we have been by the grim actualities of war, that there must be some amount of exhaustion in the enemy's country, but we must beware of attaching too much importance to the circumstantial stories of the friendly neutral or the officially approved utterances of the German Press. We should have learnt by experience that the Hun is never so much alive as when he is shamming dead. We should recall that three years ago the Germans admitted that their last available reserves of man-power had been drawn into the line of battle— and the invasion of Serbia and Montenegro followed. Then, late in 1916 the same story, accepted by our own civilian statisticians was told—and the Rou- manian debacle came hard on its heels. Last year, again, Germany was once more at her last gasp, but not so nearly dead but that she was able to bring off the Riga coup and at the same time to give effective assistance to Austria in the campaign against Italy. Germany knows that the Allies are preparing for a decisive effort this year, and that effort will include a powerful offensive in the air. That being so, it is patent that she hopes once more to produce a slackening of Allied effort in the aerial programme by once more adopting the tactics of Br'er Fox. She is shamming dead. If we have learnt the lesson we should have learnt, these tactics will fail. But the most serious thing about it is that they have deluded us before and maj7 again if we are so foolish as to listen to the stories JANUARY 10, 1918. to which allusion has been made. The only safe course to take is to regard Germany as being at the zenith of her strength and to make our preparations accordingly. We must strain every nerve, every resource, to establish absolute supremacy in the air, not turning aside for a moment to listen to tales of a decaying German air service. It is not decaying. On the contrary, Germany is working at the highest possible pressure to outstrip us in the race for the command of the air, and unless we make that fact the basis of our calculations we shall have a rude awakening in the Spring. • • • The distrust which has been created Afte among the business community by the the War. Imports and Exports (Temporary Con- trol) Bill was focussed into a deputation from the Associated Chambers of Commerce which waited, the other day, on the President of the Board of Trade. Sir Algernon Firth, President of the Asso- ciation, stated the objections to the Bill, which he said were based on the fear that the control of industry after the war by the Government Departments which are now interfering with it might continue too long, and the apprehension that a man might not be able to conduct his business on his former lines of doing as he liked and selling where he pleased. The Chambers of Commerce wanted safeguarding against undue interference in their industries. Sir Albert Stanley, in replying, said that the Govern- ment now practically controlled the entire trade of the country, and when the war came to an end it would not be possible immediately to bring the machine to a stop. The Board had given the matter its fullest consideration, and had concluded that as the machine had been gradually wound up, so it must be gradually unwound. (By the way, he did not say whether the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons had assisted in the con- ferences.) The return to a condition which would admit, if not of a complete relaxation of control, certainly of a very considerable relaxation of it, would not take such a long time as some people imagined. After careful consideration the Board had inserted a period of three years in the Bill, with- out contemplating for a single moment that anything approaching the restrictions in the aggregate as they would exist at the time the war came to an end would be continued. The ' had no desire to establish a period that was too long ; on the other hand, it would be fatal if it were too short. It does not emerge from the reports of the meeting that the deputation went away altogether satisfied with the assurances it received. That is scarcely surprising when we regard the proposals of the Bill for a continuance of the Government control of in- dustry and commerce, with the context of all we see going on around us every day. There is no doubt at all that a very large section of what we may call " control " is casting longing eyes on a continuance of its jobs after the war and will fight tooth and nail to preserve them. We agree that, as Sir Albert Stanley pointed out, it will be impossible to wipe out all Government control instanter on the conclusion of peace, but we certainly view with distrust and anxiety the attempt which is being made to corner everything for three whole years. Why this period any more than another? Sir Stanley himself admitted that if the political situation changed, there would be no
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