Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1913 — FLYERS CAUSE FEAR [ARTICLE]

FLYERS CAUSE FEAR

Aviators From Continent Fly-in Darkness Over England. British Government Is Providing “Sky Guns” to Repel These Aerial Trespassers 'Who Appear „ During Nighty London.—A popular pastime nowadays with continental aviators would seem to be flying trips by night over England. Daring air pilots in Germany or France leave their moorings at dusk, speed over the channel, and then circle over British cities and forts, flashing their lights to mystify and alarm the people below them. With the first indications of dawn the adventure comes to an end. The prowling birdman heads for home, houses his machine before the sun is well up, and leaves the officials of England to report his incursion to the war office in London. Reports of these night visits became so general, and were at the same time so disconcerting, that the government finally took official action and passed a bill prohibiting the passage of aircraft over certain specified areas. Aircraft violating this regulation will be fired on and otherwise warned away. The bill was introduced into the house of commons by Colonel Seeley, secretary of war, and it passed through all its stages at one sitting, without discussion. It went to the lords the day before recess and passed that house just as hurriedly. How the measure is to be enforced has aroused considerable interested speculation. The bill authorizes the proper officers, after ' giving a prescribed warning, to fire at any aircraft infringing this law, and to use any and every means to prevent infractions. The government Is providing “sky guns" to repel these aerial trespassers, and it will also have the services of the naval aeroplanes and hydro-' planes and the flying fleet of the army, ‘which consists of abogt a dozen aeroplanes and three small airships., Experts have very grave doubts whether these precautions will be sufficient to prevent the midnight visits. What gave rise to the action of the government were reliable reports, in some cases from army officers, that aircraft had been seen over Dover, Sheerness, Portsmouth and Liverpool,

and on at least two occasions as far west aS Cardiff, always at night. The first visits were paid fn October and they have continued up to the present 'time. At first there was an inclination to make light of them, or to ascribe the moving lights and the noise of the propeller to some airship privately owned in England. But investigation showed that this could not be, and now the government places thA blame

on privately owned foreign airships. Some people, however, discard this assumption, and declare that at least one of the aerial visitors came from Borkum, the German fortress nearest the English coast. From Borkum it would be a very simple matter for a modern airship to pass over the North sea and even right across England, as in the case of the ship that flew over Cardiff, and 'be back at her base before morning.