given to individual
navy men for their insight and persistence in advocating the claims of
the air, but the history of the work done can be fully narrated, without
further preamble, in an account of the origin and growth of the national
air force.

CHAPTER IV

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE AIR FORCE

Those who fear, or pretend to fear, that England may witness a
revolution like the French Revolution of the eighteenth century or the
Russian Revolution of the twentieth century would be well advised to
compose their minds by the study of English history. That history, in
all its parts, shows the passion of the English people for continuity of
development. The first care of the practical Englishman who desires
change is to find some precedent, which may serve to give to change the
authority of ancient usage. Our laws have always been administered in
this spirit; we are willing to accept, and even to hasten, change, if we
can show that the change is no real change, but is only a reversion to
an older practice, or a development of an established law. It was a
saying of King Alphonso of Aragon that among the many things which in
this life men possess or desire all the rest are baubles compared with
old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to converse with, and
old books to read. The English people are of a like mind; what they most
care for is old customs to cherish. The very rebels of England are
careful to find an honourable pedigree for their rebellion, and to
invoke the support of their forefathers. A revolution based only on
theory, a system warranted only by thought, will never come home to
Englishmen.

The national love for continuity of development is well seen in the
history of the genesis of the national air force. The whole of that
force, aeroplanes, airships, kite balloons, and the rest, must be
affiliated to a certain small balloon detachment of the Royal Engineers
at Chatham. Little by little, very slowly and gradually at first, while
only the balloon was in question, with amazing rapidity later, when the
aeroplane and the airship came into being and were needed for the war,
that single experimental unit of the Royal Engineers grew and
transformed itself into a vast independent organization. Names and
uniforms, constitutions and regulations, were altered so often that the
whole change might seem to be an orgy of official frivolity if it were
not remembered that the powers brought within reach of man