Mr. Holt Thomas's disclosure of the complete triumph of aeroplanes over battleships, in some recent manceuvres, is startling, yet, if we think soberly, not really to be wondered at. The value of torpedo and mine in warfare were utterly unrecognized, a comparatively few years ago, by all but a fow men of imagination, like Admiral Lord Fisher. The motor-car twenty years ago was derided as a thing of stinks and breakdowns. It merely needs some device to enable the aeroplane to land safely on any fairly smooth ground in case of accident to the engines to make it as popular as the automobile. What has, perhaps, not generally been recognized is that the sooner the aeroplane or airship or both displace navies and armies, the sooner war will come to an end. Readers of "The War in the Air" will remember how it leads to the entire devastation of the Western world, and an old man is left sitting among the ruins of London saying that he has heard they are still fighting somewhere in China but the airships haven't been near London for many years. Whatever may be thought of Mr. Wells as a preacher (and some of us think him intolerably stuffy) as a prophet he has already been amazingly fulfilled in many respects. Once the air is really conquered war must cease because
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.