Seely's statement of the Army estimates will have done little to assuage the doubts of Bonar Law and Massy regarding the Government's unsoundness on aviation, since he announced no new expenditure beyond that already announced. However, in its fullness and its frankness it appears to have disarmed the Opposition, at least for now. The part dealing with aviation has attracted the most interest in the press, for as the Dublin Freeman's Journal says, 'Usually the debate on the Army Estimates is the dullest of the year', but this time there was 'scope for the exercise of the imagination. What of the peril of the air?' (p. 7) The Journal's parliamentary correspondent suggests that Seely's speech was intended to puncture the recent hysteria about airships (though this appears to be their own interpretation, not supported by Seely's own words as quoted):

First he explained how the airship panic had been allowed to grow. Both the Admiralty and the War Office had been hard at work, but they have not advertised. Not only so, but he paid a tribute to the Press of the country for assisting them to work in secret.

Briefly, the Army now has 123 trained pilots and 101 aeroplanes, among them 'the most efficient aeroplane in the world'. It 'does not favour the monster airship of the Zeppelin type', but its three small airships 'have the advantage of being portable' and 'can be taken to pieces and sent abroad with an expeditionary force'. Seely went on to say that

The Zeppelin need not be feared. The difficulty of hitting a target in the air, moving at an unknown speed at an unknown height, has been solved completely. Any idea of an airship hovering over a battlefield or over a defenceless country must be abandoned.

Mr. Rowland Hunt tried to come to the rescue of the dumb-founded Opposition. 'How is it to be done at night?' he asked, only to be reminded that if the airship could not be seen it could not see a target to fire at below.

Well might the Opposition have been dumb-founded by such an argument. But Seely's attempt to dispel 'The Fear of the Zeppelin' can only be strengthened by the news from Germany that the military airship Ersatz Z I was wrecked at Karlsruhe yesterday, breaking in two from a gale. According to the Daily Mirror (p. 4; above):

The Ersatz Z 1, the newest Zeppelin airship, adds Reuter, was the ship supposed to have made the surreptitious trip to England about a month ago at the time of the airship 'scare'.

A number of other newspapers include this detail in their report, including the Dundee Courier, the Irish Times, the Liverpool Courier and both the Manchester Courier and the Manchester Guardian.

The Liberal Daily Chronicle's parliamentary correspondent, as reported in today's Liverpool Echo (above; p. 3), has used the phantom airship scare to attack the Conservative press in the harshest terms, on the basis that they have made the British people look ridiculous in the eyes of Europe:

A distinguished private member [of Parliament], who has just returned from Italy, tells me that he found in various parts of the Continent that an impression very unfavourable to this country had been created by the scare articles in some British newspapers in regard to the so-called mysterious movements of alleged airships. 'These foolish alarmist articles,' said the hon. member in question, 'convey the idea that we have lost our nerve and sangfroid, and our prestige on the Continent suffers accordingly.' The Yellow Press of this country has much to answer for. It is unpatriotic to the core.

This is a bit unfair of Europe, since in recent weeks mystery aircraft have also been seen in (possibly) France, Belgium, Romania, Austria-Hungary, and Germany. Then again, perhaps they didn't become the press sensation in those countries that they did in Britain.

A few more details have emerged about the mystery airship crash near Caputh in Germany, thanks to the report of the Daily Telegraph's Berlin correspondent (reprinted in the Aberdeen Daily Journal, p. 5; above):

It was shortly after nightfall that two women returned from work in the fields to Caputh, a large village some miles to the west of Potsdam, with a tale that they had seen an airship catch fire and blow up over a vast fir forest that covers the greater part of that district. As they both have a high reputation for intelligence and veracity, and as they described what they had seen with complete unanimity, no one seems to have thought of doubting their word. The close circumstantiality of their narrative was also very convincing. They said the exploded airship was very similar to the Hansa, which has for some time been stationed in Potsdam, and which they had repeatedly seen. The vessel, they stated, had two cars, and while they were watching it a black cloud of smoke suddenly rose from one of these. Then flames appeared, and quickly enveloped the hill of the airship, which began to fall rapidly towards the earth. Just before it reached the tree-tops one of the cars became detached, and the vessel, thus lightened, soared rapidly upwards.

