VALUE OF AERIAL DEFENCE.

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 2857, 31 January 1916, Page 2

VALUE OF AERIAL DEFENCE.

Ir has been a matter for wonderment to the observant that whilst Count Zeppelin seems to have his eye fixed continuaEy upon London, and makes air raids therewards whenever tho Weather permits, he ,eems to give no whatever to Paris, but leaves the heart o? France severely alone. Why? It appears fr&in expert information just to hand that thero is this very excellent reason:' London is vuL nerable from tho sky, Paris is practically immune to danger. It is the usual story of British "muddling along." Whilst the authorities &t Homo have been as a house divided against itself, naval and military differing about the defence of the heart of our Empire, in France experts in every department have concentrated their genius upon providing up-to-date devices to protect Paris. ffae> result is that since the war began the French havo developed aerial defences faster than the Germans have improved their agencies of assault, with the consequence that in the last 12 months there has been but one Zeppelin visit to the city that Kaiser Wilhelm expected to possess within the first month of the war. Of course, presently London will get adequate pro-

tection; but in the meantimo the enemy has scored in destructivoness and in moral effect. That we are gotting tho men and the moans to light off the raiders is indicated in the latest raid on Dover; still, it were hotter for Londoners if their protectors emulated Parisian methods. At the French capital aviators and their assistants are on the watch night and day, amP they have some wonderful mechanical aids. Not tho least of these ia the mammoth Detector, which consists of four megaphones connected with n microphone aud equipped with receivers. By tho use of this tho purr of an engine in the air can bo heard long before the machine that carries it is visiblo. Thoro are large and powerful searchlights available for lighting up tho sky. Another means of protection is a,buttery of high-angle, longrange, anti-aircraft guns, which can sweep tho four points of the compass and which fire shrapnel shells. This battory has a mechanical aerial rangefinder which determines the height, distance, and speed of aircraft. There is such a battery at most of tho defoiico posts guarding Paris. The French system of meeting aud attacking tho enemy in tho air is also superior to tho British hit-or-miss-but-here-1-colue style. lb is therefore highly gratifying to learn that John Bull has at last recognised this —and is now willing to take lessons from French aviators, for tho benefit of London particularly and England generally; as may be inferred from a recent Londoninessago containing assurances from Earl Kitchener.