WINGED MONSTERS OF THE SKIES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14043, 28 April 1920, Page 2

WINGED MONSTERS OF THE SKIES.

AVIATION SEEN THROUGH INDIAN EYES. (By H. G. Perry.) ; ' 'BOMBAY. It., has often been said that in the land of the ox we must not expect the speed of the motor-car. Changes come gradually in India. Perhaps it is best that they should. So it is not surprising that. India, lias not yet ■ realised the commercial value of, aviation. The Indian mind is suspicious of all things novel and revolutionary. The inhabitant of the jungle village still flees in terror from thp noise of the winged monster of tho" skies, and. the business riian in the city still regards the aeroplane more as art e:%iensive toy than as a machine of commercial use. The winning of the Daily Express prize will convince him more than anything else of the practicability of commercial aviation. But a. great deal of money will have to be sunk in India before commercial aviation begins to pay. Although from the aviator's point of view the Bombay-Karachi aerial mail service has been a complete success, cutting off forty hours from a- railway journey .of forty-six hours, it has been a. financial failure. The expenses of a single journey have been calculated at R5.5,000, and there is always possible the loss of £9,000 in capital if one of the De Haviland machines crashes, but never up to the present has the revenue;, exc-eeded Rs.soo—-not nearly sufficient to pay for the petrol consumed. Yet the fact remains that India is a country which will benefit more, probably, than any other from the development of overseas commercial aviation. It is the half-way house between England and Australia—the central.link in - the great imperial chain which will join up the Motherland with her far-flung possessions in, three continents. The wings of aerial commerce will annihilate the. vast distances of the Indian Empire. The 2000 miles between Peshawar- a.nd Tuticorin may be bridged in twentyfour hours. The lame is bound to come when even Delhi and Simla tfill lose their splendid isolation. The Viceroy will have his private plane, and will .find it possible to give attention to affairs" of State in the Government capital one day and settle some knotty provincial problem ip Bombay or Calcutta, 'tlio* next. Provincial Governors may spend days' in the presidency towns.' The harassed commissioner or collector, with a. huge tract of country over which he must, keep vigil, will save many days of weary railway travelling by'stepping into bis aerial landau and being whirled •away, to the place where lie" is most wanted—and least, expected. There is another reason why Tndia should and must develop aircraft. She has thousands of miles of seaboard undefended; hundreds of miles of troublesome frontier. The amount she can "spend in unproductive defence work is very small;- to the amount which flic can spend on reproductive defence work there is no limit. Every plane which operates in India, is a potential fighting unit in case of necessity. Substantial Government subsidies to foster commercial aviation in this country s would be..tnia economy: • There are at pre«eirb .two aviation companies carrying on business in India. They nro not likely to secure , quick returns, but they are doing most valuable work which is bringing: apprei .biablj'.nearer the time when commercial

nnation \vi)l •+>e l established on ir firm [ financial basis. 1 ■ ' 1 Eighteen months figo poopiu in India hiicT'tveri seen "an. nerdplaiie; ! now "the mio tor-car in . the air" ,is the ' talk of the bazaars. | It is a hopeful sign: ■