We note that Mr. Pemberton Billing—M.P. for the Empyrean— addresses
to Thursday's Daily Mail a letter asking his supporters in the country to help him by signing the "Air Covenant." The Covenant, adorned with the significant "caption," "Sign the Air Covenant To-day," is per se reasonable enough, and merely pledges the signatory to use his "vote, voice, and pen to attain and main- tain for our country an Imperial Air Service worthy of our Imperial Power." All this is -well enough. The question is, what will Mr. Billing do with them when he has got, say, a hundred thousand signatures ? Unquestionably the command of the air is the great military question of the future, and we dare not neglect it. The vital importance of the matter obliges us, how- ever, to record in plain terms our opinion that Mr. Pemberton Billing is in no sense capable of handling the matter. He is in- capable of doing so from his experience either as a flier or as a builder of aeroplanes. He is still more incapable from the stand- point of what we may describe as that of a Sky Chatham—a man who, though he might know little of the technical side of aeronautics, could yet lead the nation to victory in the air. We doubt whether Mr. Billing, in spite of all his virtuous intentions, aan even play the part of the Socratic gadfly. He has plenty of buzz but very little sting.
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