THE ZEPPELIN RAIDERS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14744, 25 October 1915, Page 4

THE ZEPPELIN RAIDERS.

BATTLE CHANGED TO MURDER. SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENT. QUESTION OF DEFENCE. BRITAIN’S ACTIVITIES. "AMAZING AIR FLEET.” AMERICAN STATEMENT. The recent Zeppelin raids upon England, in which defenceless women and children have Buttered, have caused intense indignation throughout the country. Preaching in St. Paul's Cathedral last month Archdeacon Holmes, of London, said:- — "I need not go further back than last Wednesday to tell you that battle was changed into murder. Speaking with all the restraint that is due from every preacher, as well as from the press, and with the knowledge and consent of the censor, I tell you that to one hospital alone were taken the dead bodies of little children of 15, 10. i, and 5 years, and one little baby, so that the nursery became a slaughter house. "Of the Imperial murderer who allowed it, if he did not order it. all we can say is in the words of the Psalmist, the most awful punishment given to a man—T will set before thee the things that thou hast done.’ ” Many tragic incidents are related by eye-witnesses of the raids. On one occasion several bombs fell near three hospitals in a cluster, the central one of which was the Royal South London Onthalmic Hospital, full of wounned soldiers. All three buildings were rocked to their foundations, and not a single pane of glass was leu intact. The patients had to be moved into the street, where they lay for hours in i heir cois while the damage was repaired. An explosive bomb ripped through a six-storey tenement in the centre of the city, shattering the building from top to bottom, and killing a dozen or more men, women, and children as they slept. “LIKE A HUGE CIGAR.” How the American Ambassador, Mr Walter Hines Page, and his family, watched a Zeppelin from the steps of the Embassy in Grosvenor dquare, was fold by the Ambassador's son, Mr Frank C. uage, who declared that the raider, which was at an altitude of about 8000 feet, resembled a huge silver cigar as it floated in the night sky, outlined by searchlight. "The discharge of the British antiaircraft guns,” he added, "caused more alarm among the people than the Zeppelin did. One gun had been concealed right in Grosvenor Square, and not far from the Embassy. When these guns commenced barking the people rushed out of the finest houses to witness the spectacle." Mr Page estimated that from 30 to 40 persons were killed. The raids have given a decided fillip to business under the Government scheme for insuring property against aircraft and bombardment risks. Clear and simple in its conditions, the scheme has already commended itself to people in all parts of the country, who realise that unless ,-iey are insured no compensation wnl be paid to sufferers. This is, of course, especially important to persons in the position of trustees, guardians of church property, and public companies. TEN THOUSAND ArtMOURED AEROPLANES. The New York Herald is responsible for the following remarkable statement: — A fleet of N ten thousand arpiourerj aeroplanes, equipped with machineguns, revolving searchlights, and a newly perfected bomb dropping device is being hurried to completion in this country, Canada, and elsewhere for use by the British Government in protecting London and tne English coast from further attacks by Zeppelin dirigibles. Great Britain already has a fleet of 2000 aeroplanes of various types and speed, but she is constructing here, in Canada, and in England, the mightiest fleet of aerial war craft in existence, it was said, and already the first flotilla of 20 aeroplanes, of which the giant, America, built to crams the Atlantic Ocean, was the forerunner, are in operation. , The war plane Canada is on the way to England, and aboard the same vessel are half a dozen of her prototypes, while in the worsts at Toronto hundreds more of a like type are being constructed. In England, Canada, and the colonies students are being taught to fly in less man one quarter the time usually consumed. Already more than one hundred Cana Bans, drilled in the art of flying at the Curtiss plants, are in England, awaiting the arrival of the great war planes before going into active service. ONE HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR. These aeroplanes have a r aximum speed of one hundred miles an hour. They are capable of carrying ind a large amount of explosives,* and are equipped with four machine-guns and a powerful searchlight. Fulß equipped, the great war planes are expected to fly at an altitude of 12,000 feet for four hours. This is 3000 feet higher than the usual altitude of the Zeppelins. With their revolving searchliguts and a signalling system, it is expected it will be possible to circumvent any attack by v»erman dirigjbles on any vital spot along the English coast, and to make It impossible for any Zeppelin to reach London. Profiting by Britain’s lesson, Italy, too. is preparing against /.eppelin invasions, Mr Albert Heinrich, an aeronautical engineer and menuer of the American Society of Aeronautic Engineers, said. He has just returned from that country, where he aided army experts in demonstrating to aviators a now army tractor biplane. aN EXPERT’S STATEMENT. “There is a perfect frenzy through-' out the world by nations, neutral and at war, to obtain aeroplanes,” he said. “In Italy great plants are at work turning out armoured war planes, the like of which was not dreamed of f year ago. They are constructed with two 280 horse-power engines, simiia' ;o the Canada, recently built for tbe British Government. These planes • equippou with machine-guns, a crew

of four or six men, and bomb-throw-ing devices, make a formidable wear j poh of offence and defence." Germany is making her Zeppelia raids on London in a wild attempt to revenge the great damage done hy the Allies in aeroplane raids on important munitions depots, Mr Henry Woodhouse, governor of the Aero Cluo of America and managing editor of Flying, said. "But Lnglanl is developing the most amazing air fleet in :he world to combat Zeppelins," he added. "1 have information which makes it certain tnat there will soon be, not hundreds of great armoured war planes guarding London, but thousands.’’