The Air and Peace
MAY the air-age we are now entering be also the age of peace ? Is it possible that the almost illimitable horizons of new
dangers, new attacks, which have been revealed to us by flying, shall be capable of synthesis in the cause of a real and abiding fraternity among the nations, based not on leagues or treaties so much as the general common sense of mankind ?
Lord Thomson writes much about aerial warfare in his deeply interesting book, and all he says should be taken to heart. Indeed, if it is taken to heart by the average citizen, and the book achieves the circulation it deserves, a definite step forward will have been taken in abolishing war altogether. We • need but to know the facts in order to understand the futility of any future hostilities between the industrial nations of Europe.
War has already become impossible between the Great Powers. Thanks to modern research and invention, we could to-day annihilate each other so quickly and surely with lire, pestilence and poison; that even the most bellicose and old- fashioned citizens would say to the war-lords, " This thing shall not be." The French could wipe out half London ; we could sow ruin from the Madeleine to Montparnasse—and to what end ? Two men who face each other with rapiers may still be ready to see which has the greater skill, but two men with bombs would know exactly what would happen if they threw them at each other—and they would refrain.
The engines, weapons and chemicals of this century's con- triving have rendered " civilized " war impossible in my belief, provided we do not lay ourselves open to attack by weakness in the air. We still have to reckon with many small nations, however, and two great ones who may seek to impose their will upon mankind by conflict. Lord Thomson is a Socialist, and touches but lightly on Russia, which is reputed to have five poison-gas factories working at full blast. As to China, we do not know what will emerge out of that chaos, but it is just faintly conceivable that in the next century some man- darin might desire to land a force in the Thames to protect the yellow citizens of London, or send a fleet to America to safeguard the chop-suey interests. Should such a thing come to pass, we must be ready to expel the intruders, as we must also be on our guard against the creed which the Communists and Bolsheviks would undoubtedly sow in Europe if given the opportunity. The millennium has not arrived, obviously, but it may be within sight, provided every country develops its air strength to a point where it is not safe to attack it. When that has come to pass, then flying will be so common, and
travelling so quick and easy that men and women will see war in its true colours. Suicide will never appeal to sane people. A little flying, as Lord Thomson says, may be a dangerous thing, like a little learning, but more of both—a developed air-sense and better knowledge of the world—will undoubtedly assure peace, if only from enlightened self-interest. Aviation is now about twenty years ahead of the average human intelligence. As soon as the latter catches up, war must end. -Meanwhile five hundred airplanes can be built for the price of one battleship, and no one who follows Lord Thomson's argument (which is lucidity itself) can be in any doubt as to which arm we should consider the more important.
There are so many good things in this book, and so much to arouse thought, that I can only touch on the author's intro- duction, where he says that the inventions of de la Cierva and llill are " as remarkable innovations as the airplanes of 1910. When the latter were first seen in public, few would have ventured to predict that from them would be developed an airplane which could make -a non-stop flight :,of overt3,000 miles. The former were seen at Hendon last summer by 90,000 people and only ingrained scoffers- and fanatics for speed remain Airiconvineed of the great `future that awaits these quaint - looking and ingenious*. machines." Indeed, it is true that the Autogyro and the Pterodactyl are harbingers of a new safety and adaptability : in the not very distant 'future flying will be as simple' and cheap as motoring.
• This is a book which all should read. " The future is with the air-faring nations, as the past has been with sea-faring nations." We have the men, machines and money to keep tair'appointed place in the air as we did by water :—
" Pray Cod our greatness may not fail ' Through craven fears of being greet:'
As to Aeolus, I feel I must write guardedly, for it has had some good work put into it—although that labour is largely wasted, I fear, by intemperance of statement. Mr. Stewart seems always trying to be clever : he gives me a feeling of strain and unbalance. Moreover, a prophet should be careful to keep a reputation for sanity and accuracy in everyday affairs, where the reader can catch him if he naps. The author, on the contrary, seems determined to make one throw his little book down in disgust, so obviously ignorant is he of business or industry in either England or America. Further, when he declares that there are motorists incapable of driving safely except when they are drunk, that the twenty m.p.h. speed limit is generally recognized as having" no bearing on safety," that one of our pilots has succeeded in proving that in an English aeroplane you can go from London to anywhere else more slowly and in more acute discomfort than in boat or train "—we do not feel very much inclined to take his opinion, after such absurdities, on the remoter future of flying. A chapter describing an air attack on London portrays our citizens running in panic " like wild beasts . . . hitting out at anyone, whether man, woman or child." This is not a pleasant or patriotic picture, and is, I think, an utterly wrong one as regards the probable behaviour of Englishmen in an air-raid, however terrible.
One has heard a great deal of twaddle talked at various times about artist-scientists, a kind of pale progeny of the William Morris cult, who insist that mass production is of Satan, when everybody knows that mass production can be both as artistic and as serviceable as hand-work; and that
hand-made " is almost always a misnomer ; some tool being generally used, if only a primitive one. Mr. Stewart says a good deal about inventors putting individuidity into their airplanes. By all means let them do so, but I do not see how or why the excellent regulations of the Aeronautical Inspection Department should hamper them. Flying, especi- ally passenger flying, must be kept safe, in spite of what Mr. Stewart urges to the contrary. Nothing would do more to harm the cause of aviation than a succession of accidents. So far, civilian flying in England has less casualties to record, compared to the number of miles flown and passengers carried, than either railway travel or motoring. We do not hear much of motoring accidents, nor 'of the daily toll of deaths taken by our streets. If we did, we might learn that it is safer to be in the air between London and Paris-, than on the ground in the traffic of Trafalgar Square.
F. Y.-B.
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