Wairarapa Daily Times [ESTABLISHED OVER 50 YEARS.] TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1926. AIRSHIP AND SUBMARINE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 19 January 1926, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [ESTABLISHED OVER 50 YEARS.] TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1926. AIRSHIP AND SUBMARINE.

When the locomotive lirst began to make its entry into tile seiicme of our national life, every accident that befell it, or those who entrusted Wicmselves to its potencies—and such accidents were not by any means infrequent —wa 3 hailed by the public as''a fresh proof of its .incapacity and danger. Yet to-day. despite the .still existing risk of accident, who «s there who will be fooiisli enough to ~«ay that, because of that risk, no more locomotives should be constructed? Or that motor cars should be eliminated front our thoroughfare:', or steamships from our seas, because of a certain proportion, of accidents to which they are subject? The question carries its own answer. And yet it. lias been seriously suggested that airship construction should be abandoned as a result of the loss of the Shenandoah and others of her class. Fortunately, the suggestion is not likely to be acted upon, any more than were the suggestions of those fearful ones who were so disturbed over the advent of ‘‘Locomotive the First.” Xo diliicutty is likely to deter the ingenuity of the designer <-f the airship any longer than is sufficient for him to find means to obviate ir, and certainly no danger will defer its navigator from further attempts, at that conquest whose supreme lure lies in the fact that it can never be wholly won. It is interesting to observe, while on this line of thought, that the recent lons of the British submarine All with all hands has also led to an outcry, both in Britain and in America, against the building of submarines. It is just

as likely to be successful as the outcry against’'the-',uirsliipj SiHl for very much the same reason. There, is certainly this to be said for flic argument against the submarine,-■ til at; it is almost entirely an instrument of destruction, -whereas the airship, despite- its usefulness in war; is a large factor, in the develop* emitt of peace and progress as well. But the value of the submarine as a weapon of pttJH-k, though often largely over-rated, isi yet sufficient to make its abandonment an idle dream. And to urge, as a. reason for that abandonment’, that it is a danger to those who employ it. and in particular to those who man it. is to urge a reason which is bound to fail. It is, indeed, jirbably the very strongest reason, because ot that rejoicing in danger to which we have alluded above, why the submarine will continue to be utilised and manned. The argument against the submarine, : t is an agent of war, is an argument against war, and not against iis agent. Delete war from the list of .human —or inhuman —activities, and the submarine will disappear, too, except as am article of acientilic apparatus for occasional 'use. But the world, unfortunately, is not yet ready to aliandon war, and the submarine will, therefore, continue -to be used as the tool of war. And that, despite all pacts, agreements and guarantees whatsoever.