THE AIR WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17104, 8 September 1917, Page 8

THE AIR WAR

PLEA AGAINST SQUEAMISHNESS.

A DUKE ON BISHOPS.

(Fbom Oob Own Cobrespojtdeht.) LONDON, July 13. America evidently sees what our own military leaders fortnnately recognise—viz., that the-war may be won in tho air, and that London expect much greater visitations before it is all over. Somebody has suggested that 50,000 planes will be required in the ensuing year merely to keep our end up, and no prophet's eye is required to see that we have already entered on an air struggle which may far exceed in intensity either the land or- the sea. campaign. ' Some peaplo do not realise this, of course, and tho Duke of Argyle, in a characteristic letter to tho Daily Telegraph, includes them all under the general definition of " bishops,"' and soundly rates them.

"The bishops have been hastening from their belfries, especially after an adequate number of murders have been done in some air raid, to warn us against any similar act which might inconvenience the - Germans, It has been widely remarked by all classes that since the war began tho bishops have hardly made one sensible re-' mark about it. A deep gulf divided the splendid utterances of the archbishops of France, when they speak to their flocks on thewwayr y from the insipid and often mischievous 'discourses of tho English hierarchy. The -x\rchbishop of Canterbury protested from a supposed theological and moral pedestal against the use of gas in warfare, being apparently willing that the army should have one or.both arms tied in fighting, rather than that the quibbling consciences of the Episcopates should be seared.

"Petitions are being circulated, to which are appended the names of many occupants of English Sees against 'reprisals.' Prelates selected for their in dead languages, and to whom science is a bewildering subject and highly 'apocalyptic,' have the utmost difficulty in realising the enormous progress which aviation has reached, and the increasing dangers which our civil population will have to incur before the war is over. Few, if any of them havo grasped that it is more than likejy that it will be by future measures taken in the air that the war on the western front will be eventually won,

" Granted that in the coming months >r years of the war we bavo a sufficient lumber of • aeroplanes to spare fox the nirposo, are the primates and -bishops going ;o deny the right of the military authorities, if they see fit, to attack objectives because women and children may be tilled as ours have been here? When whole nar fcions are at war, as is now the case, the Archbishop and other confused thinkers are too cautious to have openly defined what they consider are military objectives. They may rest assured that the Germans will be lavish enough in their delimitation of such and the towns and villages of this kingdom will be few that wfll escape if the war goes on, with the ever-increasing radius of air danger. In enemy eyes all munition factories in which masses of women and girls are employed are such objectives, as well as places where anything is being made for the army, down to boots or bandages. The war is rot going to be won by going baek to coraclee and arrows, and the general scrapping of their modern equivalents, but by using every conceivable method and device that military science puts into the hands of a people for its defence. This .explosion of muddle-headed thinking and sheer cant, for it is nothing else— is largely due to the word ' reprisals.' What, after all, is war itself? If the word counter-raid can pour balm on biehops, pray let ne use it; diseases often demand strong sedatives. . "The old complaint in Tudor, days was that bishops were dumb dogs; in the light of their recent performances one could wish that their tongues had become less loosened. Let the bishops sticks to their belfries and cobblers to their lasts."

EVERYTHING MONEY CAN BUT.

The best corrective of slothful thinking just now is provided by the outspoken utterances of Mr Lloyd George and Lord Derby on this very subject. They seem to have accepted the view of its unlimited possibilities. '

"It would not be right to give the figures in the increase in our aeroplane output," eaid the latter, " but I can assure the House fiiat it is a stupendous increase, and is continuing week Tby week and month by month to such an extent as to tax to the utmost our training of pilots. On this must ultimately rest our safety. I venture to hope that what is being done will make raids so costty as not to make it worth while for the enemy to continue these barbarous forms of warfare. Everything in the way of aeroplanes that money can buy is being bought and will be bought. You can't turn a tap and have aeroplanes fly out. Unfortunately, we are very deficient m skilled labour. Machinery is wanted; there is ,only a limited supply, and it is allotted to the firms that can ma&o tho best use of it."