Questions over Neutral territory,
Were given issue
Within the House of Commons,
By a Mr Booth of Pontefract.
This issue was raised,
Due to flying attacks
On Zeppelin factories -
Based at Friedrichshafen.
The sheds based on Northern
Shoreline of Lake Constance -
Spanning the borders
Of Austria, Switzerland,
And Southern Germany.
Requests for clear instructions
Were required from the Prime Minister,
For Governmental Policy -
For flights of their war machines,
Passing over neutral lands and waters.
Mr Churchill stood in reply to Mr Booth,
Saying Naval flying officers,
Had been given orders to avoid
All such neutral territories.
They had been issued maps,
Which were marked with courses,
That indicated them to keep clear,
Of Switzerland's air space.
It was noted how in 1910,
At the Paris conference,
No agreement
Was finalised, with regard
To crafts in any act of war,
Above neutral territories.
In taking any accurate
Course, when flying at height
Makes for problematic
Decisions – except possibly
For those most skilled
Observers – the house agreed.
What was not said –
Is fact that those flying
Had not been allowed maps -
In case of capture - in
fact
In their flying from France,
The route had to be
memorised.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1914. Swiss
Neutrality. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 27 Nov. p.10. Col.2. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11253900/Daily-Telegraph-November-27-1914.html
[Accessed: 27 November 2014].
Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 27 November 2014).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered
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