14 JULY 1917, Page 2

On Monday in the Commons, in reply to the first

question on the air raid, Mr. Boner Law announced that the Government proposed to move the adjournment of the House in order that there might be a private sitting to discuss the subject of air defence. Protests were uttered by Mr. Churchill, Sir H. Dalziel, and Colonel Claude Lowther, but the majority of the members acquiesced in the proposal. From the official report of the proceedings at the secret Session we 'learn that Mr. Lloyd George, after briefly stating the numbers of the raiders and their los.ses, observed that While the attack had not been made with impunity, complete protection- in the air could never be secured.- The nearest approach to immunity lay in making hostile raids 'no costly that they would not become worth the Germans' while. The first consideration before the Government was to see that the Arniy in France had a sufficiency of aeroplanes, which meant everything to that Arm; and the first duty of the country was to protect our-men at the front.