Aircraft and Commerce in War, by J.M. Spaight

Published by Longmans Green & Co in 1926, 111 pages, Hardback (A13NWSO)

From the preface: This short book is not written for the specialist. Its intended appeal is to every citizen who takes an intelligent interest in the problem of imperial defence. The addition of the air arm to the other arms of war has added new uncertainties to that problem. Two of these uncertainties (or perhaps one should say one uncertainty in two forms) are dealt with here. The first is the effect upon our national security of the use of an enemy's aircraft against our sea communications and the possibility that a more critical situation may thus be created for us than that of April, 1917, when the U-boat operations threatened to starve us into surrender. The second is the effect of our own air arm in sharpening and intensifying the economic pressure which has traditionally been a potent weapon of our naval power.

The questions involved go to the root of imperial defence. Until we know under what conditions air­ craft will be free to operate against commerce, we can­not determine, on the one hand, how far our own maritime communications are endangered by the new development, nor, on the other, how far that develop­ment will have the effect of providing us with an instrument for tightening the screw of economic pressure against an enemy...

The condition of the book is generally good. The green cover boards have some minor scuffs, and bumping and wear along the edges and corners, but the spine is intact and all pages are intact and tightly bound. There is foxing to the outside page leaves, first and last few inside pages, and some page edges throughout.