FUTURE AERIAL WARFARE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13455, 6 April 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

FUTURE AERIAL WARFARE.

•THE COMING' OF THE AIRSHIP." [FROM OUR OWN CORRKSPOXUKNT.] I London, February 16. Apart from the strong disapproval ex- j ipressed by all the greatest military and i naval authorities of the proposal to tun-! nel the English Channel, a very serious' 'damper has been placed upon the project ■by some excessively unpleasant suggestions' j recently put. forward by that inveterate j apple-cart upscttor, Mr. \\ T._ Stead, j j"What's the good oi a tunnel" lit ex-1 claimed in effect, "if foreign armies can j cross the Cluuinel in airships?" 1 What indeed ! And now he has followed ■that up by another utterance. He wants: Ito know what the coming Hague Conferjenco is going to do about aerial warfare. \ He points out that: "The possibility ofi using the air as a base of attack wasj , gravely considered by the . Hague Confer- J fence of 1899. The Russian Government I proposed that the Powers should forbid : the dropping of projectiles and other ex-j i plosives from balloons. It was argued j |that the different methods at present ill use for injuring an enemy were quite sufticent, and that in the interest of humanity I the extension of the area of warlike opera-1 j lions from the land and the sea to the j air ought to be laid under the interdict of. (civilisation. After a, good deal of dis- j :cussion, it was decided to agree upon the j following declaration: 'The contracting) j Powers agree to prohibit, for a term of tlive years, the launching of projectiles and • ; explosives from balloons or by other new methods of a similar nature.' It was at i j first proposed that the interdict should be perpetual, but Great Britain. France, and Houmania insisted upon limiting it to a. term of five years. Ultimately, on the |suggestion of the United States, the limit-j led interdict was accepted for the sake of I securing unanimity. The result is that as the five years expired in 1904, there is iat present- no interdict on aerial warfare." 1 "The Dutch general," continues Mr. (Stead, "who drew up the report of the j sub-commission on the subject, drew a, harrowing picture of a balloon dropping infernal engines charged with asphyxiating lor soporific gases in the midst of troops lon the field of battle. Such proceedings, ihe declared, passed the limits of legitimate I warfare. 'It was a- kind of perfidy,' he exclaimed. 'Let us he chivalrous even in ;he way in which we make war.' The decision ultimately arrived at, according to j Captain Crozier, was taken ' for humanitarian reasons alone." But no proceeds |somewhat illogically to add that it was I founded upon the opinion that 'balloons |as they now exist, form such an uncertain 'means of injury that they cannot lie used i with any accuracy,' and that 'the limitations of the interdict to live years preiserves liberty of action under changed circumstances, which may be produced by the progress of inventions!'" Mr. Stead goes on to remark: "Even iamong those who have realised the possibility of ,in early solution of the pro--1 blem of aerial navigation, the majority do I not- do much more thinking than is involv!ed in repeating the well-worn Tennysonian . couplet : —

a I'd the heavens fill with shouting and there rained a ghastly dew From the nations' airy navies, grappling in the central 1)1 tie. Hiving quoted those lines, tliev shut down their minds on lie subject, feeling that such a glimpse of the Trafalgar* and Tsushimas of the future is enough. In reality, there is a great deal more to be said. For the possible developments of | pitched battles bet wen aeroplane navies in I the central blue may be insignificant factors compared with the other developments for which 110 one seems to spare a thought. " Everyone quotes Tennyson's lines about 'aerial navies.' No one seems to remember the couplet that immediately precedes I then) : — Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies | of magic sails. j Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales. Vet as anyone who reflects a little upon it lie consequences resulting from the geneI ral use of aeroplanes or airships will real- | ise. it is this couplet rather than the more I familiar lines which ought to occupy our attention." I He thinks that if the airship is about to lie added to the ordinary means of ! human transit, many things are about to ! happen of which most of us have not even! begun to think. The exploits of Mr. 1 I Spencer, M. Santos Dumont, the Wright '•brothers, liavo as yet hardly penetrated the consciousness of the general public. Their! ' imagination, therefore, has not been set ito work. To them, airships and aeroplanes Ibelong to lie department of the Arabian • Nights, and, as befits practical men of

