One of the errors of the Ministry of Infor-motion in London;—or is it the censorship?—is the manner in which consistent failure to give an adequate account of British air activities over the North Sea, has created the impression that the British air force is doing little if anything to ward off German air attacks on shipping. The two messages published elsewhere today should serve to dispel any such impression, It was announced some time ago that further reference to British flights over the North Sea and German bases would be discontinued, as they. were considered to be purely routine matters. That decision may have been a wise one, but there will continue to be some doubt about it. Fortunately such messages as those to which reference is made serve to show that the Air Force is on its toes, and doing effective work in the protection of the mercantile shipping and trawlers which are becoming victims of the German aviators to an increasingly less degree, The arming of every type of vessel which travels the North Sea against the German aeroplanes is a step in the right direction. Experience has shown that, whether they are armed or not, the German plan is to attack every form of craft encountered, and the only possible answer to such proceedings is to.equip the threatened vessels with a means of fighting off their attackers. That this can be done is demonstrated in one of today's cables. German bombers fancied they had an easy prey in the shape of-a trawler off the Norfolk coast. Flying low to attack they were met with a hail of bullets from the vessel's new machine-gun, whereupon they quickly made off while the trawler continued on her way unharmed. The machine-gunning of unarmed fishermen from German aeroplanes has been quite a feature of this war, but experience shows that while German aviators prefer to do this so long as their victims are unable to strike back, effective resistance is a horse of an entirely different colour, and something for which these airman apparently have no stomach whatever.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.