Frederick William Lanchester

“ Evidently a belligerent aircraft descending into neutral territory will be interned, just as would a cavalryman or an armoured motor-car. To treat an aeroplane or airship according to the rule established in the case of a warship would clearly be to admit its right to have been in the territorial air of the neutral Power concerned, which, we may assume, will be considered quite inadmissible. Already, in the course of the present war, we have seen the hospitality of neutrals greatly abused. ”

“ Certainly, if five or six years ago anyone had been bold enough to assert that at the beginning of the year 1915 there would be scarcely a machine flying in Europe on other than military duty, it would have sounded incredible. That the present situation is not representative of the future in this respect we may take for granted. On the other hand, it is becoming clear that we may quite dismiss from our minds any general usage of the air as a commercial highway; the traffic in merchandise which will be air-borne will never become a great percentage of the world's total. ”

“ If the aircraft has flown at reasonable altitude and has done no injury by dropping anything, or by gun-fire, it is difficult to see how any claim could be substantiated. If the neutral Power should elect to employ his aircraft and counter aircraft artillery to assert a presumed right to his territorial air, he not only puts himself to very considerable expense and inconvenience, but at the best his efforts are unlikely to be wholly effective; in thick weather the whole of a belligerent air fleet might pass over his territory without once being sighted. ”

“ It certainly is not just or expedient that the cruisers of a nation which has ceased to possess any coaling stations, or bases, of its own should be allowed to roam indefinitely at large, interfering with the commerce of an enemy, when such action would have been impossible without neutral assistance. ”

“ A cavalryman is killed in peace time by a fall from his horse, it scarcely excites comment; an army airman falls and is killed and a thrill of horror goes through the country—it is a new kind of death. ”

“ Any rule by which aircraft would be enabled to utilise neutral territory or neutral resources for repair, refit, or replenishment would almost certainly be the cause of great friction, and might result in a position so impossible as to drag the neutral Power into the conflict, the precise eventuality that it should be an object of international convention to avoid. ”

“ It is, of course, to-day considered bad form to call any engineering project impossible; but in view of the fact that, after making every reasonable allowance for possible developments, the maximum distance that can be flown by an aeroplane without replenishment is less than 2,000 miles, it is clear that the range or radius of action of an air fleet must be regarded as permanently imposing strict limitations on its employment. ”

“ Without discussing such academic subjects as the territorial sovereignty of the air, it seems clear that eventually neither belligerent can be prevented from passing over neutral territory except by the air forces and counter-air forces of the neutral Power in question. If such Power should elect not to use his forces to prevent such violation of his territorial air, it will be impossible in practice to make him do so or hold him responsible. ”

“ The obligations imposed by international law and convention on both belligerents and neutrals are, at the best, of an arbitrary and makeshift character; it is doubtful whether anything is to be gained by attempting to lay down a code or set of rules to control a form of locomotion, in its application to warfare, when so little experience is available. ”

“ A host of other difficulties spring into one's mind in connection with the defence of territorial air by a neutral Power; aircraft may encounter above the clouds: a belligerent fleet and the neutral air-sentry force. ”

“ A new Arm requires to work out its own salvation in warfare, and the machine which has won for itself and mankind the freedom of the air is not to have its future proscribed or fettered by the scratchings of an unofficial quill.
§ 103. Belligerent Aircraft and the Rights and Obligations of Neutrals. A question which appears likely to lead to great trouble in practice is the propriety of belligerent aircraft operating over the territory of a neutral Power. ”

“ In other respects there would seem to be no reason to treat the flying-machine or dirigible differently from arms or armament of other kinds, or belligerent airmen differently from other combatants. It is at least clear that any modifications in the accepted code which may eventually be found necessary may well be left to come as the natural outgrowth from experience in warfare. ”

“ In many cases the desire seems to be vaguely to do something that will be thought humane; no clear idea seems to exist as to right and proper grounds on which regulations of restrictions should be based. ”

“ On the other hand, it is equally clear that the ordinary powers of enforcing restrictions in such matters as flying over prohibited areas, etc., will in nowise be weakened by the existence of a state of war, and neither belligerent will have cause for complaint if his aircraft, after due warning, should be fired upon. ”

“ The large airship, even should it be found to be of greater military or naval importance than suggested in the present volume, is scarcely likely to be better situated, and suffers from the not inconsiderable disadvantage of requiring accommodation of an elaborate and expensive kind. ”