aired in the public press, and distinguished advocates came
forward for and against the policy of reprisals. At a
considerably later date reprisals carried the day, and, as we
write, air raids by the British into Germany are of frequent
occurrence.

In March, 1916, the fruits of the new policy began to appear, and
people found them very refreshing. A fleet of Zeppelins found,
on approaching the mouth of the Thames, a very warm reception.
Powerful searchlights, and shells from new anti-aircraft guns,
played all round them. At length a shot got home. One of the
Zeppelins, "winged" by a shell, began a wobbly retreat which
ended in the waters of the estuary. The navy finished the
business. The wrecked air-ship was quickly surrounded by a
little fleet of destroyers and patrol-boats, and the crew were
brought ashore, prisoners. That same night yet another Zeppelin
was hit and damaged in another part of the country.

Raids followed in such quick succession as to be almost of
nightly occurrence during the favouring moonless nights. Later,
the conditions were reversed, and the attacks by aeroplane were
all made in bright moonlight. But ever the defence became more
strenuous. Then aeroplanes began to play the role of "hornets",
as Mr. Winston Churchill, speaking rather too previously,
designated them.

Lieutenant Brandon, R.F.C., succeeded in dropping several aerial
bombs on a Zeppelin during the raid on March 31, but it was not
until six months later that an airman succeeded in bringing down
a Zeppelin on British soil. The credit of repeating Lieutenant