PFFF,
the British Air Ministry was not alone with this inhumane and stupid behaviour in WWI.
The Russian inventor Gleb Jewgenjewitsch Kotjelnikow (1872-1944) worked since 1910 to develop a parachute for aviators. He succeeded in 1915 with the device RK-1 but the chief of the Russian Aviation Troop wrote on a bill concerning this matter:
"In general the parachute is a harmful thing for aviation because it is tempting the pilot to save himself with the parachute and to sacrifice the aircraft to annihilation."
