FIGHTING IN THE AIR

Evening Star, Issue 15638, 31 October 1914, Page 12

FIGHTING IN THE AIR

HONORS FOR HEROES.

[By H. G. Wblls.]

Now, the thing for us to do who sit at iom« and send out men to tight_ for us is k* see that there is nothing left undone that will help to win and hold the air. There will be no lack of men to undertake thia peculiar and wonderful service. .1 know our staff. But it is imperative that they should have the best machines and an unstinted supply of machines, the services of the most skilful mechanics, perfect weapons. And they must be tattgnt and trained with the utmost care and skill. We want no generous, blundering suicides. Every man vho goes up wm go up to an even chance death; it is imperative that no lives .should be wasted, that overv death should he a death m battle,’that no accidents, no failure oi wing or engine, should add to tne price we must pay now fur the negligence <>t tne past. , . ... And there is something mor-u We cue these men honor. Our lomnion men are brave, but these men who wih light in tne tax will be something more than common men. They will he the aristocracy _ot lb r \rniT. Xo man fights the wor.-c uv tne knowledge that the world ugards mm.

Whatever elce is kept from us, one thing wo must have from the front, and that is the story of every such encounter as 1 have foreshadowed, and the names of the men who did the thing- lisere is already a story of a German aviator shot dean by an Englishman in mid-air. It is a stranee!v impressive story, for it is told that the" German machine volplaned to the ground and lauded undamaged, steered by the grip of the dead man. Is that a true story, and if so, who was the Englishman? Nothing can be too good for such men. 1 want to make a proposal for these men. who, more than any others, arc destined to save Europe from Germany. It is to make for them an order of knighthood. Nelson could be stirred by the thought of a peerage or Westminster Ah hey. Every aviator who goes up to tight _'| ’do not mean to reconnoitre, but to will tight all the more gladly with two kindred alteruative.s in his mind ■ a knighthood or the prompt payment of a generous life, insurance policy to his people. Every man who goes up ami destroy cither an aeroplane or a Zeppelin in th ir should, I hold, iuivo :i- knighthood u he gets down alive. And I venture to say tha'i 1 we shall create thereby the most honorable and enviable Order that thiuor!<l has ever semi.

I. know that tins will m-cui a .startin', suggestion to those who nave forgotten what knights once were, who will think

at once of party helpers _ and provincial mayors. I know that this is proposing to make knights out of poor men, some of them men with the means and training of ordinary mechanics. But is not the day of the plutocracy nearly at an end? Is it not a time when honors may again become honorable, and the reputation of the country, Jong tarnished by a venal prostitution of its titles and distinctions to the base expedients of peace, be a little cleaned by the ennoblement of brave men One talks and reads of the heroic age, and how the world has degenerated. But indeed this is the heroic age, suddenly come again. No legendary feats of the past, no battle with dragons or monstrous beasts, no quest or feat that man has hitherto attempted can compare with this adventure, this urgently necessary adveuure, in terror, danger, and splendor. And the number of young men of the Army and Navy, young men of no partieula’ magnificence of gesture and appearance, who are competing to attempt it, is far in excess, alas ! of the machines we have at present available for their use.

Henry Pearson, who has died at Walmer, aged 72, had sailed on every sea, and assisted hundreds of vessels of all nationalities into port. Forty years ago he wan placed aboard the first Chinese warship, and took her to Copenhagen.