Evening star., 1918-06-02

to add new tributes to the Royal
Flying Corps and Gen. Salmond who
commands it. But when / asked this
man who has experienced about as
much warfare as any living American
what he thought about the American
and his sharp face hardened suddenly.
I'VE have talked too much about
that" he said, sharply. Then-he was
silent for long time. Finally he
qualified himself.
by we 1 do not mean the soldiers
or the officers of the Army, but you
who write things which the people
read and those who speak to the pub
lie. What happened? Well. you've
got all America and all the European
allies asking us why we haven't fin
ished the war by a blow from the air.
We didn't say we would. You said
we would. You set early dates. They
took your word for it and expected
us to do 1t.
"of course. we will win the war
but by series of orensives Of
aeroplane infantryM aeroplane cav
airy. aeroplane signal corps. aero
plane artillery and aeroplane bomb
ing. That is not merely the hope. it
is the absolute conviction of the air
We are preparing for 1t. and do not
forget that Germany has been pre-
pairing to prevent 1t. We have a hard
fight in front of US. But that's the
kind we like.
TT takes time. While operating
an aeroplane IS becoming more and
more as simple as running a taxi.
we have to make battle fighters out
Of our pilots. And our plane produc-
tion must exceed by an enormous
figure the greatest effor. the central
empires are capable OF making. In
the face Of such facts the publics
of the allied countries have been led
to believe by reports from America
that the war was as good as over,
and that this spring would see the
destruction of Germany by allied
aerial armadas, chiefly American.
Behind this barrage of talk and
writing. however, there has been a great
work going on. Do not get the i'm
preston that 1 or any one in the air
back home undertakes this work. My
personal opinion is that all the forces
which have been building up the Amer
lean air service, the schools and the
manufactures will bring their finished
products in great numbers together
for preparation and perfection, and that
once this is done the production will in
crease and double. Then we will make
good the hopes Of our own civilians and
the allies
Captain Macklin" stopped and beat
some things in his suitcase down with
his fist, SO that it closed eventually.
We've got men here now" he con-
tinued. Lots of them. Every part OF
the game. from beginners in the schools
to perfect fiiers. We are the only nation
whose supply Of these fine young boys
who make the successful aviators Is
practically unlimited. We all know our
manufacturing ability is producing the
motors and the planes"
He paused again. this time to COM
ment on the lack of preparation in avia-
ton. while II was apparent from the
trend of the European war two years
ago that fighting was depending more
and more on the use of the aeroplane.
I'VE are entering the last stage Of
aerial Development he continued. big
formation fighting. The day of the ace
Is over. When the war began ut was
considered a great feat for an aviator to
% blow another aviator out of the air. We
had Guynemer and Bishop and Ball and
Immelmann and Boelke. and we still