The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-10-31
Sea and Aerial Supremacy

As the weeks pass and aerial attacks
and defense develop and become more
effective and decisive" SAYS the United
Service Gazette of London, lit is becom-
ing abundantly clear that If the maxi
mum of efficiency is to be obtained from
certain standard Of sea power. then
sea power must be closely associated
with a high level of aerial efficiency.
The nation which would be supreme on
the sea must also aspire TO supremacy in
the air. Fortunately the British ad-
miralty KTasped this fact the moment
they had been moved to take up the
subject of aviation seriously. and the
then first lord. Mr.. Churchill. himself
qualified as a practical air pilot.
Having the money. the factories. the
mechanical genius. the enterprise. and
the COURAGE suitable for the prosecution
and advancement of this new branch of
our fighting services. we have been able
TO make Roadway in the development of
aerial machines and gain experience by
experiment in a way that no other nation
eSccpt our French allies has either at
TEMPTED or achieved. No less than our
seleves. the French flying men have
shown an aptitude for aerial matters
which amounts to genius, and there is no
longer any dispute as to their aerial
ascendancy in every theater in which
out. Their advancement is so striking
and obvious that il Is no longer disputed
even bv the Germans themselves. who
do not easily paw tribute to the qualities
OF their opponents in any field of var
activity.
of equal importance with the fact
that our enemies have grasped and
admit our aerial supremacy. it is clear
that in the British navy no new branch
of a fighting service ever experienced
less resistance from retrogressively in
clined seniors than the Royal Naval
Flying Corps has from the moment of
its introduction. This is the more sur
prising and welcome when IL is borne in
mind that only a few years before the
first seaplane appeared lthe whole weight
of the innate distrust of innovations
held by a large number of senior naval
officers, had been brought to bear against
the progress that experts were trying
to make in gunnery and scientific fight
ing apparatus generally. and for the
abolition of that standard of efficiency
which old fogies beleieved could only
rest with an atmosphere of misapplied
energy commonly known among gunnery
and torpedo men as spit and polish.
The submarine. too. had been
scoffed at and derided by those who
could scarcely mention them. without
showing their disgust, and who would
never conccde that practical fighting
could be carried out by hitting below
the belt. At every step and turn
these old seamen, during a period of
brisk evolution at the end of the last
and the beginning of the present CEN
fury brought to bear retrograde ana
narrow minds on the scientific pro-
posals of a new school of progressive
men who were, fortunately for Brit
III g-k-
was resting it's supremacy largely on
its reputation combined with apathy
and somnolence. Happily the old
school had lost and the new school
had won when air machines first call
ed for attention in the realm of fight
ing apparatus.
1T is not to be wondered at. there
fore, IL the progress of overhead
fighting machines has been infinitely
more rapid. comparatively. than the
development of underwater craft
proved to be in, a previous generation.
With the former all hands have tried
to help IL forward. while in the case
of the submarine q large number of
officers were decidedly 8ntagonistic.
the majority apathetic. and only a
few enthusiastic. Nothing could be
more fortunate under these circum-
stances than that. once started, Eng
land should early realize that aerial
supremacy is the natural and es-
sential concomitant of sea power. II
was action founded on this belief that
has placed us in our present aerial
position. which even France will not
resent our calling the foremost in the
world.
The aerial patrols along the coasts
and the submarinf hunting in the
ink .,rir