NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15292, 3 May 1913, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

SUPREMACY OF THE AIR. Whilst all England' is discussing the new- ; found peril; of her liability > to attack by foreign airships, : and the first \ instinct of; the nation is to devise some means ol defence, the London Standard 'points out that there is a tendency to overlook the fact : that England :is much better able to plana system of attack, and that, if the new .science of aerial warfare : were -properly- recognised by the authorities, and if anything like adequate 7 encouragement were offered to British flying > men the country could make its ;shores: as ; immune ; from invasion by ... airships as an adequate army and navy could make them safe by land and sea. Such is the opinion of Colonel J. L. B. Templer, who was for; many years adviser | in ballooning to the Government and superintendent of the balloon factory at Aldershot. During a recent ). interview he made it clear that if Britainhad the money it should soon have the' men and' the airships,, too. "It must be remembered that nearly all the great military authors and critics agree that the best way to defend is to attack, and this law applies," said .Colonel Templer, "with great force to the problem of ,■ aerial warfare. England is much better placed for* carrying out an aerial attack than for conducting a defence, and, if you ask me why, 'I. • refer you to one great : meteorological ' factan incontrovertible : fact beyond ; human power to alter. It is this, that the prevailing 7 wind •: over .England, and, in ; the higher latitudes, over Europe well, is westerly or south-westerly. : I have not got the exact : figures by me, but I am not far out in saying that on 300 days out of 'the 365 the air currents would favour a British airship travelling to the: Continent and be hostile to any air craft attacking. : But this is not all. Any hostile airship coming from ; Europe to England; even on a favourable day with the wind in its favour, ;: has got to turn round .and go back. Turning up against the wind- is still the most difficult; evolution and the greatest problem in navigating dirigibles; but a Continental airship has got to face it, for, if it should sail right across the British Isles, • there is nothing -but- the Atlantic waiting-fot : it- on the other side." ANGLO-AMERICAN EXHIBITION. London's white city at Shepherd's Bush is now gradually becoming a hive of •*. industry, with hundreds , of workmen and toilers of all descriptions preparing for- the Anglo-American Exposition, -to, be held in 1914. . In view of the centenary peace celebration this Exhibition is being looked, forward 7.t0 with. the ! greatest interest. A "committee '■ of Americans resident in London is ■ already at- work organising the exhibition;' This includes the American Ambassador and his full staff of 7 secretaries -and ; attaches, ; as ! well as the United : States Consul-General and, also the leading officers and members of *! the American Society in Lonodn. The beginning of all the ■ successful:discoveries; and inventions ;of Englishmen and Americans which have distinguished ; and punctuated the hundred yeare in so notable a manner, as well as the continuous advancement in the arts and sciences, will be graphically represented in -the: Exhibition. The agencies which have done so much to economise time and diminish space-—Ful-ton's first : steamboat on the Hudson, George Stephenson's locomotive engine—-' together ; with : the ; latest achievements in the. arte of navigation and transportationwill be in evidence. The Morse, telegraph, and;thel submarine cables; which have, as it ; were, contracted the earth's •surface, as wellias the telephones of Bell and Edison, which have made distant merchants near neighbours, will be shown from early development : to i triumphant perfection. .The. first, use of coal gas for lighting the streets, ijo introduction of the modern. incandescent- mantle, up to the evolution of; the electric ; light from the ? arc ; lamp : as' a laboratory curiosity, to the household use of i, the incandescent, will also be demonstrated, - together l with '.; the > most notable; of ] ? the innumerable \. comforts • and adornments ; of. our .-. homes, ; once, regarded :as luxuries, now indispensable as necessities of our daily life.