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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0224.PDF
unlikely that, knowing the German regard for " scraps of paper," we shall fall into the trap laid for us—though that is a question that does not concern us here and now. The moral of the thing is, as we have said, that there is only one way of stopping the illegitimate methods of war so beloved of the Hun —so long as he has them to himself—and that is by adopting them ourselves and doing them much better than he. When we are fully ready and the real strafing of the Rhineland cities begins in the Spring, we expect to hear the poison-gas squeal again—this time against the iniquity of bombing open towns and the killing of civilians. We shall find the Hun ready and willing to call off bombing of our open towns if only we will let his alone. Without presuming to look too far into the future and to see whether or not circumstances are likely to modify present attitudes, we should say that that is all we want at the moment. *-. * ••>• - Sir William Cheyne, the famous surgeonTne and member for Edinburgh University, AspectsTof sP°ke at some length in favour of a Flying. separate medical establishment for the Air Force. The essential parts of his really able speech will be found in the summary of the debate which is printed in another section of this issue of " FLIGHT." One of his principal points— and a very valuable one—was that it is very desirable that the medical men should be in constant associa- tion with the aviators. " High flights," he said " had a cumulative effect. One day a man might find he was not quite happy when he went so high, and that he was not quite happy in landing—in other words, that, as airmen say, he was ' getting stale.' The medical man should be on the watch for this ' getting stale.' The doctor should be in a position to say such and such a man must not go for special flights when he was not fit. A man might have ' done himself pretty well' the night before, and the doctor would have to say to him, ' My dear boy, you are not in a fit state to go up this morning.' The air service needed a better class of doctor than was wanted for the Army and the Navy. The study of the special ail- ments of flying men was as much a special branch as any other branch of medicine, and no medical man could reason- ably be expected to become efficient in the study of these disabilities unless he was prepared to devote his whole time and energy to it. There was nothing for it but to have a special medical service for the Air Force. The idea of his Committee was that the medical men in the Army and the Navy who were already employed on Air Board service should be passed over to the Air Force. It might be said that the special medical service would be expensive. They heard the other night about an aerodrome which had costabout^soo.ooo. That -would have been enough to pay for the service. As a matter of fact two or three hours of Government expendi- ture would pay for the air medical service. But what was the value of an aviator and of his machine ? He was told that a perfect aviator cost £900 to produce, and the machine about £4,000 ; so that if the machine crashed and the aviator was killed the cost was about ^5,000. He did not like speak- ing of it in this way, because it was putting a money value on a man's life, which was wrong; he only did it to show that it was not waste. In saving a hundred men you would pay the expenses of the whole service." In his reply to the points generally raised in the debate, Major Baird appeared to foreshadow the allocation to the Air Force of its own medical establishment. In the meantime, he stated, an agreement had been arrived at whereby it became a point of honour for the Navy, the Army and the Air Ministry to see that the medical service did its func- tion. The main point was that there would be a body of medical men specially trained to deal with the particular aspect of cases which only occurred among people who lived in high atmospheres. FEBRUARY 28, 1918. This is a side upon which we as laymen do not feel ourselves competent to sit in judgment. It is evident, however, that the special needs of the Air Force are not being lost to sight, and we have no doubt those needs can safely be left in the hands of the very able medical men who are giving the subject their especial attention. * • <«• The official mind works in grooves Tne from which it is difficult to escape, and Gentle Art even m suc]1 essentially modern direc- Propaganda. tions as that of propaganda and general publicity it seems quite incapable of taking the broad view of things. One of the deplorable consequences of this want of outlook is that many of the official efforts to make known our war activities are defeated at their inception by the introduction of methods which are calculated to deter the very people who are willing and anxious to assist in the dissemination of the facts and figures which the Government most desires to make known to all whom they may concern. We have come across a decided case in point during the past few days Recently it was decided to inaugurate an exhibition of portraits and photographs illustrating woman's war work, particularly regarding life in the W.A.A.C., the W.R.N.S., the R.F.C., and the W.L.A. In the ordinary course the Press at large was informed of the proposal, and, inferentially, to give publicity to the exhibition. Naturally, we were only too willing and anxious to do all in our power. Representatives were sent to the place in which the exhibition was announced to be held, accompanied by a photographer, in order that the matter might receive attention in accordance with its apparent aims and objects. We assumed, naturally, that as the exhibition was avowedly held for the purpose of " gingering up " recruiting for these women's organisa- tions, what was wanted was all the publicity—par- ticularly illustrated publicity—possible. Apparently we were quite wrong, since our representatives were met with an attitude of non posswmus. There was no information worth while available, while as for permission to take photographs—well, the very idea appeared horrifying to the sapient people in charge of the exhibition. The net consequence of this attitude was that, so far as this journal is con- cerned, the exhibition has been left severely alone and we do not think we are immodest in saying that it is more than possible a certain number of valuable recruits have been lost to the bodies concerned. Nor have we any reason for thinking that our experi- ence has been singular. What the net loss of publicity involved by these methods may be we do not know, but it must have been considerable. Why on earth cannot these officials, who must be aware that they know nothing at all about publicity, see to it that somebody is associated with these enter- prises who knows the elements of the advertising business ? No exhibition organised on commercial lines is without its Press manager, and surely it must be apparent that where the object of an exhibition is to secure something—whether it be dividends for private shareholders or recruits for war work—that end can be most certainly attained by publicity and plenty of it, especially if it costs nothing. The, clear inference is that the private exhibition organiser : knows his business, and, on the other hand, the official promoter is ignorant even of its ABC. 220
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