The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-06
KAISER GETTING
 VAST AIR FLEET
 READY IN HURRY
Counts On Victory Through Winning Aerial Suprem-
 acy Soon

Washington, July e.-That Ger many. realizing that victory would be with the side equipped with the best air service. Is now feverishly building new and more powerful airplanes in great numbers in the hope of ever- spring was the statement made to the sub committee of te senate military coThnpittee by John Barrett, director of the Pan-American Union. MT. Bar reft gave as has, authority a high Ger man officer whom he had known be- fore the war and whom he had met at a prison camp in England.
 ssHe told me- said MT. Barrett, ''that the majority of the several hun dred German offfcehs, whether milr tary or naval. held in that camp hon estiy believed that Germany would wt4 the war through it's ability to make use of air service more effec NVAly and efficiently than could the British and French They believed, he said, that in the long run, the air service would be more decisive than the submartne service despite the gen. efsl German confidence in the latter.
 sarhis officer further indicated as proof of his contention that Germany would eventually win and as a reason why the United States should not have coflldence in a final victory for the allies that by the autumn of 1917 or spring of 19lS Ga little over one year from the time of our conversation) Germany would have ready such vast equip4ne ent of new and most pow. erfuI airplanes. and zeppelins then be- in gplanned or built that she not only would check the British and French drive but gradually would recover lost ground and ultimately have Paris and London at the mercy of her air squad ro11s 2;
 #He did not at that time think there was any prospect of the United States entering the war and therefore spoke with me as a neutral
 From what he had personally seen and from what English army officers, engineers and others had told him in intimate talks MT. Barrett said he had reached the conclusion that :traids sfhay yer be made which will carry extraordinary destruction of both life and property to London and even to Paris and other inland cities of Eng land and France.
 stExperts admitted that 1t may be only a question of time when a large and powerful enough fleet of German zeppeifns and. aeroplanes, operating under favorable and protective wealth er&condttfons, may be able to destroy gy.droppinx of bombs, aerial gunfire and consequent explosions and com naerations great sections of London and other cities munation plants and ewen the assern bled sdreadnoughts of Great Brftain's large navy.
 sFinally 1t is to be emphasized that thef consensus of opiniortsof aeropfane and other air service experts whom met in England and France was that it awas ent1refy possible that within another year from then, the Germans, through their wonderful inventive skill and acting under the same impulse as had enabled them to send submarines acros the Atlantic, would develop zep- pelfns and monster .aerop1anes which could croa the Atlantic and do im- rreasura;blel damage to such cities as New York, Boston. Philadelphia and even washingtcn before they would be hrnnkft down or obliged to land through exhansdon of fuel
 HOur plans, therefore, for the deyel- oprnent of air. service should include a great defensive as well as offensive eqpipments