New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-05-08
Aircraft the Urgent Need

The sinking Of the British steamer Gena
by a German torpedoplane off the coast Of
Suffolk, England, on May brings US face
to face sharply with the fact that the COM
MERGE of the world has been menaced by
torpedoes fired from submarines; that this
menace has been augmented by mines laid
by submarines, and that to these two must
now be added the menace of the torpe-
doplane.
This is no time for indulging in mere
criticism, but rather time to support the
Administration in every way. 1t may not
be amiss, however, and certainly it can do
no harm, to offer suggestions as to what
ought TO be done. 1t is permissible, then,
to point out that the most important dan
ger now is the loss of Great Britain's food
supply, by reason of the German subma-
rine and torpedoplane, and that the best
reply to these is by aircraft of appropriate
kinds The need is as urgent as any need
can possibly be. The record of the war
has shown that the German navy was as
thoroughly ready for the war as was the
German army, that it was more ready
than even the British navy, for in time Of
peace it prepared thoroughly two new
weapons-the submarine and the torpedo
plane-against which the British navy
was not prepared.
The urgency of the matter cannot be
brought out clearly unless we consider
that though the submarine, the airplane
and the torpedoplane are all American in
ventions, Germany has brought them to a
degree Of practically immeasurably be
yond the point we have reached. That our
submarines are inferior to German subma-
rines has long been known, but we are
now on the way to improve our subma-
rines. In the matter of the airpane and
the torpedoplane, however, our backward
ress is simply incredible, especially on the
incredible is that for more than two years
the inventor of the torpedoplane was the
Aid for Operations of the navy, the SEN
Tor adviser to the Secretary and the Off
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was included.
This is noted not in any spirit of criti-
cism, but merely to emphasize the neces-
sity for immediate action, by showing how
much remains to be done. The first thing
to do is to start Have we really started?
If we have started, we have not started at
much speed or on any adequate scale and
in such a war as this preparations that
are not made on an adequate scale might
as well not be made at all.
1t is undoubtedly important to raise an
army and to send large force of troops
to Europe; but it is obvious that no army.
however large, can stop a single German
submarine or torpedoplane or give Great
Britain one more ounce of bread to eat.
What we must do is to help Great Britain
TO save her food supply, and that can best
be done by sending to England means for
fighting submarines and torpedoplanes.
The most modern means is aircraft of ap-
propriate kinds, for locating the presence
of submarines and mines.
By far the best are small dirigibles
(Which the British call "blimps"), obser-
walton balloons and seaplanes. These,
after detecting the presence of a subma-
rine or mine, send wireless messages to
whatever destroyers or motorboats may
be near to come and capture the subma-
rine or destroy the mine. The aircraft and
the watercraft in British waters act to-
gether in this way. For fighting off torpe-
doplanes the best weapcn-almost the only
effective weapons the seaplane, armed
with machine guns or rapid-fre guns.
If the United States is to help the Allies