The chief event, or rather sensation, of the week has
been the German aircraft raids—first on the Tyne on Wednesday, and then on Thursday over Lowestoft and Malden and other parts of South Suffolk and North Essex. Both raids were quite futile. The raid on the Tyne caused no lose of life and very little destruction of property, and yet nearly thirty bombs were dropped I The accounts of the second raid are very meagre, but apparently the results were equally poor. In the case of the Tyne the small amount of damage was no doubt due to the fact that the moment the presence of the airship was reported all lights were extinguished and all tramcars and trains stood fast. Hence the pilot was unable to find his way. The same thing will no doubt happen when the great attempt is made on London. The fact is that there is nothing much to fear from Zeppelin raids unless the Germans pluck up courage enough to raid us in the light. Then no doubt they may dons a good deal of damage. When we say "pluck up courage" we do not, of course, mean to accuse our enemies of personal cowardice. We acknowledge that their fears are for their precious sausages of the air rather than for themselves. They know that a day- light raid would mean the total lose of, say, fifty per cent, of the airships engaged, and this loss they cannot bring them- selves to face. Meanwhile German air raids, even when futile, remain our best recruiting agents.
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