Lord Weir is not in love with Government control for
its own sake ; but he sees clearly that the Air Department must initiate commercial air services. These must be international ; there must be a Convention among the peoples, and domestic legislation also ; there must be the most ample provision of accurate weather-lore and weather-bulletins ; there must be such training of pilots as shall command public confidence in their skill ; there must be mapping of air routes, and the establishment of beacons by day and light- ships by night. So much we owe to the future of a practical method of transport, costly at first of necessity, but later certain to be established on a sound paying basis. When we handle an invention whose present development has already wiped out all frontiers, we must handle it with the utmost thoroughness. We owe this not only to our own future, but to the countless gallant men who have died, cheerfully and unselfishly, in the war and in the days of the pioneers, to win for us the mastery of the air.
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