VERSAILLES TREATY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 89, 13 March 1935, Page 7

VERSAILLES TREATY

BREACH BY GERMANY. INTIMATION TO BRITAIN. AIR, FORCE RANKS. (Unitfed Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received March 13, 9.4.5 a.m. LONDON, March 12. It is learned in London that the German Air Ministry on Saturday informed the British Air Attache at Berlin of the intention that the men chosen as officers in tlie air force from March 1 should wear uniforms and lie given rank accordingly. This is' the first official intimation of Germany’s intention to break the part of the Versailles Treaty denying her an air force, whose existence, however, is not yet officially admitted. It is understood that Germany has similarly informed the other Powers. A MILITARY BODY. COMPLETE TRANSITION. (Times Cables.) LONDON, A larch 12. The Berlin correspondent of the Times reveals that the German air force actually came into official, existence on March 1, when officers of the “Reich Air Sport Federation” were commissioned with military rank. The correspondent points out that the uniforms of these officers have recently become almost identical with the Reicliswehr’s, except for the colour of the cloth and the absence of the sword which senior officers suddenly started wearing a week ago while juniors wore a new dirk slung by two straps, similar to that carried by German naval officers. Other ranks continue to wear- a knife slung by a single strap, but once they are equipped with bayonets it will mark the complete transition of the air force from a semi-military organisation to a full military force.

COMMENT BY “PERTINAN.” PRESERVATION OF PEACE. Received March 13, 9.15 a.m. PARIS, March 12. “Pertinax,” writing in the Echo de Paris, referring to the confession of the German authorities that military aviation on April 1 takes its place among the regular forces of the Reich, says: Three years ago Britain and France could have stopped the rearmament which is going to break loose. ’The opportunity, however, was lost and peace can be saved only if Germany judges from the defence measures of her neighbours that war would not be without peril for her. “Her Hitler has given the AngloGerman negotiations a tenor which tluur original instigators certainly had not wished for,” he adds.