Passing to the air service, Mr. Churchill said that by
July he hoped to have seventy-five machines and seventy-five pilots. They had not discontinued the use of monoplanes, and their hydro-aeroplanes, which could carry guns and were fitted with wireless, were as good as anything of the kind abroad. Their airships were less satisfactory, but they were proceeding steadily with the training of officers at Farnborough, and negotiations were in progress with the War Office with a view to the transference of the management of the airship service to the Navy. The development of wireless telegraphy on ships and on shore had been very satisfactory, but the delay in the ratification of the Marconi Agreement had stopped all progress in the Imperial chain of wireless stations, and inflicted an irreparable loss by depriving us of the advantages in regard to wave-length and priority which we had hoped to gain from being first in the field. The Corn- pany's present attitude, he added, would involve the devising of rearrangements, possibly at additional cost.
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