MR. H. G. ELLS & THE BRITON.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 11 September 1909, Page 1

MR. H. G. ELLS & THE BRITON.

Mr 11. <.!. Wells whoso novels have been so much concerned with "war in the air 7 ' and other aerial topics, was asked by ■ the "Daily Mail" to ■.vritn nn article on what the success of M. Bleriot crossing the English Jhannel iu an aeroplane meant, and ;he article appeared ou July 27. - -It '.s a serious indictment of the sluggish Briton. "It means,' I tako it," says Mr vVells, "first and;foremost for u's that . . : -" '■■''' 1 .;'■"• eHE'.WOXLD CANNOT WAIT FOB .'■ ' ' ~THE ENGLISH. "It is not the first warning - "we '.iave had. It Has been raining .varnings upon us— never was a slacking, dull people so liberally served with warnings of what was iu store for them.- But this event — this foreigner-invented, foreigner-ftuilt, foreigner-steered thing, taking our silver streak as a lark soars across a rivulet— puts the case dramatically. We have fallen behind in the quality jni our mauhood. , .. t ' A SOFT PEOPLE. - "In the men of means and leisure :n this island there was neither surprise enough, imagination enough, tnowledge nor skill enough to lead in his matter. I do not see how one an go- into the history of this doelopmont and arrive at any other •inclusion. The French and Ameriins can laugh at our aeroplanes, the :erina.ns are ten yoars ahead of our }oor navigable^. We are displayed a soft, rather backward people. Either we are a people essentially, and incurably inferior, or thero is something wrong in our training, something benumbing in our atmosphere and circumstances. That is the first and gravest intimation in M. Bleriot *s l'eat.. THE FOREIGNER AHEAD OF US. "I do not think that the arrival of M. TSleriot menus a panic resort to (.■(inscription. It Is extremely desirable that people should realise that these foreign machines are .not a temporary and incidental advantage that we can make good by fussing and demanding. Eight and saying we won't wait, and so on, and then subsiding into indolence again. They are just the first fruits of ■ a steady, .■nduring lead that the foreigner has -.von. The foreigner is ahead of us in education; and this is especially "rue of the middle and upper classes from which invention and enterprise some — or, in our own case, do not ?on\i3. A BETTER CLASS OP MAN. "ITo. makes a better class of man ilmn we do. His is -better (hau ours. His training is better than ours. His mind is more active. His requirements' in a novel, for example, are not kindly, sedative pap; his uncensored plays deal with reality. His schools arc places for vigorous education instead of genteel athleticism, and his home has books iu it, and thought and conversation.' Our homes and schools are relatively dull and uninspiring; there is no intellectual guide or stir in them; and to that we owe this new generation of nicely 'behaved, unenterprising sons, who play golf and dominate tha tailoring of the world, while Brazilians, Frenchmen, Americans, and Germans fly. > "That we are hopelessly behind in aeronautics is not a fact by itself. It : s merely an indication that we are behindhand in our mechanical knowledge and invention. M. Bloriot's aeroplane points to the fleet. A STRUGGLE IN KNOWLEDGE. "The struggle for naval supremacy is not merely a struggle in shipbuilding and expenditure. Much more is itia struggle iu knowledge and invention. It is not tho Power that has the most ships or the biggesjt ships Miat is going to win in a naval con'liet. It is tho Power that thinks juiekest of' what to do, is most re-.-■otn-eeful and invonive. Eighty Dreadnoughts manned by dull men nrc only eighty targets for a quicker adversary. Well, is there any reason to suppose that our Navy is going to '.:eep above the general national level in thefp things? Is 'the Navy bright ! ■ v BEHIND IN MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCE. "The arrival of M. Bleriot suggests most horribly to me how far behind we must be in all matters ot ingenuity, device, aud mechanical "ontrivaiice. lam reminded again of. the days during the Boer War, when one realised that it never occurred to our happy-go-lucky Army that it was possible to make a milivary use of barbed wire or construct •i tieiich to defy shrapnel. Suppose n the North Sea we got a surprise "ike that, and fished out a parboiled, half-drowned admiral explaining what a * confoundedly slim, unexpected, almost ungontlenumly thing iiio enemy had done to him. OUR NAVAL OFFICERS. "Very probably tho Navy is tho bright exception to the British system: its officers arc rescued from the dull homes and dull schools of their ..-.".ass while still of tender years, and shaped after a fashion of their own. But M. Bleriot reminds us that we may no longer shelter and degenerate behind these blue backs. And the keenest men at sea are none the worse for having keen men on land behind them OUR MIDDLE-CLASS BOYS. "Are we an awakening people?"

"It is the vital riddle of our time. 1 look upon the windy Channel and think of all those millions just over there, who seem to get busier and ' keener every hour. 1 could imagine the day of reckoning coming like a 1 swarm of birds. '■'Here tho air is full of the clamour of rich and prosperous people invited to pay taxes, and beyond measure bitter. They are going to live abroad, cut their charities, dismiss old servants, and do all sorts of^silly, vindictive-ihings.. We seem, to be doing feeble jiext-tdrnothjngs'^in the endowmeut-of "research. Not one in . twenty of the .boys of the middle and. upper classes learns German or gets "more than a misleading smattering of physical science. Most of them never learn to speak French. Heaven alone knows what they do with their brains. . * ■ A NATIONAL RENASCENCE. "The British reading and thinking public probably does hot number fifty thousand people nil told. It is difficult to see whence the necessary impetus for a. national renascence is to. come. . . . The universities are poor and spiritless, with no ambition to lead the country. I met a Boy Scout the other day. He was hopeful in his wajy but a little inadequate, I t thought, as a basis for confidence in the future of the Empire. 'We have still our Derby Day, of course. ... "Apart from these patriotic solicitudes^M. Bleriot has set quite another train* of thought going in my mind: The days of natural democracy are surely at an end through these machines. There comes a time when men will be sorted out iuito those who will have the knowledge, nerve, and courage to do these splendid, dangwi ous things, and those who will prefer the humbler level."