AERIAL NAVIGATION BILL.
IMPORTANT NEW LAW. \>i THE RIGHT TO SHOOT. I [FROM Otttl OWN COSRESBOJvDgNT.] |j London, February 22. k. Cqlonex Seely, Minister for War, infcro- I duced into the House of Commons anv 1 Aerial Navigation Bill, which prohibits the | passage of aircraft over certain areas,,or, if the Government deem it necessary, ovc; the whole of the coastline of the United . '\ Kingdom and the adjacent territorial waters. If any aarial vessel infringes this >■ law the proper officers shall be entitled, after giving a prescribed warning signs], to fire at or into, any such aircraft and to use any and evory other means to prevent infraction of the law; (I Before many days have passed the BDJ will be the law of the land. It was read v : I a second time on Monday and passed by the Commons on the following day. In 1 the words of the Orders of. the Day, it was "considered in committee, and ro- k ported without amendment; read the third time, and passed." The Bill will' be 1 taken in the House of Lords early nexli ' ! week. There was practically no discus-, sion in the Commona.. T] lQ proceedings I took place after midnight in tho sessions' ■ ■'" both of Monday and Tuesday. On the ; second reading Colonel Seely said:—"! H would point out to the House that this 1 Bill is not aimed at the aircraft of any foreign Power, but rather at preventing mischievous from over-■ aea—from hovering over places where there are combustible stores, to ihe <?roat inconvenience of the people of this counThat there is need for haste goes with- * out saying. Within tne hist few unknown airships have appeared over various parts of England, and the Times.-fiays:--"It must have occurred to many I people that the visits of foreign airship? to this country are becoming unpleasantly frequent, especially in view of the fact that we have no means of returuinz-thij-|®i compliment. They have a way of appearUJgover our ports just after before dawn, coining ao one 'tob : viss||f whence, and going ho one shows whither, (; It would seem that either they predilection in favour of following 'ouilflf coastline or they pass unnoticed, possibly, at a greater height, across our territory*. •'During the last, four or five months § they have been seen oyer Sheerness, Ports- I mouth, Dover, Liverpool, and on two $ separate occasions over Cardiff. Their course has never been traced. They are sighted: at a given spot, and then they disappear. That circumstance not only fives a surreptitious air to their visits, | ut raises an unpleasant -Tuspicion that these visits may be more frequent than wai > 1 know. This aerial espionage of extent and minuteness is an intrusion ■! which we bavo a. right to resent. Its motives are not likely to be friendly, nor can we'flatter ourselves that the beauty } 1 of the bird's eye view of our ports is so' = great as to lead foreigners to ppend &> | much money in order to derive aesthetic ;-' gratification from it." : If is understood that the " sky guns"- - :■ ffor firing ar aircraft, and for which contracts were given zqma lime afro, will-be,|'.. jj stationed round the e~a?t for the purpose of carrying out the new regulations. '\t? : ?:
AERIAL NAVIGATION BILL.
New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15269, 5 April 1913, Page 4
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