"The risks the officers would run would be very great. The insurance rates were very high. But it was some consideration to know that in France they had enormously increased the safety of learning to fly. One school had covered 160,000 kilometres without accident. It was to be hoped the risks would be reduced, but they would still be very great, and he trusted the House would not grudge the expense involved in making adequate payment to officers, and giving an adequate scale of pensions in the event of their being seriously injured. (Cheers.) The military wing required at once to fly these aeroplanes a hundred and thirty-three officers, the Navy a number not yet fixed, but thirty or forty at once, and the reserve a number which would depend on the progress of our science in the near future. They had not got the hundred and thirty-three military officers. No doubt many officers would volunteer. It could only be hoped that they would learn to fly with as little accident as possible. It had been settled that the officers should learn to fly at private flying schools, first, because it was desirable to encourage private effort; and, secondly, because they thought there was less risk of accident in the initial stages if this method was adopted. It was a method which had been largely followed in France, and it had obvious advantages. It was greatly to the interest of the owner of an aerodrome to avoid accident. When officers had learned the elementary art of flying they would go to the central flying school." This official announcement of policy, as revealed above, unfortunately comes too late for more than the briefest criticism in these pages. All that can be said, indeed, is that the scheme prepared, while certainly representing a stride forward in comparison with the previous apathy of our authorities, is still inadequate when contrasted with the activities of either France or Germany. In France close upon £100,000 has been subscribed, by an enthusiastic public, to augment the million which the Government will expend; Germany has increased an original vote to the tune of £100,000. Our scheme can only be regarded as a beginning—and, in several respects, a disappointing one, seeing that, at the end of the present flying season, both France and Germany will, inevitably, have still further increased their already long lead. Agitation for a more ambitious aerial programme in England must not, indeed, cease; this 1912-13 scheme is not sound enough to relieve public uneasiness. We are lamentably behind; and adequate steps have not, even now, been taken to bring us on anything like a level with foreign rivals, despite the fact that the aeroplane has been proved to be an absolutely revolutionary weapon of modern war. _NOTE_