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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0162.PDF
matters are much better left in the hands of the civilian element than in those of a Government Department. We shall be very much surprised if that is not the view that will be taken in America and France, and if that view is correct we shall be hopelessly left behind at the start if we allow the State to shackle aviation to its own chariot wheel, as seems to be the intention. Sir Leo Chiozza Money is, we believe, "Tfa® ^erroran authority on economics and knows ^jr.? more than a little about shipping, but why he should spread himself to the extent of a column in the Daily Express on the subject of " The Terror of the Air " we do not quite understand. Nor, having read his article very atten tively, do we appreciate what it is he really would have us do. Apparently, he has recently taken a flight to France and it has made him think in night mares, since it has helped him to see that " if the nations armed themselves with aeroplanes enough the outbreak of war in twenty, or even in ten, years' time would mean such widespread terrorism through out the world as had never before been known and . . . all the parties to the contest would be in exorably driven by the foulest of all forms of com petition to the murder of non-combatants on a gigantic scale." After drawing a really moving picture of the state of anticipatory terror in which we should live even in times of profound peace, Sir Leo proceeds to say that " so appalling are the certainties of the case that it would be better for the world to lose every advantage it might gain by flying rather than have to face the terror of the air as it can most assuredly be developed." He then tells us how the danger is to be escaped. The League of Nations must, he says, deal drastically by forbidding the manufacture or use of aerial machines or vessels of any sort for war purposes. The League of Nations must also undertake the duty of supervising the manufacture and use of all air vehicles constructed for commercial or pleasure purposes, to ensure that they are not convertible or converted into war weapons. The manufacture of the obvious fighting vessels must cease altogether ; the conversion of passenger into bombing vessels can and must be prevented. To this end the League of Nations must establish and maintain and man the only aerial war vessels permitted in the world, to act as a world police force. These police vessels could bring swiftly to a halt any attempts by an unscrupulous Government to evade the edict against war. Their speed could make it im possible to convert commercial vessels. The manning of this international force would be international. Britons, Frenchmen, Americans, Italians, Belgians, Spaniards, Russians, and, by-and- Airmen in Army of Occupation ALL airmen who have been demobilised or placed in the Reserve and who wish to re-enhst or extend their services under the bonus conditions as laid down for the Army? of Occupation, may do so if found suitable. They should report forthwith to the reception depot situated nearest their homes. A cash payment will be made to ex-airmen who hring back R.A.F. clothing and equipment on re-enlistment, ouch payment to be proportionate to the value of the articles FEBRUARY 6, 1919 by, even compatriots of the gallant Richthofen, would serve in it as comrades and establish, we need not doubt, an esprit de corps not less keen than that of the famous French Foreign Legion. It could make aerial war impossible, and, more than that, it could make all war of whatever sort impossible. For science is going to do so much for aviation that the machines of the International Air Force would be easy masters of any recalcitrant member of the League. It is all very terrible and it may be worse if the Utopian ideal of the League of Nations should fail of achievement! After all, Sir Leo has not made any new discovery. Others have seen the same thing a long time ago and we have little doubt that if the contemporary records were searched we should find it was made at the time of every new discovery capable of use in war. We know the steel-clad knights of the Middle Ages protested against gun powder as an invention of the Evil One and as destructive of all safety in war. The Conventions of Geneva and The Hague have from time to time dealt with matters affecting the conduct of war in the endeavour to make it a paradox and to render humane a thing that is essentially inhuman and brutal. It cannot be done, and we might as well recognise the fact at once. Nor can we ignore the further fact that scientific progress of any kind can be turned to account in making war more horrible. That at least we have learnt during the Great War, and it is to that very lesson rather than to Leagues of Nations that we look to keep the future peace of the world. When war was a dilettante sort of pursuit, as it was before the days of poison gas and massed guns and machine guns, it was regarded as being rather fun. Certainly, a few people were killed, but not enough to make any great difference to anyone but themselves and their kin. There was no particular strain on the fighting men, because the ordinary course of a cam paign was a day's fighting followed by a week or two of comparative rest. Therefore, wars were entered upon lightly by governments and the fighting men. Things are very different now, and if a plebiscite were taken of the men who have gone through the hell of the Great War—we do not mean those who have filled quiet jobs behind the lines but the men who have done the actual fighting—we should ""expect at least a 99 to 1 vote against any more war. The odds might even be longer than that—they certainly would not be less. Aircraft or no aircraft, we believe that so long as the memory of the Great War con tinues in all its squalid horror no Great Power will dare to embark upon conflict with another. That feeling of horror will be of more avail than the League of Nations, and to that and the growing sanity of mankind we look more than to Sir Leo's unoriginal suggestions to enable us to sleep quietly in our beds. returned. Airmen will be pasted in the substantive rank held by them on demobilisation. A list of reception depots is as follows:—No. 1—40, Upper Brook Street. Mayfair, W.i, London; No. 2—8, Tyndalls Park Road, Clifton, Bristol; No. 2 (b)—12, Newport Road, Cardiff; No. 3—Carlton Cham- bers.Paradise Street, Birmingham; No. 3 (a)—8, George Street, Nottingham ; No. 3 (b)—12, Abercromby Square, Liverpool; No. 4 (a)—The Mount, Springfield Mount, Leeds ; No. 4 (b) —10, Sydenham Terrace, North Road, Newcastle-on-Tyne; No. 5-0, Somerset Place, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. "FLIGHT—AND THE MEN."—Owing to the obvious difficulties, by reason of the call of overseas and other military duties, in obtaining special sittings for our series, " Flight—and the Men," the order of appearance of these portraits must necessarily be governed by the opportunities afforded us by those who have made aviation history in this War. 162
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