World News in Storv and Picture

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 308, 29 December 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

World News in Storv and Picture

CONQUEST OF UPPER AIR. : In the conquest of the atmosphere, Britain did the pioneer work, but has done practically nothing since. As long ago as 1802 two balloonists, Glaisher and Coxwell, went nearly seven miles up from Wolverhainptoti a height which was not touched again for nearly 70 years. Here are the achievements of other countries. In 1931 Professor Auguste Piceard, accompanied by Professor Max Cosyne, ascended from Augsburg, in Bavaria, and landed on a glacier in the Austrian Alps, after reaching a height of !)J miles. Next year he touched 10J miles. A year iater, in September, 1933, the Soviet Army balloon Stratostat touched 11 4-5 miles, and two months later the American airmen LieutenantCommander Settle and Major Fordney reached to within a third of a mile of that point. Last January the Russians tried! again to beat their own record. They succeeded, at the cost of the lives of the three occupants— Fiidoscnko, Naaenki and Usvekin. Their balloon crashed 200 miles away, and the barograph, found intact, recorded a height of 13j miles. Another American Army balloon, the Explorer, with Kepner, Anderson and Stevens on board, last July rose to a height of 111 miles and then crashed, the three occupants escaping by parachute. Professor

Cosyns and a companion a month afterwards ascended 10 miles and drifted from Belgium to Yugoslavia. Professor Piccard's twin brother Jean, also a scientist, ascended with his wife in Ohio, U.S.A., last October, to 10 miles. They also crashed on land ing, but escaped injury. Professor Auguste Piceard is now planning an ascent from Switzerland to a height of 20 miles. MUNITIONS PROFITS. An inquiry committee appointed by President Roosevelt in the United States has been investigating the enormous profits made by American manufacturers of war material during the Great War. Some situational facts have been disclosed which reflect shamefully on the system which allows profits to be made from the slaughter of human beings. The American inquiry has demanded evidence from many unwilling witnesses, particularly men who became millionaires through this trade. Britain has definitely taken a stand against the sale of munitions to warring countries, and has been joined by some other nations, but.by no means by all. She has also urged the prohibition of manufacture of all war materials by private firms, believing that Governments alone should provide them and accordingly, since the Government is really the people, should benefit by their sale in preference to certain few individuals.

THE LEAGUE IS A SUCCESS. For years people have said that the League of Nations can work only in theory; that when real trouble looms up it is almost useless because it cannot force a nation to do its will. These people speak of the events in the Far East from 1931-33, when Japanese troops captured Manchuria and even destroyed part of Shanghai, China's greatest port. They also speak of the disastrous war now l.eimr waned in the Clran Chaco jungles of South America by Bolivia and Paraguay, which the League has failed to prevent. But there is more to be told of the League's work. Besides stopping a virtual war between Italy and Greece over the island of Corfu ten or twelve years ago, the League, aided by the enormous prestige which Britain possesses in the eyes of the world, has smoothed out two particularly dangerous problems in Europe during the past few weeks. These were the Saar policing problem and the Yugoslav-Hungarian dispute. In the Saar, whose people early in January are to decide by vote whether they will return to German rule or not, the League aeked Britain and three other unbiased nationsItaly, Sweden and Holland —to provide* an armed force to prevent rioting and unfair practices during, and prior to, the polling. Britain will send the largest force and the com-

manding officer, who nas already arrived in the district. This arrangement greatly pleased the two great Powers concerned in the destinies of the Saar.

The other problem concerned the jealousies of Yugoslavia and Hungary, which were arousing the two countries to a frenzied pitch. Many reasons, all petty in their own way, led to the dispute, which was happily settled at the conference tables of Geneva —again with the backing and active support of Britain. Great efforts are now being made by Britain and the League to stop the Gran Chaco war, where 50,000 people are thought to have been killed, and if these efforts succeed tlie League will have proved its value to the world most definitely. A WORLD PEACE TOUR. To further the interests of peace, the newly-elected head of the Salvation Army, General Evangeline Booth —first woman ever to hold that position—will undertake a world tour, starting in February. She will sail from England, where, incidentally, she was recently given a wonderful personal welcome in the great Albert Hall, London, and will come direct to Australia and New Zealand. Afterwards she will visit India, the United States (where she was head of "The Army" for many years before being elected world chief), Sweden and Germany.