THE NEXT GREAT WAR.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 13144, 28 November 1906, Page 3

THE NEXT GREAT WAR.

PROPHECIES JBY SIR HIRAM MAXIM.

"The wans of the future will ,be fougit. in the air. The chief weapon used will' undoubtedly he-something in the of an aerial torpedo. Thw is ineyita,ble, and it will come about soon. 'the first man to discover and to perfect a navigable aerial torpedo wiil change the .colouring of the map of the whole world." |U,i v These were the weighty words uttered by that eminent authority, Sir JEiram, Maxim, Tdth. whom the writer recently discussI ed the warfare of the future. ,

'.lf there is nothing more awful ..than tne.. realisation of rwar, there are few subjects" •more fascinating to contemplate .in the abstract," and to- speculate upon, than the 1 potentialities of science when applied td wholesale slaughter. ; It is -hard .to' imagine that any "..progress" can be made in the of the awful engines of destruction which exist to-day, or that there is any possible improvement which can render thein efficiency more terrible. One cannot conceive, for instance, how a Maxim ..gun, capable of dealing death at a distance at which it can' ihardly /fe ■e&sck, to hundreds, of men a minute, could be well improved upon. Impossible would it be for the student to suppose that Science has exhausted ier infernal expedients, or that we shall iave long to wait for new and improved "lesources of civilisation-," It was consideration of the deadlock which would appear to have been arrived at in these circumstances that led the writer to seek oat Sir Hiram Maxim. A. .not unnatural eurioisity to glean an inkling of the direction from which >scienidsts anticipate ".progress," if any, .must also be admitted. The inventor of the Maxim gun permits Jiimself to dogmatise upon this . question. .There are, he says, certain limitations .imposed upon ; engineers by Natuze, sand so far ajs guns,' ai» we know concerned, these -'limitations have very .nearly, if not quite., -.(been reached. He, maintaina that we have arrived at the point fwjhen mere tmeehandcal mgenartbvcan do no more. 'Practically the only .improvements which'rfould usefully take/ place in the construction of guns neces-!: ■ sitate the discovery »of a new metal- or.i substance vastly difffiEent from anything known to-day. V ' There is "not the least doubt, declares• tie iaventor, that now., iaving practically; exhauiited 'Nature's revources in one divec-; tion,' we must look to another field, of; operation altogether ' to: .furnish; u« . with-i scope for further experiments. What we may expect, he csan&lently asserts, therefore,,' is something in the nature of |;an aerial torpedo. small and relatively inexpensive in itself, which will be able to deal death and destruction in the form of dynamite bcm.fes, or other powerful explosives, over the wuole face of the e3rti. It was in this connection that, referring to a large glohe of the woyld which htood at his elbow, the veteraK i-pecialist made uftie of the words which f:im the text sof this article.

Ar, he wanned, to the subject. Sir Hii-asi centiasted the conditions srhich now .prevail with those which we may expect once the conquest of the air has been, effected. Nowadays, he pointed out, 'if <3re.it Britain wanted to bombard Eo*rcn. for instance, she would send out perhaps three merii'Awar to'' " undertake the task. Each of these would be worth £1,000,000. In a. couple of hours' 'bombardment they might effect one million pounds' worth'of damage. At the end cf that time their guns would be about worn out and would be tending shell? "head over heels, as one throws a club, a!i over the place." . Perhaps a few cruisers might then come up. with new guns and your battleship would stand a good chance of being captured or sunk. In !tbi»- case "it would cost you, roughly,

three millions of money, to do one million pounds' worth of damage to your opponent." The large guns of the Navy, says Sir Hiram ,'are worn out and i-:hoot erratically after only sixty charges have been fired from them. Look on hand, at the havoc which will be brought by the aerial torpedo when it comes. Imagine the state of a town wihich is attacked by half a dozea mechanical monsters . out of reach, in the heavens, constantly dropping into it dynamite bombs, each one, perhaps, capable of wrecking whole districts.' Defence or retaliation of any sort will be utterly impossible, and the cost of wiping out a town will be inconsiderable as compared with the expense of the present day warfare. . _ "• According to Sir Hiram Maxim, the invention, indicated is inevtable. "We have already," he the possibility of aerial navigation, and have eliminated most of the 'serious obstacles ■which, militated against its practibility in,the past. We have now everything we need in the way of inital knowledge and data, and in a - word, it is; now only ; a ..question of experiments. '•' Even more disquieting is the prognoisticatidh- deliverd" with' almost - equal certainty, "a* to the nation .'Tifehichv; will be. " first in the 'field/"; . *', Ihejs, was,,a, time,".. . says/'Sir.;:'Hiram,; !ge'steaY : : : thdtv ; first iTh/ath time. Miis. "gene.. by..'/, /■>We^s^l^-haye M the meh> :who;,ii£ow/most;.of /the;.subject,/»and who] ihave^x^nmented- ; ---for- f; "/Nbt-- una naturally, hdweyer, . . they ; are,/ in' 'mbsti imabie and' ■ unwilling to incur the;] enormous' financial outlay necessary.;"; .when* Britishers .slacking! 'off of •'ens6hragemefit and 'assist-. ahce, -the Germans' special "pW ronage: of.-the.iEaiser are hard at work•'•■: be expected-; t£. '/display tenacity j imd' J ingenuity; 1 untl .useful [results are atKj The - Government '©f ~ the Fafoherf: dandy - will !: 'in n the'.matured opinion of Sir! 4ii*a'm>:Maxim-,- ;see that.'.no.. -money• is- ■ spared, andWthe best .hanicat brains in the land be reojeositioned, .and employed in. a : Herculean /at•'tempt':So wrest from/ Nature -the-- secret, first pbKes'sioii/-of''v'w i hich;.yiU-'ibake iQermany absolute mistress of therworld- ■:;;_:: . '-.-. Bad£to'^!^.S^^ are ■' as' -hithing '■■po ::.what, •■' even: -. nov?,). ; y.th'ey might be* -fatr ihore deadly weapons -ai hand, which they bave no intention of using, £ban any of ibe.destructive machines in use. By i\vay of illustration Sir/ Hiram Maiim aaentioned that though poison-guns are not .-supposed to be used by civilised nations they could very, easily 3se made if. necessary. Indeed, he even told the.wciter of. a. imethod by which it would be jpossible tc- Kill every living creature on'a >attl.eship, % exploding a single shell ■■on 'board.—EF. - Bussy., Jum\; in.ft&ie '"Daaly /Mail.")