o fight men when the occasion
arises; the sailor is at war all his life with the sea. The character of
the sailor--his resourcefulness and vigilance, his patience and
stoicism, his dislike of formality--is put upon him by his age-long
conflict with his old enemy. In seafaring men there is a temper of the
sea, admired by all who have ever made acquaintance with it. Those who
were privileged to watch the performance of our flying men in the war
know that there is developed in them a temper not less remarkable and
not less worthy of cultivation--the temper of the air. War in the air
demands a quickness of thought and nerve greater than is exacted by any
other kind of war. It is a deadly and gallant tournament. The airman
goes out to seek his enemy: he must be full of initiative. His ordeal
may come upon him suddenly, at any time, with less than a minute's
notice: he must be able to concentrate all his powers instantaneously to
meet it. He fights alone. During a great part of his time in the air he
is within easy reach of safety; a swift glide will take him far away
from the enemy, but he must choose danger, and carry on. One service
cannot be judged by the standards of another service. A soldier who
knows nothing of the sea might easily mistake naval discipline for lack
of discipline. A like mistake has often been made by those who are
brought into casual relations with the air force. But the temper of the
air force is a new and wonderful thing, born of the duties and dangers
which war in the air has brought with it. To preserve that temper as a
national inheritance is the dearest wish of those who covet for the air
force a place beside the navy and the army.

Now that the officers for the air force are being trained, as officers
for the navy and the army have long been trained, at a cadet college
with its own traditions, the question will solve itself. The necessity
for collaboration during the war did something to unite the branches of
the force. But perfect unity can be attained only by men who have lived
and worked together. Men who have lived apart speak different languages.
In April 1918, when the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying
Corps were united in the Royal Air Force, it was found necessary to deal
with this language difficulty. The Naval Air Service and the Flying
Corps used different names for the same thing. The Naval Air Service
used the names they would have used aboard ship. The officers' mess the