[1]1
16 Feb. 1909
Dear Dr Wallace
A friend has sent me "Morning Light" with a copy of your letter in wh you refer in such high terms to my old and dear friend Arthur J Bell’s2 books.3,4
I have none to do with their publication, indeed I gave him a publisher, and he read great parts to me before publication.
I remember what a joy to him was your letter of appreciation. It seemed to him sufficient reward for the 20 years work wh preceded the publication of his four books. He brought your letter to me and I shall never forget his look [2] of delight.
I should greatly like to tell you about Bell and the story of his life, if I could ever get the chance.
Do you ever come to London? If so, would you come to see us or let me meet you in town?
I have often quoted your books in the papers, and I rejoice in your letters especially those which make for peace.
Pardon this intrusion and believe me with sincere respect and regard
Ever sincerely yrs | W Garrett Horder.5 [signature]
I should find my house honoured by a visit from you.
[3]6
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3270.3238)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
[1]1
FLYING MACHINES & WAR.2
Reply to Dr. Wallace.
(To the Editor of "The Daily News.")
Sir, — Our attention has been called to Dr. Wallace’s letter in to-day’s issue of your paper, to which we feel we must reply.
The Aerial League of the British Empire has for its main project to secure and maintain for the Empire the same supremacy in the air as it now enjoys on the sea.
Will you allow us to point out that there is nothing so aggressive in our programme as your correspondent seems to infer? We do not for a moment suggest that Great Britain should be "in the front rank of aerial assassins," whose work would appear to be to devastate an enemy’s capital by means of bombs thrown from airships. We wish entirely to associate ourselves and the Aerial League with Dr. Wallace’s humanitarian principles in this respect. We even join issue with him in the expression of the hope that the time will come when all instruments of war, whether terrestial [sic], aerial or marine, shall be abolished by mutual consent of the nations. This, however, will not be accomplished by a show of weakness on the part of any one of them.
England is to-day years behind foreign Powers in the science and practice of aviation, and if she to-day were to put forward a plea for the prohibition of aerial armaments, it would be misunderstood as a sign of impotence and result rather in the accumulation against her of the very fleets which Dr. Wallace dreads so much.
The work of the Aerial League is by no means confined to questions of national defence. Our merchant navy is quite as important and necessary to the peculiar geographical distribution of the Empire as our fleets.
This organization seeks to foster invention and encourage progress in aviation in this country, as being one of the arts of peace rather than of war. — Yours, etc.,
H. S. MASSY,3 Colonel, | STEPHEN A. MARPLES,4
Joint Hon. Secs.
The Aerial League of the British Empire, Staple Inn-buildings (South), High Holborn, London, W.C., Feb 8. [1908]
Status: Draft transcription [Enclosure (WCP3270.5197)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP3270,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on