ZEPPELIN RAIDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3215, 27 October 1915, Page 18

ZEPPELIN RAIDS.

BEST WAY TO COMBAT THEM. LONDON, October 21. Lord Portsmouth, speaking in the House of Lords,) said- he understood that the Admiralty had received l a warning of the last Zeppelin raid. He suggested that the public should be -warned. Lord Sydenham expressed the opinion that there was much random shooting. If gunners had been taken from the trenches, where they daily practised against aircraft, the results would have been different. The object was to present the Zeppelins from shelling targets. It would be useless and dangerous to keep our aircraft cruising overhead. They could only wreck Zeppelins by bombing, and fighting of this description over London would involve great danger. The aeroplanes had the best chance to find the Zeppelins approaching the coast before nightfall. In the House of Lords the Duke of Devonshire said that if the public were warned probably more would congregate in the streets. The Admiralty would not be content until every step had been taken for the efficient protection of the metropolis. He was not aware that signallers had been discovered. Mr H. J. Tennant, replying to Mr Joynson Hicks regarding air reprisals on German towns, pointed out that the Royal Flying Corps was a military organisation engaged on military operations. The enemy’s dastardly raids on undefended towns and defen:eless people would not be allowed to divert the energies of this fighting force from its primary military duty.