Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 17 March 1939, Page 6

Timely Topics

A striking proof of the freedom land tolerance of France is the fact 'that more than twenty years after the

Arm istice a substantial portion of ' her

THE FRANCE THAT SPEAKS GERMAN.

1 citizens in Alsace and Lorraine still speak a local i form of German as their daily language (says John Hayes). They do so i openly and without fear. The majority of the local newspapers are published in the German language. Some ’of the theatres and cinemas put on I German language shows and display ! German talking films. The traveller [uses GeiTnr.n, or may use it, even to ;the clerks in post offices and railway > stations; and the chances are that these workers are using it in conversation among themselves. The street signs are in both languages\and often the German sign is above the French as, for example, in Strasbourg where a familiar square [is labelled boldly Eisenermannsplatz, and below, in smaller letters/ Place de I’Homme-de-For. The policemen throughout this region will respond quite as promptly and agreeably to questions in German as in French. .g e? ea a ■ “It is idle to attempt to "forecast the exact shape of things to come, but it is a comparatively easy matter to

1 j TRAFFIC WITHOUT FRONTIERS.

visualise an approximate picture of ' aviation in,

say, twenty years’ time,” writes Miss Amy Johnson, in “'Chambers’ Journal.”

“That flying will then be the accepted method of transport for long distances there can be no doubt. Aviation, must, by its very nature, be international, as it annihilates earthly boundaries, and there are no boundaries in the air, except, perhaps, upwards. - Aviation must, therefore, either be co-operative amongst all nations, or cease to progress. That is obvious. The main advantage of an aeroplane is that it can. take the shortest line between places of departure and destination. Its selling point is speed. Comfort, cost and utility are largely sacrificed to speed. If, therefore, because of international complications, an air-line is obliged to deviate from that, shortest path, and specially if, by doing so, it is taken away from territories of greatest population and trade, so that it has no chance to pay for commercially, it loses its chief sales appeal, with no compensation for it.”