AVIATION FOR DEFENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15900, 11 April 1912, Page 6

AVIATION FOR DEFENCE.

The critics who are complaining of the dilatoriness of the British "War Office in developing aviation branches of the Army and Navy appear to bo treating Lord Haldane arid his colleagues rather unfairly. Germany and France certainly have made considerable progress in the formation of air corps, and each of these Powers has provided for a very much greater expenditure on military and naval aviation this year than Britain has; but in presenting the Army Estimates six weeks ago Lord Haldano announced a reasonably vigorous policy. A joint school of aviation for Army and Navy officers is to be established at once on Salisbury Plain, and the Minister for

War lias stated that “ building, to plans which have be.cn already piepared, will be pressed forward rapidly, and it is hoped at a very early date to have accommodation at the school for officers and men, instructors 'and mechanics, as well a.s the necessary sheds for aeroplanes and workshops for their repair and adjustment.” This year’s programme includes provision “on an extended scale” for the purchase of aeroplanes and other equipment, tho continuation of experimental work by the Army Aircraft Factory, tho construction of new* buildings for airships, tho addition of a number of men to the personnel of tho Army establishments and the purchase of aeroplanes as “ a first instalment of the equipment of the Field Army.” The Army already possesses about twenty aeroplanes—not the solitary one mentioned by the “Daily Mail”— and ten moro are to be delivered this month. The vote for aviation this year amounts to £322,000, though last year tho War Office was satisfied with the expenditure of £131,000. In the light of the fact that the effectiveness of the aeroplane in warfare has been proved only by the recent operations of the Italians in Tripoli, the caution that has been exercised by the British authorities may be justified. They are hesitating still to launch such ambitious schemes as those which some of the neighbouring Powers have undertaken, and perhaps they have been fortified by the postponement of the “international war” until 1017 by the prophets w-ho profess to read the signs of tho times. In five years Britain may have surpassed her rivals in the air. The prudent policy that was pursued by the Imperial authorities when submarines first were included in tho naval armaments of the Pow’ers lias proved to be thoroughly sound, and the moral of that case may be applicable in the present instance.