NEW CENTRE OF GRAVITY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 53, 6 March 1929, Page 8

NEW CENTRE OF GRAVITY

For many centuries the world has known a varying centre of gravity from tho shipping point ,o£ view. The Mediterranean possessed it when the Britons navigated coracles. Later Spain centralised the first trans-Atlantic services, to. be followed shortly, both- in West and East, by Dutch and French, and finally by British. Tho great change from sail to steam did not shake Britain's position as tho centre of shipping and shipbuilding. But with the advent of air-navigation, what new

eenti'o of gravity portends? It was within the competence of Britain's seamen and shipbuilders to' conquer all the disabilities of British and North Atlantic weather, but will her aircraftbuilders and their crews rise Similarly triumphant above the weather factor of tho upper and lower strata? This very vital question, is raised by the visit to -North Africa of the Hon. F. E. Guest, and by his observation that while "Croydon is on the rim of tho Empire, Cairo is situated in perfect flying country and is the heart of projected Empire routes." When a British Air Minister speaks in these terms, and advocates that British commercial aviation should centre itself in Cairo to

avoid.the menace of European weather, ho says something that surely will attract attention. Involved are not only aero-dynamics but politics. Already the British Government has let Egypt know that flying over Egyptian territory is a matter of British interest. .