THE AIR MENACE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 9, 11 July 1917, Page 8

THE AIR MENACE

PERFECT SAFETY IMPOSSIBLE

ARMY HAS THE FIRST CLAIM

POSITION EXPLAINED TO

PARLIAMENT.

(UNITBD PRESS ASSOCIATION.— COPTItIfiHT.)

{AM. AND M.Z. CABLB ASSN. AND REBTEIt.)

(Received' July'll, 12.30 p.m.)

LONDON, 10th July,

Official.—Speaking in a secret session of the House of Commons, Mr. Lloyd George stated . that twenty-two Gotha aeroplanes, eacK carrying eight hundred pounds of explosives, came over London on Saturday. Three of them were destroyed. The Germans had organised protecting squadrons, in order to assist the raiders to return, and six of these were destroyed, and one was injured. Therefore, the attack was not made with impunity. .

He' pointed out that complete protection in the air could never be secured, British machines daily crossed the German lines at the front, in spite of terrible anti-aircraft fire and powerful air squadrons, and bombed stations and headquarters. This proved that no measures we could take would give complete immunity. We must aim at making the visits as costly as possible., THE BRITISH RAIDS IN BELGIUM . Our naval 'aeroplanes, in the last four or five months, had dropped seventy tons of explosives on German aerodromes in Northern Belgium. Six tons were dropped during the night preceding the German raid, whereas the Germans ' only dropped- two tons on England. , The Government's first consideration was to see that the army in France was sufficiently, supplied .with aeroplanes, without which advance was impossible.

There were twenty-eight civilian fatalities inJjondpn. These were regrettable; but unless there was a sufficiency of aeroplanes at the front the army's losses might. easily be twenty-eight thousand. The Germans realised as much as; we did the importance of the work of the aeroplanes securing the protection of soldiers' lives. .

CLAMOUR WILL ENCOURAGE THE

ENEMY

Nothing would encourage the Germans more than to! know that, by bombing English towns, we could be forced to withdraw fighting squadrons from Prance. Nothing would be more disastrous to the conduct of military operations than to encourage;the Germans, to believe that raids would excite a clamour in England; resulting in the Government being unable -to resist the demand for the withdrawal of aeroplanes from the front. If we are unable to' provit.6 aeroplanes for the front as well as for defence against raids, the Army must come first. It was vitally important that Germany should know this. He saw people in the raided district a few hours after the raid, and he had never seen people face a disaster with greater ' cheerfulness and constancy. There were no signs of panic. He was convinced that if the country realised : that, it was necessary to establish air supremacy in order to win victory at the front, it would be prepared to take risks. THE AEROPLANE OUTPUT The Germans realised the importance of supremacy in.the air and had made prodigious effort's to attain it. During the past twelve months we had enormously increased pur capacity for manufacturing machines. In the last half of the year we had increased the .number :of employees in aeroplane Xt works by j 23,000, and had also improved the methods of organisation and the type of machines. The Government's information Showed that the German capacity for production was inadequate to compete with ours. Hitherto our increase in production had been only gradual, now it was going ivp by leaps and bounds. The strike in April had lost us between' ISO and 200 machine*. WHY FRENCH RAIDS SUCCEED! Mr. Bonar Law, replying to questions, J said that in the opinion of experts our types of machines were as good as the Germane. He pointed out that the French front was nearer to important German cities than ours; and it was therefore natui*] that the French should play a larger part in offensive operations against them. This was done with remarkable success and impunity during the last few days; While he did not regard the raids on Lon6*Jfn as of no importance, the balance of military advantage must be considered. People who j demanded the ■ instant production of ] large numbers of aeroplanes were apt to forget the inherent limits to the extent and rate of such an increase, and the imI perative demands of other services. Major J. Norton Griffiths, M.P., related his experiences at the front, giving evidence of the British 1 aerial supremacy there. :,' • - ■ ' :