is already questionable whether a battleship could survive an attack
launched by even a small force of this mobile arm.

As was the case during the war, the action of aircraft at sea is
restricted by range, the difficulty being to find the mean between the
opposing conditions of radius of flight and limitation in the size of
aircraft imposed by the deck-space of "carriers," but there is reason to
suppose that on the one hand engines will be so improved as to afford a
sufficient radius of action to comparatively small aircraft, while, on
the other, devices will be found to economize deck-space.

Fleets operating near the enemy's coast will be vulnerable from land
aircraft bases, and thus close blockade will be rendered increasingly
difficult. The possibility of gas attack on enemy bases from the air in
co-operation with submarines and of effecting a blockade by this means
must be envisaged.

Since the Armistice the operational work of the Royal Air Force on
behalf of the Navy has been conducted under the auspices of the
Admiralty. Improvements have been made in large flying boats and
amphibians, especially with a view to facilitating their landing on
"carriers" and the decks of battleships. There has also been
considerable progress in the construction and use of torpedo aircraft.

The war lasted long enough to prove the effect of the strategic
offensive by air. In spite of the dictates of humanity, it cannot be
eliminated. It is true that modern war is inimical to the progress of
mankind and brings only less suffering to the victors than to the
vanquished. To ensure peace should therefore be our ideal. But a great
war once joined is to-day a war of peoples. Not only armies in the
field, but men, women, and even children at home, are concentrated on
the single purpose of defeating the enemy, and armies, navies, and air
forces are dependent upon the application to work, the output of war
supplies, and, above all, the morale of the civil population. Just as
gas was used notwithstanding the Hague Convention, so air war, in spite
of any and every international agreement to the contrary, will be
carried into the enemy's country, his industries will be destroyed, his
nerve centres shattered, his food supply disorganized, and the will
power of the nation as a whole shaken. Formidable as is the prospect of
this type of air warfare, it will become still more terrible with the
advent of new scientific methods of life-destructio