ir many victories, under which they groan, have compelled
them to learn the imperial art, an art which they practise not without
skill, but reluctantly, and without zest. With the conquest of the air
their task of self-defence has been doubled. It is not to be wondered at
that those who were responsible for keeping open the gates of the sea
should turn their eyes away from the new duty. But the new duty--command
of the air, so to call it--was plainly visible to those who once looked
at it. We must keep the highways open, or our freedom is gone. We must
command the air. 'I do not say that we wish to do so,' said Captain
Sueter, 'but I think we shall be forced to do so.' The whole of our
naval history is summed up in that sentence; and the whole of our air
policy is foretold.

The force that was to compel us was already in being. The science of
aeronautics had passed from the experimental to the practical stage, and
foreign powers were rapidly building up very formidable air forces. Of
these foreign forces we naturally knew most of the French, for France
was both our neighbour and our friend. In October 1911 a very full and
illuminative report was supplied to the Government by Lieutenant Ralph
Glyn, an officer attached to the newly-formed Air Battalion. It
described, with reasoned comments, the aeronautical exercises carried
out by the French air corps at the Camp de Chalons during the previous
August. At that time the French War Ministry had at its disposal, so far
as could be ascertained, something between two hundred and two hundred
and twenty aeroplanes. The biplanes were all Farmans. The monoplanes,
which were on the whole preferred by expert opinion to the biplanes,
were of many types, all famous for achievement--Nieuports, Bleriots,
Deperdussins, R.E.P.'s, Antoinettes, and others. The methods of training
were elaborate and complete, and the air corps were continually
practised in co-operation with all other arms--infantry, cavalry, and
artillery. 'There is no doubt at all', says the writer, 'but that the
Germans have suddenly realized that the French Army since the general
employment of aeroplanes with troops has improved its fighting
efficiency by at least twenty per cent.... For the last five years the
Germans have concentrated their whole attention upon the building,
manoeuvring, and employment with troops, of dirigibles. They have gained
a slight advance over France, in fact, in this branch of aeronautics;
but