There's some sensational airship-related news today. Many newspapers report that yesterday an airship was forced down at Lunéville after first getting lost and then had mechanical problems. The reason why this is sensational is because Lunéville is in France and because the airship is German: the very latest Zeppelin, Z4, which has been undertaking proving flights before being handed over to the German Army. Indeed, half a dozen German officers were onboard as observers. The crew has been detained and the French Army is keeping the Zeppelin under guard while the government decides what to do about the unexpected visitor, which is intact but has been temporarily disabled.

As a real life example of an unauthorised German airship flight over foreign soil, Z4's misadventure inevitably brings to mind the mystery airships seen over Britain over the past few months. But more than that, it turns out that mystery airships have also been seen over France, though details are sketchy. Many newspapers carry the following from Reuter's Paris correspondent, including the Freeman's Journal, the Irish Independent, the Irish Times, the Manchester Courier, and the Standard; the following quote is from the Manchester Guardian's version (p. 9):

Various rumours have been current regarding the mysterious flights of airships over the eastern frontier, but the inhabitants of Lunéville were none the less startled to perceive, towards 12 30 to-day [3 April 1913], manœuvring in the mist overhanging the town, a large yellow dirigible, apparently coming from the direction of Nancy. The airship was flying at a great height and ultimately disappeared, but at about 1 20 it returned, circled several times around the Church of Saint Jacques, and finally descended, landing on the military parade ground.

The Daily Mirror's own Paris correspondent says something very similar (p. 4):

In view of the rumours circulated recently of mysterious flights of airships over the eastern frontier, Lunéville this afternoon was decidedly startled by the descent of a German airship of a new Zeppelin type in the manœuvring ground.

The Derby Daily Telegraph, drawing on the Daily News's correspondent, says that 'It is now France's turn to have a German airship scare' (p. 2).

A message from Vesoul states that this morning a grey airship of the Zeppelin type manœuvred over the district. Seven men were seen in the car of the vessel, which was travelling at a great height and speed. Vesoul is a town 75 miles nearly due south of Luneville [sic], and both are important frontier fortresses.

According to the 'Liberte,' [sic] there have been many recent flights of Zeppelin airships over France.

And a leading article in the Aberdeen Daily Journal notes that (p. 6):

We have heard much of late in this country about the visits of mysterious airships, and if similar rumours have been abroad in France, the French authorities have now the satisfaction, which we have not had, of knowing that alien airships have actually been spying out, or at least hovering over, forbidden ground.

However, it suggests that the Lunéville incident 'is an interesting rather than an important piece of news'.
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After an absence of more than a week, a mystery airship has been seen again, this time in Galway, Ireland. The Connacht Tribune's report gives a sense of the debates surrounding the 'nocturnal apparition' (p. 4):

Was it an aeroplane or a kite? That is the question that is troubling the minds of the people of Galway since a report became current that an airship had been seen over the city on Wednesday night [26 March 1913]. Many people were startled by the rumour, and drew highly imaginative pictures of a German invasion, evidently an echo of the recent airship scare in England. Others less inclined to sensationalism discredited this view, and say the cause was nothing less prosaic than a kite flown by some college boys. Those who actually saw the aerial visitor, however, are certain that it was an aeroplane, though whence it came and whiteher [sic] flown again, who knows.

'About half a dozen people saw the alleged airship, which had disappeared about an hour later.' One of the witnesses, 'Mr. Conroy, who is employed as coachman by Mr. B. Parks', spoke to the Tribune's correspondent:

'I was coming from the house,' he said, 'and walking along the new line about 8 p.m., when I heard two young lads shouting, "Look at that thing in the air." Glancing up, I saw a large dark body, as high in the air as the College clock (180 feet). Mr. Roycroft then came along and he said it looked like an aeroplane.' 'How did it appear to be moving?' asked the reporter. 'It would go straight for about a hundred yards and then turn round,' said Conroy.

Another witness was 'Mr. Hanly, hall porter at Galway Workhouse', who said that

it had wings like the planes of an aeroplane. When he saw it, he noticed its peculiar motion, from side to side for a distance and then it would stop. That was about 8.15 p.m., and there was a south-easterly wind blowing. There was no light attached to the aerial 'apparition.'

So maybe it's a mystery aeroplane instead.

It's possible that both a mystery airship and a mystery aeroplane have been seen in Russian Poland. The Dundee Courier, the Aberdeen Journal, and the Manchester Courier all carry the Reuter's report from St Petersburg, but the latter's is by a small margin the most detailed (p. 7):

A telegram received here from Kielce (Poland) says that an airship from Austria to-day [28 March 1913] flew over the Vistula into Russian territory, and was followed half an hour later by an aeroplane. The frontier guards fired at the aeroplane, which at once returned towards Austria.

With more information, it could well turn out that there was no mystery about these aircraft at all.

Debate on the Army Estimates continued in the House of Commons yesterday. The Conservatives recovered their composure after Seely's unsettling openness, and set about undermining his reassurances that Britain's aerial defences are in safe hands. Taking the lead was Arthur Lee, a former Army officer and later Civil Lord of the Admiralty. The Times reports that Lee disputed Seely's contention that 'the large airship was not required for military purposes', arguing that 'imperfect as they were [...] they had a radius of action of over 1,200 miles, which would enable them to come from the Continent and cruise all over these islands and return' (p. 8):

They were able to drop a weight approximating one ton, and the moral effect, at any rate, that would be produced in this country when in the throes of mobilization by these vessels cruising over our mobilization centres, dockyards, magazines, and even the House of Commons (laughter) could be easily imagined.

Lee also took Seely to task for his belief that shooting airships down with guns would be quite easy:

The Zeppelins, painted a light grey, were practically invisible against an ordinary grey sky at about 5,000ft. The right hon. gentleman also said that at night they could not see us, but he had been informed that a dockyard working with lights at night made a plainer target than it did in the daytime. (Hear, hear.)

It was at this point that Lee made an oblique reference to phantom airships:

The question was, who was to shoot? And he confessed that he, as an ordinary peaceable citizen, did contemplate with some foreboding the possibility of Territorial artillery being called out for night practice at the planet Venus. (Laughter.)

The Manchester Courier, one of the few other papers to include this passage in their summary of Lee's speech, puts it this way (p. 8):

For his own part, he contemplated with some anxiety the prospect of the Territorials being called out to indulge in night practice at the planet Venus as she hung low on the Western horizon. (Laughter.)

Here he seems to be using the idea of phantom airships to ridicule the Government's aerial navigation regulations, suggesting that they would cause false alarms and possibly endanger the public. There is also probably a criticism here of the Territorials, a Liberal innovation which Conservatives largely discounted in favour of conscription or at least universal military training -- Lee was a former officer in the Volunteers, the militia which the Territorials replaced. Still, it's a bit odd to see a Conservative mocking mystery airships; usually that's the Liberal way.