NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19471, 29 October 1926, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

AEROPLANES OR MOTOR-CARS.

"So far as garage space is concerted, the light aeroplane is brought within the resources of anybody. We are told that even now, when the demand has still to be created, these machines cost little more than a motor-car of medium power and on a long journey their running costs are less than those of a motor-car," says the London Daily Telegraph. "It is already a machine which a numbei 1 of middle-class people can afford to buy and use; it can be flown bv anybody physically fit. We shall expect that, as time goes on, a considerable number of young men will have light planes of their own. But we are not prepared to predict that the light aeroplane will ever become what the motor-car is now. a universally popular means of locomotion. The uso of the aeroplane as a means of transport is one thing, its use as a means of pleasure is quite another. Inventive genius may silence its engine, may enable it to start and come down again on a little suburban lawn. But we do not see the suburban family taking much delight in a flight over the countryside at week-ends. The scenery is better on the ground." THE GOVERNMENT OF SYRIA. Discussing recent changes in the personnel of the administration of the French mandate in Syria, the Economist observes that south-eastern Syria seems to have fallen into a chronic condition of guerilla warfare, which finds its parallels in the condition of Macedonia under the Ottoman regime before the first Balkan War, or in that of Southern Ireland during the darkest days before the estabment of the Free State. The French hold the principal towns by sheer military force, and are able to keep open, or rather perpetually to reopen, the principal linos of communication between them ; but the open country is in the hands of the Dtuse and Moslem nationalist bands, which are not intimidated by French punitive measures, and show no signs of giving in. The ill-success of the French mandate in Syria adds to the difficulty of administering the British mandates in the adjoining countries of Palestine and Irak, so that mere self-interest makes Great Britain eager to see the French position retrieved. It is high time, however, for the French Government and the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League to put their heads together and not to shrink even from drastic new departures. Great Britain, on her own initiative, rcmodellod her whole relation to Irak after the great revolt of 1920. The results of this change have been happy, and they might well provide a precedent for a new regime in Syria. There is an urgent need for some regime thero which will not only put an end to the present miseries of the Syrian people, but will prevent this country from being, as it is at present, a danger to the whole Middle East.