The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1924. GERMANY’S AIR POWER

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11735, 24 January 1924, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1924. GERMANY’S AIR POWER

A not© of -warning with regard to Germany’s great and rapidly-growing airpower ie struck in the December number of the “Aeronautical Digest,” the leading authority in the United States in respect to aviation matters. Because of the collapse of Allied control over the development and expansion of German aviation, states the “Digest,” aeronautical developments in Germany are. attracting considerable attention among army and navy officials in the United States and in other countries. Though it may seem somewhat of an Irishism to say so, the greatest *‘aeronautical developments in Germany” are taking place outside of Germany, particularly in Russia. Owing to the stringent regulations imposed upon Germany in regard to the purchase and building of aeronautical equipment, we are told, Germany went over into Russia, and, under cover of developing Russia’s airways, has built factories and gathered together vast supplies of raw material for turning out enormous quantities of aircraft. Authoritative reports place the number of aircraft on the German building programme in Russia at five thousand by May Ist, 1924. Just howmany of this number have already been built, and how many are available at the present moment for military use in Germany, is the question being asked in Washington. "It is not beyond the bounds of reason (adds the “Aeronautical Digest”) to suppose that the commercial treaties and agreements which made it possible for Germany to start on such a programme include provisions granting Germany the use in time of war or emergency of practically all the equipment built. The number now available is estimated at fifteen hundred aeroplanes for military use.” We should say that, not only is it “not beyond the hounds of reason to suppose,’’ but it is very certain that Germany has included the suggested provisions in her commercial treaties with Russia. Even if she had not done so, it is, assuredly, beyond the hounds of reason to suppose that any little oversight of that sort would prevent Germany making use in wartime of all the aeronautical equipment she oould, whether by hook or by crook, lay her hands on. There can be no reasonable doubt whatever that the Russo-German aeronautical developments were engineered for that very purpose; that the Russian airways will afford ideal and almost unlimited facilities for the training of German air-pilots; snd that practically all the pilots employed on these airlines will he Germans, or, at the very least, in the closest sympathy with Germany. Under such circumstances, nothing on earth could stop Germany, in case of war or emergency of any other kind—civil disturbances, for example—commandeering all the aeroplanes available. Signs are not wanting, moreover,

I that she is making ample j>rovision for having at call, not only all the aeroplanes but all the airships she may require. It is announced in the “Aeroplane,” a British __ paper devoted to aeronautics, that the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company, of Akron, Ohio, has purchased the entire constructional rights of the Zeppelin airship in the United States, together with the rights to manufacture all motors and accessories for rigid airships of the Zeppelin type. This transaction between the Goodyear Tyre Company and the Zeppelin Werke, Germany, is stated to he due to the clause in the Treaty of Versailles limiting all airships built in Germany to a maximum capacity of 30,000 cubic metres. “Details of the transaction are not yet known,” says the “Aeroplane,” “but it can be taken for granted that at least half the shares in any joint undertaking will remain in German hands.” The “Aeronautical Digest,” on the other hand, declares that the control of the undertaking is definitely in the hands of the Goodyear Company. Even so, however, it will probably mean the employment of a good many German exports and German workmen in the manufacture of super-Zeppelins in America, thus enabling the Germans to keep abreast of tho latest developments in tho building of airships; and one cannot but feel that, in case of international complications, great care would need to he exercised to see to it that the super-Zeppelins were not stolen away to Germany (little more than a two-days’ journey, it must ho remembered); or, if they could not be stolen, irretrievably damaged in some way. The same applies to the Societie Anonym© de Navigation Arienne, which has acquired the license to build Zeppelins in France. The United States and France are of the ' Allies; and all that is suggested in these cases is that it is very necessary to keep a very watchful eye open when dealing in these matters with Germany. But, in the case of Spain, it appears that Germany is doing with regard to airships just exactly what 6he is doing in Russia so far as aeroplanes are concerned. It now appears, states the “Aeroplane,” of November 14th last, that the Spanish company formed some time ago to run a service with Zeppelin airships between Seville and the Argentine is likely to begin operations very shortly. The company has already purchased the 6ite for the terminal air-port at Seville, and foreign constructors have been invited to tender for parts of the material needed, including 6heds at Seville, for which at least one British firm has submitted estimate®. Two types of airships will be used by the company. Small airships, within the dimensions authorised by tho Peace Treaty, will be built in Germany, and used on a service between the mainland and the Canary Islands. These will be based in Germany, and will be used for instructional purposes. Two big airships for the trans-Atlantic service will he built and based at Seville under license held by the Spanish company from the Zeppelin Werke. Government authority to contract with a private firm for this service was granted in July, 1922, on a basis of pecuniary concessions in the form of a mail contract and State assistance towards the construction of the Seville air-port, which would become Spanish Government property within fifty years. The dangers inherent in these aeronautical developments are very obvious; so obvious that they, surely, cannot be overlooked by the Allies. The Inter-Allied Control Commission ought to be able to take some steps to deal witli the matter; and it should also be competent for tho Reparations Experts Committees to institute strict inquiries as to how it is that Germany cannot, or will not, make her reparations payments, but can find the money to finance, or help finance, these great aeroplane and airship ventures. The urgent need for 60 strengthening the League of Nations that it can exercise the needed control in these directions, is also becoming increasingly manifest. As the cynical small boy said, “ ‘Birds in their little, nests agree,’ because they would fall out if they didn’t”; and the world, what with the airship and the aeroplane, is now so shrunken in size, that tiie nations must hasten to agree to live together in peace and harmony, or they will fall out, with most disastrous results to our Christian civilisation and to the race.