"Would that all engineering effort could be placed within this constructive category. And yet it is an undoubted fact that war, deplorable though it may be, often provides the: greatest stimulus to engineering progress. In times of peace, the invention and development of engineering works and machinery are, to a very. great extent, restricted by commercial And financial considerations.. In time Jot war these factors become insignia leant, "There is no doubt that aviatic Jdeveloped more during 1914 to 1918 than during the whole eleven years that had elapsed since the brothers Wright made their first public fights.
"And this rate of progress was not Jconfined {o. aviation engineering. Every form of engineering useful for military operations was speeded up Jond improved. For an example of what can be achieved by engineering when time is the main factor and Jexpense is no consideration, 1 may refer 10 the Abyssinian campaign. No Jone can contend, however, that the progress made in engineering in time lof war compensates. for the human suffering involved.
"We in China have had only too much ocular evidence of how quickly' the work of constructive engineers. which may have been the effort of years, can be destroyed by modern engines of warfare. Factories, bulld-ings, railways and public utilities to jan incalculable value have been com~ pletely destroyed or seriously "The weapons designed by what 1 may call without offence the engineers Jor destruction have set back China Jo decade or more. For human in-Jgenulty is incapable of constructive work that can compete in. rapidity with destructive. Yet T cannot. help Jwondering whether those who speclalize in destructive machinery can ver feel the same pride and satis faction in their work as the creators Jof works and machinery primarily In-lended for the welfare, comfort, healt Jand advancement of the human race.
He concluded by stating:
"Looking back, one must come to realization that moral and financial considerations, in waging war, have become insignificant, and our only nope that lasting peace will ever be Jorought about, paradoxically enough, Jappears to lie'in the prospect of en: Jgineers inventing new and devilish Weapons, so terrible and destructive {that no Government will dare to em~ Ploy them, or risk their employment inst its own population.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.