'It was particularly this last detail', the Telegraph's correspondent says, 'which convinced the local authorities that the tale was true'; though since the women had 'repeatedly' seen a real airship in flight it seems quite possibly that they had seen the effects of a ballast dump. It anyway seems quite clear that there was no airship, since none are missing and none were found, and so

the women must have been either the victims of an illusion or the authors of a hoax. The former view seems to be generally taken, and there is a good deal of speculation as to what was the burning object which it is believed they actually did see. One theory is that it was a registering fire balloon, such as was responsible for a good deal of the airship mystification in England; but the most favourite hypothesis appears to be that what they took to be an airship was a military aeroplane, which in reality did pass over Caputh about the time of the vision, en route from Doberitz to Leipzig. It is no uncommon thing for the motors of flying machines to emit considerable quantities of smoke, and the flames are supposed to have been nothing more serious than sparks from the exhaust, which probably looked a little terrifying in the gathering darkness.

As the Telegraph's correspondent notes, recently 'a reward was offered for information that could lead to the arrest of aerial visitors who had been seen cruising about over one of the Eastern provinces', and the Caputh story is 'just as well authenticated, and apparently even more baseless, than those which recently attracted so much attention in England'.
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Yesterday's report of an airship seen crashing in flames near Potsdam in Germany has been picked up by a number of newspapers, including the Aberdeen Daily Journal, the Dundee Courier, the Evening Telegraph, the Liverpool Echo, the Manchester Courier, the Manchester Guardian, the Standard, and the Western Times -- most of which don't say anything new, as they are derived from the same Reuter wire report. However some reports do reveal that the crash occurred near the village of Caputh, and that the the two women who witnessed the apparent disaster 'saw fire spread from one end of the ship to the other. Then a sudden explosion occurred, wrapping in flame the whole ship, which plunged headlong to the ground' (Dundee Courier, p. 7). The account provided from The Times's own Berlin correspondent has some more details (p. 7; above):

The fire brigades of three villages near Potsdam, some 40 riflemen from the garrison on bicycles, and a strong force of police and of medical attendants were all engaged last night and until about 4 o'clock this morning in searching the woods south of Potsdam for a mysterious 'airship in distress,' of which two working women had brought home a sensational report. They told the beadle of their little village that they had seen at 6 o'clock in the evening [of 12 March 1913] an airship first smoking, and then flaming, in the sky. Her forecar had dropped off and had fallen burning into the wood. A few old men of the village were sceptical, but the beadle instantly gave the alarm, with the result that the reinforcements described above soon arrived on the scene. No trace of a car or of its inmates was found, but a small boy brought to the village inn the news that in one spot in the wood there had been a distinct smell of gas. It has turned out that no airship can have been in question, and the most plausible theory is that what was seen -- if anything was seen -- was the trail of sparks from the motor of an aeroplane. Two military biplanes flew yesterday evening over Potsdam and near the scene of the search.

In fact, it appears that the mystery has been solved already. The Daily Express reports that (p. 1):

Lieutenant Zwickau, a military airman, supplied the explanation this morning. He was flying from Leipzig to Doeberitz and was compelled to fire rockets from time to time to find his way.

Having recent experience of phantom airships, most of the British press probably expected something of the sort; though few went so far as the Liverpool Echo which runs the story under the headline 'AIRSHIP COMEDY. DISASTER PHANTASY IN GERMANY' (p. 6).

Many newspapers also report that the Aerial League of the British Empire has issued a manifesto deploring Britain's defencelessness in the air and demanding that at least £1 million be spent on catching up to France and Germany in military aviation. However, only the Manchester Courier publishes the manifesto in full, which reveals that the first of the Aerial League's eight points was about the recent mystery airship visits (p. 7):

1. The lesson of the so-called airship 'scares' in Yorkshire and elsewhere has been wholly lost upon the country, whose interest has been centred in guessing whether the nocturnal visits of foreign airships were facts or fabrications, and there is no doubt that what is reported to have happened at Sheerness on the admission of one of His Majesty's Ministers could happen again at any time of the day or night.

The lesson is, of course, that 'one foreign power alone -- Germany -- is known to possess at least ten airships, each capable of making flights across the North Sea, of carrying passengers, and of damaging or destroying the nerve centre of our defences', against which 'the British Empire possesses the remains of one baby airship and the framework of another' and, what is worse, 'we lack the experience which is essential for building large airships of long range and the factories and equipment for the purpose'. The signatories are Plymouth, J. E. C. Welldon, Admiral E. R. Fremantle, Lieutenant-General R. Pole-Carew, Gilbert Parker, Alan H. Burgoyne, Major-General H. T. Arbuthnot, Colonel H. S. Massy, and Stephen A. Harples [sic; actually Marples] as organising secretary.

