The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1912. THE AIRSHIP IN WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 62, 6 November 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1912. THE AIRSHIP IN WAR.

The manoeuvres which have just concluded the year’s training of both the British and French armies have been unusually interesting, and in the opin-, ion of those who have watched or taken pavt in them remarkably successful, says the “Morning Post.” In both cases the new feature was the development of aerial scouting. In the manoeuvres in East Anglia it seems that the airmen were able to give each commander such good, full, and prompt information that each was able to make arrangements to counter the other’s moves, and thus a deadlock was produced in the sense of a situation that could issue only in hard fighting all along the front. In the manoeuvres in Touraine the aerial scouts seem to have been übiquitos. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that, with the development of the air service, a new era has dawned in war, and the “Daily Mail” considers the fog which in the past enveloped the movements of the enemy has been dissipated, and hereafter, so long as his aircraft are intact, the general will know the strength of his opponents, and what they are doing.

MR WILLIS UNBENDS. Mr Speaker Willis, who has been a good deal in the public eye of late, was a guest at the New South Wales Country Press Association’s picnic the other day, and he was evidently in merry mood. A few speeches were made, Mr Willis being among those called upon. “I have read of you gentlemen,” said he, “and I have read your articles, and I think there is every reason why you should sign them in future. (Laughter.) We know you may say things you don’t mean, because you are aware people will not read your papers unless you make them readable, very readable. So you give them what happens, and very often what has not happened, to me. (Laughter.) Very .often words are put into my mouth which 1 have not said, and when I do say something the press says nothing. You know, 1 am supposed to say nothing, but stand still and be bullied, and take it all kindly and smile. I don’t smile when I’m in the Chair, but I fairly laugh when I’m out of the Chair, because I am told many people believe what they see in the papers. No sensible man would believe that newspapers would sell if they always told the truth. That is why they give a little—a very little, sometimes —that is truth and a great deal that is fie-

tion. And 13 1 on the paper is readable.” (Laughter.) .Mr Willis said, much as ho would like to say something about the Government, he must not. Hut alter listening to Air MacMillan’s speech he would ask them ii they had ever heard a Scotchman say a good word lor a bail cause. And Mr MacMillan had said the Ministers were decent fellows, though they would

have noticed Air MacMillan was on top all the time. “1 do not believe in the Labour platform a bit,” concluded All' ,Willis; “but the present Government has done much more good than their predecessors did. That was because they could not do noise. (Loud laughter.) The day will come when we shall see a live party, and that partyi can only thrive when you gentlemen write a few sensible articles, and speak well of the Speaker. (Laughter.)