ment of a close barrage of aerial guns
did much to discourage the raiders, and gradually London, from being the
most vulnerable spot in the British Isles, began to enjoy comparative
immunity from attack.

Paris, too, during the Great War has had to suffer bombardment from
the air, but not nearly to the same extent as London. The comparative
immunity of Paris from air raids is due partly to the prompt measures
which were taken to defend the capital. The French did not wait, as
did the British, until the populace was goaded to the last point of
exasperation, but quickly instituted the barrage system, in which we
afterwards followed their lead. Moreover, the French were much more
prompt in adopting retaliatory tactics. They hit back without having to
wade through long moral and philosophical disquisitions upon the ethics
of "reprisals". On the other hand, it must be remembered that Paris,
from the aerial standpoint, is a much more difficult objective than
London. The enemy airman has to cross the French lines, which, like his
own, stretch for miles in the rear. Practically he is in hostile country
all the time, and he has to get back across the same dangerous air
zones. It is a far easier task to dodge a few sea-planes over the wide
seas en route to London. And on reaching the coast the airman has to
evade or fight scattered local defences, instead of penetrating the
close barriers which confront him all the way to Paris.

Since the first Zeppelin attack on Paris on March 21, 1915, when two of
the air-ships reached the suburbs, killing 23 persons and injuring 30,
there have been many raids and attempted raids, but mostly by single
machines. The first air raid in force upon the French capital took place
on January 31, 1918, when a squadron of Gothas crossed the lines north
of Compiegne. Two hospitals were hit, and the casualties from the raid
amounted to 20 killed and 50 wounded.

After the Italian set-back in the winter of 1917, the Venetian plain
lay open to aerial bombardment by the Germans, who had given substantial
military aid to their Austrian allies. This was an opportunity not to be
lost by Germany, and Venice and other towns of the plain were subject to
systematic bombardment.

At the time of writing, Germany is beginning to suffer some of the
annoyances she is so ready to inflict upon others. The recently
constituted Air Ministry have just published figures relating to the
air raids into Germany from December