CONQUEST OF AIR

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 11044, 18 February 1933, Page 4

CONQUEST OF AIR

STEP TOWARDS WORLD PEACE. “I believe that man’s conquest of the air was the greatest step towards the securing of world peace. There exists an international comradeship amongst airmen which is present nowhere else. They recognise no frontiers, countries, or nations,” writes Mr Noel Whiteside, M. P., in the Yorkshire Post.. “Airmen are already International. When they land on some far off aerodrome they do not meet Germans, Italians, or Japanese. They meet other pilots. Their service in life is to bring people of different nas tions and races together, so that they can meet, and- talk;-and’understand one another. There is a suggestion afoot that there should be some form of ‘international control’ over aviation. Exactly what that means in fact, no one can yet tell. It would be as impossible to control civilian flying by the League of Nations as it would be to attempt to control br internationalise the production and use of motor cars. Flying is already international. . “There are many pilots who own and fly machines made in countries other than their own. In some cases the machines themselves are composite. There is the German Heinkel with a Gipsy engine, Klemmsi have been fitted with several different kinds of British engines. It is simply a matter of construction. “That country which can produce the most reliable engine and the safest aircraft gets the order. Any form of international control of design either in horse-power or size would be disastrous and a detriment to the safe transport of passengers. In this wdrid of economic distress ; the nations are wasting millions of pouiids on armaments. The most expensive armaments are those which are-purely aggressive in nature and of no possible Commercial value. “Weapons such as submarines, battleships, J long-range guns and heavy tanks, weapons, indeed, which statesmen acknowledge can give them no security against the real horrors of war—aerial bombardment—and are, in effect obsolete. Let them abolish the lot and save the taxpayers money. Wars are caused by doubt, suspicion and lack of understanding. Peace can be secured by growing international trade and by facilitating means of transport. Let us abolish, therefore, all those petti-fogging international regulations which restrict aerial: development. Let us encourage everyone to fly where and whence they will,’free from all restrictions, and such a spirit of good fellowship will grow up between the nations that fear of war will be but the memory of'a bygone age.”