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Press, Volume LII, Issue 15560, 8 April 1916, Page 8

Although precautionary methods against Zeppelin attacks seem to have improved a little lately, the Mother Country is still very largely at the mercy of raiding airships, and th e position is not improved l;v Lord Derby's resignation of the chairmanship of the "Air Committee. ' It was announced on February 23rd that Lord Derby had been appointed to the head of the •Joint committee which was to co-ordin-ate the military and naval air services for defence purposes, and it. was added that he would. as the responsible head of this air service, be to all intents and purposes a Minister. Indeed, it was at first proposed that he should be added to the Cabinet as the Air Minister, but for some reason the suggestion was not adopted. Of the two reasons given for Lord Derby's, retirement from a post, which afforded him scope for his great organising talent, one is inclined to choose the second one as the more likely to be trr.e. The extra work would probably not trouble him, for like most busy men he could no doubt find time for still more work. But a man of his capacity would dislike being hampered in carrying out the duties with which ho had been entrusted. The air defence of tho country is one of the features of too Avar on which, we arc afraid, the Imperial Government cannot congratulate itseif. Tho direction of the work has been the; subject of continual tinkering, and apparently is about to undergo more of the ,-air.o procces.

Lord Kitchcner made an interesting statement on tho subjcct of Zeppelin attacks in a specch in the House or Lords on February 17th. He pointed out that in Avar it was not always possible to ensuro safety everywhere, and that some risks must be accepted in order to be strong at important points. "It is beyond our power," ho continued, "to guarantee these shores from a repetition of these air incursions, but wo shall make, them more costly caeh time." Though that promise lias not been fulfilled quite literally, the raiders have paid fairly heavily for some recent attacks, and it is probable that this has been duo to the fact, for which Lord Kitchener was the authority, that the construction of aircraft guns has lr-tely had prccedenco over all other ordnance, and that the guns were being distributed, as fast as made, to the best advantage throughout the country. He added that the responsibility for air defoncc was to bo in the hands of Viscount French, with Sir Percy Scott, lately in charge of the air defence of London., as hie chief adviser. This statement was made five days before the official announcement of Lord Derby's appointment, which loaves one wondering where the latter "came in" in the scheme of air defence.

The latest "cheer-up" story put about by the official optimists of Berlin, for the purpose of preventing the, public from brooding too much over its privations, is that if the war lasts "several years longer," a great fleet of Zeppelins may bo flying to America and bringing food to Germany. "It seems like a dream," admitted one of the professional enconragers, "but a war which has seen submarines go from Wilhelmshaven to Constantinople and Zeppelins and aeroplanes play unexpected roles, may see some even more startling developments in. say, three or five years," which is time enough, but the German people must be easily satisfied if they are to be consoled for the thoughts of several more years of war by tho very shadowv hope that their food supply will be brought per Zeppelin from America.

The letter from Berlin, referred to in to-day's cablegrams, which advises the British public not to. believe all that they read in the German newspapers, is not the first warning of the kind that has been; uttered. It would hardly be ncnessary, one might imagine, were it not that the Germans are suspected of having made use of their wireless agencies, and other services, to spread abroad reports of occurrences in Germany which were calculated to foster among the Allies a feeling of overconfidence. It was better, they evidently thought, to make the enemy believe that things were terribly bad in Germany than to try to convince him that all was going well. The Allies would refuse to believe that, whereas the other version would chime with their wishes and would be swallowed whole. Not many weeks ago a Continental correspondent of the London "Daily News" wrote very much to the same effect as "The Times" correspondent of to-day's cablegram. And there is a strong suspicion in certain wellinformed quarters that some of the stories of accidents to Zeppelins which have emanated frm neutral countries bordering on Germany, have been cooked up for foreign consumption, in order to make the Allies believe that Germany's air strength was less than it reallv is. AVe are all, naturally, so hopefully willing to believe bad news of Germany, that it is quite nrobable that the artful enemy has deliberately worked on that trait.

The war has done one thing for the French neople that peace never did. Paris, where the cost of living is higher than in any other city in France, received in February some 3000 or 4000 tons of what a Paris correspondent describes as "'chilled" meat. Hitherto the introduction of such meat into France has been blocked with severai difficulties, but war and the necessity for conserving French livestock proved the solvent which got rid of all the obstacles hitheito raised against imported meat. The industrial quarter ot the city took to '"Frigo." as the people called it, with avidity, and there were soon a dozen shops or stalls where it could be bought, which were shortly to be increased to a hundred. It had the merit of being about one-third cheapcr than fresh meat, which was quite sufficient to account for the hos-

tility displayed towards it by the other butchers.

The proceedings before the tribunals set up in England to consider applications for exemption from military service present many interesting features. Take, for example, a request to the London City Tribunal, by the military representative, Major Lionel dc Rothschild, for total exemption for five employees of Messrs Cook, Sou, and Co.. St. Paul's Churchyard, ou account of the fine record of the firm. At the outbreak of the war they had 1393 men, to-day they had 864, of whom 4<9 were of military age. Of the latter, 113 had rejection papers, 355 were in groups, and the firm were • claiming for fivo only. One of the five confidential secretary to the late Sir George Pragnell, and was stated to be essential to the business. Major Rothschild further mentioned that the firm is paying £17,000 a year to men serving, is keeping all situations open, has insured the men's lives, and lias established a special fund for the wounded. Sir Vezey Strong, the chairman, said that the Tribunal had hitherto granted no total exemptions., hut they would like to consider the cases with, the view to some special notice being taken of a very worthy record. He hoped they would be able to make a general announcement when the cases came up. Among the applications which have given the Tribunal most anxiety are those on behalf of the only sons of widows. On this subject a letter has been written by the President of the Local Government Board to the Central Appeal Tribunal. It directs that in the most obviou s case, that of financial hardship, to justify exemption it should be shown that the widow s position will be materially worse, and that she will be without suitable means of subsistence. Other cases of serious hardship would occur where a widow, who had lost one or more sons in the war, would bo deprived of her only surviving son, or where she was in grave ill-health and had no other child at home. The mere fact that other sons are. serving should not of itself be conelusive of serious hardship. It was further pointed out that the fact that there were daughters might be a material factor in the case.

The facts we have cited show how seriously the position is being taken in England, and the sacrifice which patriotic Englishmen and Englishwomen are prepared to make. At first there is no doubt exemptions were granted too freely, hut more recently much greater strictness has been observed. The conscientious objector is regarded with suspicion. A young man, af.od '20. who appeared before the City Tribunal, said he conscientiously Relieved in the sacredness of human life, and the brotherhood of man, and considered it as much a crime to murder a foreigner in warfaro as to murder one of his fellowcountrymen. A member of the Tribunal asked what lie would do if he saw a Zeppelin if he were at an anti-aircraft gun. The applicant did not think ho could stop ii Zeppelin, and in reply to a question, "Would you stand with a gun in your hand and let your mother be killed, and your home, destroyed?" he replied, ''Yes, I think T should.'' This very squeamish young man was not exempted, but was placed in the non-com-batant class.

Among other applications for exemption was one. made by a barber, who represented that if lie and his fellowbarbers were called up, the nation would have to go * unshaven and unshorn. Evcu that painful prospcct failed to induce the Tribunal to grant exomption to barbers and their assistants. The chairtnan went so far as to suggest' that if it cam© to the worst, Britons could cut each other's hair, and lie no doubt, added a recommendation of safety-razors to those who havo hitherto relied on a barber's shave. Tho British nation is now realising that a great many things are not nearly so indispensable as they wero thought to be.