A. A. Guns Called'Cheese

Northern Advocate, 18 May 1949, Page 5

A. A. Guns Called'Cheese

LONDON. Tue. (11 a.m.) —A “fantastic story, in which truth is sometimes stranger than fiction,” was the way in which the prosecutor at Bow Street Court described a series of events ( which led to charges of gunrunning by air against a company and its director. 1

The charges involved the carrying of arms by plane from Karachi to Hyderabad in July, 1948. , The Aeronautical and Industrial Research Corporation, of Curzon Place, Mayfair, and Australian-born Frederick Sidney Cotton, its chairman and managing director, were each fined £2OO and each ordered to pay £3OO COStS ” PLEAS OF GUILTY The corporation and Cotton pleaded guilty to two summonses alleging contravention of the international air navigation orders relating to the carrying of .arms and ammunition. The prosecutor said Cotton arranged with the commander of the Hyderabad Army to fly arras from Karachi to Hyderabad and facilities were supplied for this at Karachi. Anns and munitions were always described, as “fruit and vegetables,” and Aerlikon anti-aircraft guns were called “cheese.”

The contract which Cotton signed with 'a well-known Hyderabad businessman said £40p,000 was to be paid to the corporation or Cotton, of which half was to be paid before the operation started, and for each round trip £4OOO was to be paid for each plane. LARGE SUMS Other large sums changed hands, Including £140,000, which was placed to Cotton’s account in London at Barclays. Bank. The planes made two trips daily. Mr Russell Vick, K.C., who appeared for Cotton, said that in one particular lot of summonses Cotton found he was not breaking the law, and in another lot that he was.

“He had no ’idea that he was doing anything illegal,” he said.