_Amplifying the official statement of policy previously quoted, the authorities issued, on 12th April, 1912, a fuller explanation of their aerial programme. But it throws no very clear light upon the immediate future; and, although it deals with plans which are ambitious, it is disquietingly vague concerning the all-important question of finance._ _The official design is, it is stated, to form seven aeroplane squadrons, each comprising twelve aeroplanes; and, to man this air-fleet, a force of 364 pilots and observers will be required. In addition, there will be forty airmen who will be trained, specifically, in the duties of naval airmanship._ _But the facilities actually provided—as apart from paper schemes—are still so meagre that it will only be possible, during this year, to train a very small proportion of the corps set forth above. Thus it is to be feared that, at the end of 1912, our position will continue to compare, most unfavourably, with that of either France or Germany._ _We are more than a year behind, and seem likely to remain so._ TWELFTH SECTION PROBLEM OF ARTILLERY FIRE AND THE AEROPLANE I. Conflicting opinions as to an aeroplane’s vulnerability—Experiments which have been carried out. So far, the military aeroplane has been described as a reconnoitring or dispatch-bearing craft, carrying out its important work, in time of war, without any interference save that brought about by adverse weather conditions. But there is an aspect of the case, so far as actual service conditions are concerned, which will—according to many vehement critics of the aeroplane—nullify the utility of an air-scout, and make expenditure upon fleets of machines largely a waste of money. They affirm, in a word, that well-directed artillery-fire will prove so deadly that no aeroplane will be able to live through it, and that any reconnoitring machine, which ventures over an enemy’s position, will be destroyed with the greatest ease. On the other hand, there is an equally definite statement by staunch advocates of military flying. They declare, emphatically, that artillery-fire, when directed against aeroplanes, will prove a negligible quantity. No point, indeed, arouses more controversy than the problem of the vulnerability of the aeroplane to artillery or rifle-fire. The question is a moot one, and it is bound to remain so until the coming of a war in which aeroplanes are employed in fair numbers; but nothing could be more ill-advised than a policy which stints aeroplane development, because it is _believed_ they will be destroyed by gun-fire.