At the Mansion House on Monday a large and influential
meeting was held in support of the Aerial League of the British Empire. The League is "a. noft-political organisation to secure and maintain for the Empire the same supremacy in the air as it now enjoys on the sea." Lord Curzon and others sent letters urging the nation to apply itself seriously to aerial navigation. Sir Percy Scott spoke of a gun which he was designing for the destruction of airships, but remarked that as airships could travel in the darkness they could be net successfully only by other airships. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu said that within a few years our insularity as we understood it might be destroyed. If we ourselves had not grasped that idea, it was clear that other nations had done so. It may be possible greatly to exaggerate the likelihood of an invasion by dirigible balloons and aeroplanes, but it is hardly possible to exaggerate the ease with which they might be used for dropping explosives and for scouting. These instruments, in fact, are no longer toys, and it is high time that we ceased to experiment with them perfunctorily.
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