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objectors. What was important was that the experience should be gained
before the war. Observers in the early months of the war sometimes found
it difficult to convince the military command that their reports were
true.

The value of information, says Major Brooke-Popham, depends also upon
the rapidity with which it is handed in to the proper quarters. 'More
than once movements of a hostile cavalry brigade were seen within a few
miles of our own troops. The information was not of great value to the
Commander-in-Chief, but was of great importance to the advanced guard or
cavalry commander, yet by the time it had got out to him from
headquarters probably two hours or more had elapsed.' This delay was
sometimes avoided on manoeuvres by dropping messages from the air, but
the whole large question of the relations of the Flying Corps to the
various army commands and the organization of the machinery of report
was left until the pressure of war compelled an answer. Then, during the
first winter of the war, when the growth of the Flying Corps allowed of
more complex arrangements, the machinery was decentralized, and
subordinate commanders were furnished directly with the information most
needed by them.

Lieutenant Barrington-Kennett's essay well illustrates his keenness and
foresight in preparing the corps for their ordeal of 1914. He was a
great disciplinarian, he knew every officer and man individually, he was
universally liked, and he did more perhaps than any one else to hold the
corps together and to train it in an efficient routine. He knew--no one
better--that the corps, though it did its work in the air, had to live
on the ground, and that its efficiency depended on a hundred important
details. Here are some of his suggestions:

Landing-grounds should be chosen, if possible, from the air, to avoid
the employment of numerous parties of officers touring the country in
cars. The drivers of lorries and cars should be trained in map-reading.
Semaphore signalling should be taught to all ranks, to save the
employment of messengers. There should be oil lorries for the
distribution of petrol, and leather tool-bags to be carried on
motor-bicycles to the scene of an engine break-down. Acetylene and
petrol are better illuminants than paraffin for working on machines by
night. Experiments should be made in towing aeroplanes, swinging freely
on their own wheels, behind a motor-lorry; they are often damaged when
they are car