AIRSHIPS V. WARSHIPS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 19, Issue 21, 17 March 1908, Page 2

AIRSHIPS V. WARSHIPS.

WHAT FIGHTING WILL BE LIKE IN THE FUTURE. It is feasible 'to believe that the last great war on land or sea has been fought. Such has been the progress during recent years of aoriftl locomotion that nearly all modern Powers, with the notable exception of Japan, are .considering the advisability of adopting the airship as an instrument of war. Great Britain has instituted a Royal Commission to report on the! military, possibilities of airships, while at the present moment balloons are used in sham battles to study the enemy's country. The German Government is keenly interested in the experiments which Zepplin is making with his model airship at Lake Constance, and has assisted with a grant of 35,000 pounds. This monster balloon weighs nearly ten tons, and has circled two hours at a time at a distance of 2,500 ft. in the air. France and America are also active in the aerial problem. Indeed, the former country already maintains an aeronautic corps. "Lebaudy" and "La Patrie" were accepted after a series of severe tests' by the army. During one of the tests "La Patrie" flew six miles, and was always controllable at a speed of twenty-two miles an hour. The signal service of the War Department of tho United States has completed fio erection of an aerodrome at Fort Omaha, where practicpj instruction and experiment in aeronautics has already commenced. "In six years possibly," said Major Baden-Powell before the Royal Institute of Great Britain a few weeks ago, "in ten years quite certainly, we may expect to see machines in the air under control and in practical use." When that comes about our Navy will be virtually useless. Every inch of frontier and coast may be fortified with the heaviest artillery, every adult of the population may be armed and placed behind it ; still all will be useless in repelling an enemy who flies high in the air and drops dynamite upon the "impregnable" works and multitudes of soldiers. Experiments were recently made in West Prussia. Two halfcoons were released at sea, and fired on as they floated landwards. One of them ww torn by three shrapnel shells and came down. The other was uninjured. "Both these," says a wellknown expert, "must have been low in the air, and approaches! from a prc-determined position. Had there been men in them, rapidly changing their altitudes and direction, matters would have been different. Once balloons get immediately overhead, no artillery we now possess would touch them. Bullet holes, it has been-found, have no real effect—they are too minute." This being the case, new guns will have to be invented to disable airships. The almost natural antagonist of it is the submarine. It has been discovered, however, that from a great height a considerable depth in the water can be seen. If a balloon succeeded in getting just above a submarine and could drop a projectile upon it, the submarine would at once be rendered defenceless. Of course, a commander could afford to lose a great many torpedo-boats if one will eventually succeed in bringing down a single battleship, which is the price of about three hundred torpedoes. In all probability, though new destroyers will be invented which will combat the aerial battleship in its own element.—" Chat."