Wants $5,000,000 For Aerial Defense.

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 6, 1913:
Sir John Hopkins Suggests That England Vote That Sum for Security.
NEED MORE MACHINES
Defense Association Speakers Deplore Britain's Inferiority in Aviation.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, May 5.— Complete security against aerial attacks and an "ample margin" of supremacy in airships and aeroplanes, as compared with those of the next strongest naval power, were demanded for Great Britain at a largely attended meeting in the Mansion House to-day. It was called by the Aerial Defense Committee of the Navy League to discuss England's position.
    The meeting was attended by the Duke of Argyll, Earl Beauchamp, the Earl of Leicester, Lord Desborough, Lord Kinnaird, Lord Middleton, Admiral Sir Edmund Fremantle, Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, Lord Willoughby de Broke, and many other prominent men. The Lord Mayor presided.
    Sir John Hopkins said that it was necessary for the Government to vote $5,000,000 to make a beginning.
    Admiral Seymour said that the strides which the science of aerostatics was making were so great that it was impossible to forecast the future. He strongly advised the construction of more aerial machines.
    The Duke of Argyll urged that it was absolutely necessary for Great Britain to have more dirigibles, which were far more expensive than aeroplanes.
    Lord Kinnaird drew attention to Great Britain's inferiority to the Continental powers in the matter of aviation.
    Earl Beauchamp said that the Government would go forward swiftly and determinedly if it knew it had public opinion behind it.
    The meeting agreed upon a resolution authorizing the formation of a National Aeronautical Defense Association to arouse and educate public opinion on the subject.