No phantom airships have been seen in the skies over Britain for the better part of a week, but it appears that one may have crashed in, of all places, Germany. The Derby Daily Telegraph carries the following story from Reuter's in Berlin (p. 3):

Eighty chasseurs of the Guards are searching for the remains of a mysterious airship which, according to peasant women's story, caught fire, exploded, and fell near Potsdam. The women, who are positive they saw the disaster, reported to the authorities, who telephoned for help. The commandant of Potsdam, with an ambulance column, doctors, fire brigades, and chasseurs searched in vain for the supposed wreck. All known airships are account for.

The date for this event is not given, but it must have been very recent since the Derby Daily Telegraph's report is dated today, and an abbreviated version appears in the Dundee Evening Telegraph in the stop press section (p. 1).
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There is very little phantom airship news today. The Exeter Western Times reports on the airship seen over London on Friday night (p. 4):

An airship hoax has been worked on a London crowd. A smithfield [sic] porter, realising how little a thing will attract a crowd, stood for a few seconds looking intently up into the sky. Gradually his example was followed by others, and when he declared that he both saw and heard an airship above Farringdon-street, they agreed. Some went so far as to state that they occasionally saw flashlights. When he had collected a great crowd the porter quietly disappeared, well satisfied with his test of the credulity of the people.

This is very similar to the Chronicle's account as quoted by the Globe, but there are some significant differences. For example here the porter is said to have claimed 'that he both saw and heard an airship', whereas the Chronicle said nothing about hearing; similarly the Chronicle said nothing about any 'flashlights'. More significantly, the Western Times apparently has access to the porter's mental state, since it tells its readers how he 'realis[ed] how little a thing will attract a crowd' and that he was 'well satisfied with his test of the credulity of the people'. Perhaps that's journalistic invention or a rhetorical flourish; but it does raise the question of how this story of the porter hoaxing a crowd arose in the first place. It seems unlikely that it would have come from somebody in the crowd, so perhaps it was the porter himself who told the press. That would at least explain the Western Times's knowledge of his thought processes. But given the degree of egotism this would involve, the story's veracity may be questioned.

For the first time, a phantom airship has been seen over the very heart of London, 'A full week behind the provinces', as the Daily Express says (p. 1). Previously, no reports came from closer than Croydon (South London) or Hendon (North London), about a month ago. Yet relatively few newspapers seem to be interested in the story. The Daily Mirror, surprisingly in view of its sceptical attitude towards the whole subject, is one, though its account is brief. More substantial (and identical) reports appear in the Irish Times, the Liverpool Echo, and the Dundee Courier, which last says (p. 5; above):

Reports received from a number of independent sources go to show that mysterious aerial lights were observed over central London between 7 and 7.30 last evening [7 March 1913] by a large number of persons

The sky is described as being 'overcast' and 'inclined to be misty', thus ruling out the 'possibility of sky-gazers being misled by a bright star'. But otherwise, 'little definite can be said'.

A large crowd collected in St Bride Street on the report that the much-talked-of 'mystery airship' had arrived over London, Several persons declared that they had seen a bright light in the sky immediately over the thoroughfare, and one or two affirmed that they had made out the body of an airship, the envelope, according to their statements, being of a whitish colour.

Shortly afterwards what was evidently 'the same strange light', 'variously described as a "searchlight" and as an occulting light of the headlight type', was seen from Paternoster Row, 'suggesting that the airship, if airship there really was, had the dome of St Paul's as its objective'.

A lift attendant employed in a Ludgate Circus office stated that his attention was attracted by a bright flash across one of the windows on the topmost floor of the building in question.

He ran to the window, and gathered the impression that a searchlight was being operated from some elevated position to the south of London, but he could see no airship, and the flash was not repeated.

A youth who claimed to have seen the airship from Paternoster Row stated that the flashing of a light into the roadway from a point directly above him caused him to look up, when he made out something moving slowly and irregularly overhead carrying a light, which was obscured every now and again, at the rear end.

Though it should be noted that while Paternoster Row is adjacent to the cathedral, the claim in the Courier's headline that the airship 'is Stated to Have Flown Over St Paul's Cathedral' seems to be only an inference, as nobody actually says they saw that happen. The article's conclusion is that 'it seems possible that a flight may have been made around St Paul's, the aeronauts, whoever they were, approaching the Cathedral from the north-west and leaving in a south-westerly direction'.
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