SABOTAGE PERIL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4951, 4 February 1937, Page 7

SABOTAGE PERIL

BRITISH AERODROMES. SWIFT ACTION TAKEN. Swift action is being taken by the Government to check suspected sabotage and incendiarism in British aerodromes and ammunition works. Men from the special political branch of Scotland Yard are being placed among workers at aerodromes and in factories where war materials are manufactured. An investigation of recent fires at aerodromes disclosed that the only probable theory as to the cause of two of the three aerodrome fires is incendiarism. In four days four mysterious fires broke out, three at aerodromes and one at an arms factory. Seven planes and eight hangars were completely destroyed at Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey, aerodrome while the staff was working at full pressure.

Nearby hangars belonging to Hawkers, designers and makers of high-speed fighters and bombers, were threatened by this blaze. Seventy of their machines with which the Air Force is principally equipped might have been destroyed. Captain Duncan Davis, managing director of the firm owning the aerodrome, rules out any suggestion that members of his own staff were responsible for the blaze. But he made this significant statement: "While all members of my staff were busy it would have been an easy matter for some stranger to get into the hangar," he continued. "My own staff has my entire confidence. The fire was not caused by any one of them." In this instance, there is only one logical conclusion—incendiarism. Three machines at the back of a hangar at Witney, headquarters of the Witney and Oxford Aero Club, were also burned out recently. Last July several machines at the same aerodrome were slashed, and it is believed that the two incidents are connected. Another fire broke out at the arms packing shed of Vickers-Armstrong, Crayford. Kent, where several cases of new rifles were completely destroyed and a packing shed burnt down. Officials openly suggest that this fire was started by a fanatical pacifist or Communist. Following the damage done to two machines at Renfrew Aerodrome, and the suggestion of sabotage having occurred before the beginning of the South African air race, the fullest precautions are being taken at all aerodromes to prevent any further outbreaks.