THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1909. BRITAIN'S AERIAL PREPARATION FOR WAR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3131, 6 March 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1909. BRITAIN'S AERIAL PREPARATION FOR WAR.

The cable news published recently as to the position of thJ British, War Office with regard to aerial apparatus for war purposes raises a question whether there whs warrant tor the 1 optimism which prompted the London ; "Standard" to say that secret experiments in aviation conducted in remote parts of the country for nuny months placed Great Britain ahead of the other nations in i.he matter of the application of the science of aeronautics to Army needs. It stems to be altogether a question of the point of view. Mr Macpherjon'a request in the Houss of Commons that the Secretary of State for War should stop the "waste of money on aeroplanes" lacks nothing as a statement of a conviction that the aeroplane is not to be relied upon nor feared as a factor in war. And Mr Hnkiane's answer, as cabled, while it does not endorse that view, certainly does not combat it, as would have been expected had the successes of which the "Standard" spoke been achieved with the aeroplane. Possibly the newspaper was also treating the aeroplane and dirigible balloon as negligible fighting instruments, and was refer-

ring only to the extensive use made by the British Army authorities of kites and ordinary balloons for surveying, scouting, and reconnoitring purposes. Their value in that respect will be conceded readily. Photographs of the positions of an enemy, taken from great altitudes up to a distance of two miles and a- half from the object photographed, have been authoritatively shown in England, and further attest the usefulness of such additions to the equipment of the Army's Intelligence Department. But those balloons and kites travel where the wind lists, not being propelled by their own motive power. The question is: Are aerial machines such as those invented by the Wright Brothers in America and the Voisin Brothers in France, to be dismissed as something not capable of taking an aggressive part in future wars? The Voisin Brothers, who built and sold the aeroplanes with which Farrnan and Delagrange made their successful flights in France, have so far conquered the difficulties in the way of aerial navigation that they have practically gone into business as manufacturers of machines guaranteed to fly. With such a machine, propelled by a 50-horse-power motor, Farrnan and a companion have flown long distances at a rate of 45 miles an hour. So respected an authority as Sir Hiram Maxim told a British newspaper interviewer that, as a result of his inquiries in France, he believes they have in Paris a fair chance of building, before the end of this year, machines with IOC-norse-power motors that will travel at the rate of 55 miles an hour, will carry a lead of half a ton ever and above the weight of the petrol, the water, and the driver, | and will keep in the air for four hours at*a stretch. Imagination can easily picture the terrors of such an apparatus applied to hostile ends. And it is Sir Hiram Maxim's emphatic conviction that air machines will be utilised for war purposes in tie next war.