From ‘The Zeppelin Raid on London’, The Spectator, 5 June 1915:
LONDON is to be complimented on having come through its first Zeppelin raid with complete composure and little material damage. We have always assumed that the raids so far have been trial trips, and we have little doubt that the Germans mean to come again with more aircraft and more bombs. The self-possession of London will not be by any means diminished by this prospect. It is indeed the acceptance of something as inevitable which creates coolness. The conditions which throw people into an agony of speculation as to their chances of escape are present only when the danger is something that may be evaded by good luck or precaution. Once the fact is grasped that Zeppelin raids are a certainty which nothing can prevent, they are regarded rather as the visitations of Nature—earthquakes, hurricanes, and thunderstorms. No one can prevent these things, yet no one in any part of the world lives in hourly dread of them. What must be must be, and people tell themselves that, after all, the toll of victims from earthquakes, lightning, and so on is not high, and that, though some may be killed, they themselves will probably escape. In one of his essays R. L. Stevenson writes with wonder of the fatalistic calm of people who dwell in the neighbourhood of a volcano. “In that tremendous place” he found that the danger was forgotten simply because it was always present. It is true that, as the incendiary bombs dropped by the Germans on London made little noise, the vast majority of Londoners knew nothing about the raid till the next morning. But even in the districts visited the most notable demonstration of emotion seems to have been an intense and busy curiosity expressed by a desire to carry off relics of the bombing. No one had foreseen that the first Zeppelin raid on the capital would be so little dramatic. We had perhaps rather thought of London being disturbed from end to end like an enormous ant-heap. And since the creation of panic can be the only object of the Germans—as a military measure the Zeppelin raids of course amount to nothing at all—one cannot help thinking that they would do well to try to come by day. Imagine a few gigantic death-dealing hawks hovering in full view over the city. But the Germans come by night because they dare not risk their precious airships. The German soldiers are daring men, but their fears for their Zeppelins and Parsevals are morbid. Yet the truth is that you cannot take life in any way likely to be of military value without considerably risking your own life. Our own gallant airmen, who do not deal in frightfulness, and would rather not drop a bomb at all than drop it with the probability that it will merely take civilian life, run very heavy risks when they swoop down within two or three hundred yards of the ground to bomb their target with accuracy. But when the object is only to knock houses to pieces and kill or scare the civil population accuracy is not so important. It is impossible to miss London So the Zeppelins protect themselves by coming in the dark and by keeping at a great height.
The moral of the first raid on London is that Londoners may be trusted to see such visitations in their proper perspective. Multiply the mischief of this first raid by a hundred, and it would still not amount to anything out of the way as events are measured in this war. From the military point of view it would still mean nothing. Londoners may even take a pride in suffering with nonchalance if they reflect that to raise a morbid cry for more protection than Government can fairly offer would be to keep aeroplanes away from the front, where they are far more urgently needed. The Londoner can now say to himself with a proper self-respect “The front has extended to London. I am in a very small way in the firing hue, and I will bees myself as worthy of that honour.” Finally, the nation should remember that the authorities responsible for the defence of London have most wisely refused to display their strength on the invitation of skirmishers. It will be time to show how well prepared we are when the main attack comes. Till then we must bold our fire and be content to let our enemies run away unscathed. Owing to such reticence we shall catch all the more on the great night.
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