common sense, they re rain from wastingi their time by exercising their brains upon what would happen if what can never happen were to happen. "It is not probable."' says Mr. Stead, " that the chief use of the aeroplane in warfare will be to fight other aeroplanes, but rather to drop high explosives upon! ships and fortresses. If the airship can! lie navigated with as much certainty usj ships can be steered and propelled at sea, there seems to lie some reason to fear that it will, within a short space of time, convert the navies of the world into scrap iron. Half a dozen aeroplanes floating in mid-air over battleships at anchor in a loadstead tit a harbour would be able to drop bombs charged with high explosives! on the decks of the outing fortresses.' They would get the range, mi to speak, i for their aerial torpedoes by dropping hand) grenades, and th- a single well-placed J projectile might put the cutest warship: out of action. The peril of the Dread-' nought from the submarine is as nothing to the danger from this overhead bombardment. For the submarine is not, worth; much on the high seas, and ships in docks' or enclosed harbours are safe from ils ! attack. To aeroplanes, ships in docks would be even more exposed than if they! were lying .outside in the open. It may be that the sovereignty of the sen. which! secures us immunity from invasion, may be destroyed by bolts from the blue. In that! case, as we should no longer Ik? able to! rely upon our fleets' to defend our shores. I the advocates of universal military service would have everything their own way." There is a probability, as is next pointed out, that the use of the aeroplane may) entirely revolutionise the art of war. Fori example, the defence of fortresses would' become almost impossible if the besiegers could at any hour of day or night, with comparative impunity, drop huge shells charged with high explosives in the heart! of the citadel 'or rain down Greek fire upon the enemies' arsenals and shipyards. j All fortified places are constructed on the assumption that no attack will be made! on them from above. Apart from the! actual destruction which the falling shells! would achieve, it is probable that the de-; moralisation resulting from this deadly hail from the sky would render it almost! impossible to keep men at their posts. ; It is. therefore, by no means improbable! that the coming conference at the Hague| may find itself occupied with a subject j which has no place on the official programme. The question will arise, if a new weapon of warfare has been discov- j ered which renders existing methods obsolete. shall we attempt to prevent its rise, j or shall we be driven to admit that war itself has become practically impossible?) In other words, has the aeroplane brought! us fare to face with the situation to which j the discovery of " Vril" brought the nations in Lvtton's book "The Coming Race'.'" °j Mr. Stead concludes as follows: "It will no doubt be argued tin t the nations will i persist in war, and will merely add the maintenance of an aeroplane Meet to the, burden of existing armaments. The an-! swer to this is that they will no longer j be able to raise the funds required for! such a creation of new and costly instru-j ments of destruction. For the aeroplane; will not only entail an enormous new expenditure, but it will dry up one of the great j sources of revenue by which existing armaments are maintained. There is not a single modern State which does not derive]

a great part of its revenue from Customs [duties which arc levied at it* frontiers. | But wliatever else the aeroplane may do or may fail to do. one thing i* certain, i* will wipe out frontier*. To prevent smuggling alter Ihe advent of the aeroplane will Iks impossible. We raise nearly thirteen million* every year by duties on tobacco, and newly li»»If us much em spirits and other commodities of com|»arative!y ! small weight and bulk. Other nations, , whose tariffs cover almost every commodity used by man, would U- in a. still more evil cane. Nor can any extension of th* jcoastguard service prevent he iritiodiif;tion ot goods unsupervised bv the Custom*. 'Of course, good* of immense wejght and . bulk will .remain the prey of the taritfI maker. Hut light goods, valuable goods. : Will come by airship There is not a ! treasury in Kurope which will not he brought to the door of bankruptcy at the very time when, if war s (<. continue, I the need for an enormous new expenditure on the aeroplane fleet will Income impera- ' tive. Hence I mi disposed to regard tl. , aeroplane as the probable instrument of one of the most beneficent of all revolution;—the abolition of war