NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 643, 21 October 1909, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Heer RuxiOLF ;MAETiN, ;the famous German ..publicist,who •. made a happy guess at tho future of aeronautics, has sought to make' .John Bull tromblo in his shoes Jay writing a ncrvc-shaking pamphlet entitled .'/Wjiight' and -Zeppelin." The development of the aeroplane and the steerable airship,, he says, will greatly facili-. tato the defeat of the British 1 fleet in the North .Seavand the .landing of a .German army in England. He promises thousands :of. German airships for ten years hence— monsters 'infinitely larger than & Dreadnought'battleship. A new. airship, now being built, for Here Carl Lanz, will be as long as a Dreadnought, and will be 58 feet in:diameter. This monster will carry only from thirty to. fifty persons, 1 howcvor. ■ ' ' ■ . "A British fleet in the North Sea would be in ft very dangerous position if l compelled to encounter a German aerial fleet of,6teerable air■ships: and aoroplaries. Aeroplanes and steei'lblo ' airships can travel faster than battleships.' At, an altitude 4700 ft. large airships are fairly seotiro from tho guns of battleships Night i and fog . and olouded skies for aerial warships give, many possibilities of hovering 'over floating battleships or over naval ports, ahd dropping .their" destructivo_ dynamite tor-: pedoes. : Whore could'the British fleet of battleships take irofugeP In tho home'ports of SheernessjDover, or Portsmouth the fleet would offer 1 an excellent target for aerial projectiles. If German airships can cross tho narrow Chan-, nel, twenty miles in width; ■ in half an hour, theyiro immune from the attack of the British fleet. Wright or Zeppelin, starting'from Calais, could reach-London-in two or three hours. l After the bombardment ;of London the huge airships of Count Zeppelin or Professor Schutte could quickly return across tho Channel.;. .Germany's success: in war with ' Great Britain would depend upon two premises; irst, that Germany shall immediately.-'inci-iSase' the number of her aerial vessels of' all_ kinds; 6econd, that .Germany shall not fair into'the error of undertaking e.n aerial attack in unfavourable weather. • People; witii weak nerves • may find a little Comfort in reflection, however. Germany cannot control the weather, and Order'perfect calms as tho American, millionaire ordered sunsets. Nor !can Ger< man airships do more in a fog than mere .' Britons. Nor can a thousand airshios ■ each as largo as a Dreadnought steal a march ,on Britain. One feels, also,, that Britain may really do a little on hcr.owii account. ' - ,