Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1927. AVIATION & DISARMAMENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 111, 7 April 1927, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1927. AVIATION & DISARMAMENT.

If we could believe in a repentant Germany it would be possible to accept Count Berndorff’s assurance as cabled on Monday that “Germany’s ultimate object would be to wipe out military aviation entirely as part of world disarmament.” But it is impossible to altogether dissociate the Count Bernsdorff, speaking at the Preparatory Disarmament Commission now -fitting at Geneva, from the same gentleman who, in 1914, argued so ingeniously that “Germany knew that some day France was going to invade Belgium; but France could wait; Germany could not wait. Thus it was France that really began the war.” There has been really phenomenal progress made both in commercial and military aviation since the war, which demonstrated the almost undreamt of possibilities of aerial warfare, and the uses to which airplanes and airships could be put. At the outset of that tragic event in the world’s history, Germany, with her Zeppelins and airplanes, was practically mistress of the air as Britain was mistress of the seas; but, with that genius that is characteristic of the race, the British, before the war closed, had approved themselves as efficient in meeting their enemies in the air as they were in combating them on the high seas or on the field of battle. Since the war great strides have been made in both branches of aviation in Great Britain, the United States and Germany, but particularly in the lastnamed country, and one of the problems the Disarmament Conference has to grapple with at Geneva, when it meets shortly, is how to bring about a limitation of aerial armaments. The Preparatory Disarmament Commission which has to teport to the conference;, and is now in session at the League centre, in discussing the matter is finding that the views of the Powers concerned differ materially. France wants a, limitation of personnel and horse-power; Britain favours the limitation of total aircraft strength rather than personnel, and would place no limitation on civil aviation; Japan wants aircraft carried by airships considered under naval armaments, and Germany, through her representative Count Bernsdorff, talks mildly of wiping out military aviation altogether. But Germany, although tied down by the Versailles Treaty and restricted by the nine rules drawn up by the Allies, to cripple her aviation, has, with the expiry of those restrictions, developed amazingly in commercial aviation. Two com-

ponies which were fighting for the bi share of the German Government’s financial assistance — Asro-Lloyd and Junkers —were actively, at work in Germany, the one (Junkers) manufacturing machines and the other buying the best machines obtainable at any time from any firm, and disposing of them to the Governments of any country wanting modern airplanes at half price, and agreeing to accept in payment a half share interest in any company formed for their use, whether in South America, Spain, Turkey or Egypt. Subsequently the companies (as a Nineteenth Century writer has it) amalgamated, forming themselves into one vast company known as the Luft Hansa A.G., with a capital of 25,000,000 marks and having for its president the director of the Deutsche Bank, Dr E. G. Von Stauss, the oilier directors including the presidents of almost every great bank in Germany, the leaders of industry and the chief burgomasters of every great city, as'well as representatives of all the Governments. iVith such an imposing directorate the company has had no difficulty in obtaining Government subsidies to the extent of thirteen million marks voted annually by the Reich for commercial aviation. In addition, the Nineteenth Century writer points out, there are the credits voted by individual towns and cities for aerodiomes. ,

GERMANY’S AERIAL SERVICES.

In 1925 alone, thirty German towns voted thirteen million marks for aviation —eight millions for aerodromes and nearly fire million for interests in air lines passing through their territory, and the remainder for lines of local interest. Berlin possesses the greatest air station in Germany, and it is also .the greatest in the world. “The port (the Nineteenth Century writer states) is constructed on the Tempelhofer Feld, where the ex-Kaiser revived his famous Guards before the war. Night flying is not only a speciality in Germany but an ordinary occurrence at the Tempelhofer Feld where many airplanes, fitted with sleepers, leave the aerodrome at all hours of the night and early morning.” The writer of the article we quote witnessed fifteen airplanes leave on times within half-an-hour of his arrival shortly after ten o’clock on a recent Friday, one machine proceeding to Amsterdam, another to Leipsig, Nurnberg and Munich, another with twelve passengers to Malmo, while others proceeded to Danzig and Koenigsberg, Essen and Cologne, Vienna and Budapest. The German machines are all made of metal, the wings and fuselage being constructed of duraluminium, treated in a special way, steel being used on the essential parts. Every passenger in buying his ticket automatically insures himself to the extent qjE 25,000 marks in case of death, or 25 marks a day in case of accident as long as he remains under medical care. An Albatross iftachine flies between Berlin, Malmo ' and Copenhagen, ( leaving Berlin late at night and arriving at Copenhagen the following morning. It is fitted with comfortable armchairs, which are let down at night to form beds. It carries eight passengers. A Berlin-Pekin service is contemplated via Moscow during the coming summer. Last summer the Luft Hansa ran a line from Berlin to Koenigsberg and Moscow’, in conjunction with the Rus-sian-Goynan company ~ Deruluft, and tnlr Russian manager of the latter company ds Arranging for a service between Koenigsberg and Moscow for which he is purchasing German machines. German influence is supreme in all these services, even the'Deruluft Company being dominated by German capital. As bearing upon the disarmament question it is interesting to note that the latest type of German airplanes are capable of being easily converted into fighting machines of formidable strength. While Great Britain has not been idle, it is unable to show anything like the progress in commercial aviation that Germiny has made, but Britain is not so advantageously placed for becoming a great centre for commercial lines, although its aviators more than hold their own w'th those of other countries and have flown greater distances.