LONDON NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19008, 2 November 1923, Page 4

LONDON NOTES.

ITEMS FROM ALL SOURCES. SERIOUS AEROPLANE CRASH. TRADE WITH RUSSIA. “NEVER-STOP” RAILWAY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, September 18. A demonstration inaugurated by. the Deputy Mayor of Southend (Sir John Francis) of the “Never-Stop system of continuous passenger service was given last Saturday on a full-size ' railway line 300 yards long, containing a 1 in 20 gradient at tho Kursaal Gardens. The line consisted of two parallel tracks about 6ft apart from centre to centre, and the. carriages travelled continuously round tho circuit. One of the remarkable features of tho system is that largo radius loops are not required at, the ends, for the “up” and “down’’ lines are connected by bends of no more than 3ft radius. The coaches, which are coupled and hold 12 passengers, are propelled by a revolving spiral, laid between the tracks and carried on spokes projecting from a massive steel tube. From the under frame of tho coach suspends an arm carrying two vertical rollers that engage with the spiral. At the stations the pitch of the spiral is very fine, and between stations ihe pitch is very coarse. Tho result is that the coaches pass through the stations at a. speed suffi cientlv slow to enable passengers to enter or alight from the car in the same way as they now board or leave an escalator. As the car leaves tho station it can be rapidlv accelerated up to a high speed, and then smoothly but swifty decelerated as the next station is apnroached. The driving power is provided by electric motors, placed' at intervals along the line. The car wheels arc shod with hard rubber and run on flat rails, while the usual flangen on the wheels are replaced by rubber shod guide rollers running between guide tracks placed between tho rails. NO STATE BUILDING INSURED. Tho alarming fact that Buckingham Palace is of “entirely non-fireproof construction. and subject to the greatest risks” is revealed in the report of the Royal Commission on Fire Brigades and Fire Prevention, which was appointed in January. 1921. It is also declared that Somerset House, which is also of non-fireproof construction, is “a source of great anxiety to tho Office of Works” —which can well be believed, having regard to tho priceless documents stored within its walls. No Government buildings arc even insured, no matter what mav be their value or that of their contents. “Some of them.” the commissioners state “are subject to serious risks from defective lighting or heating installations, or tho use of inflammable materials in their construction; and in some there is the risk of their being involved if an outbreak should occur in adjacent premises.’” It is pointed out by the commission that 23 fires occurred in Government buildings in the year ending December, 1920, eight of which were attributed to short circuits due to defects in old electrical installations. “It is perhaps fortunate,” observes the report, “that all these incidents occurred in the ‘active’ hours.” TRADE WITH RUSSIA. In view of the favourable reports recently made regarding Russia’s ability to trade and her increaseing prosperity, a letter to The Times from the pen of Sir Charles R. Hunter is perhaps a useful reminder of what Russia has absorbed in the wav of British-owned properties. “In 1917 all British-owned properties were confiscated by decree,” says Sir Charles Hunter. “These properties, comprised in the main of great textile and agricultural machinery factories, timber properties with their mills, oil properties and their works, mining properties and their plants, are valued at £130,000,000. Since that date no move has been made on the part of the Soviet authorities to return to their rightful owners their properties confiscated from them. Neither do wo note, in any of the published interviews with the British traders lately returned from (Moscow, .that any reference was made by them to properties confiscated. The reason is obvious; few, if any, of the British traders were in the true sense owners of actual standing property. Some of them are no doubt claimants for moneys seized in, the bank or in the safes of their agencies. A sum amounting to about £52,000,000 lias been advanced to Russia in tho past by British nationals, secured by Government railway and municipal bonds and used for tho purpose of building their railways and improving their cities. This s um has also been confiscated, while tho Soviet Government have the full use of the railways and the benefits of the cities accruing from these moneys. “We now come to the case of the 2000 odd British subjects who were resident in Russia ac the time of the revolution, since repatriated and starving in England. Most of them 'were owners of small properties, houses, and furniture and effects. Many of them have suffered in Bolshevist prisons. They have lost everything they possessed, and the Soviet authorities have made no signs of any intention of indemnifying them. Many British subjects who died in Petrograd in years past have been buried in the British cemeteries there. Quite recently some of their relatives in England were notified that unless they provided a sum of 150,000,090 roubles the bodies would be dug up and tho bones scattered ! In face of the foreign statements, which have been put as briefly as possible to bring- thorn within the compass of a letter, can any firm or bank be expected lo grant either credit or confidence to a Government which has violated every feeling of decency and every principle on which honesty—‘without which there can be no trade’—is based?” WHAT BUSINESS MEN DRINK. On the other hand, the Financial Times seems to consider that the time xvill come when Russia will make an attempt to fulfil her obligations. “Welcome evidence of the steadily improving relations between ourselves and Russia,’ says the writer of a loading article, “is afforded by the fact that telegrams between tho two countries now pass uncensored, and that there is a growing belief among business men who have recently been in actual contact with Russian interests that, a real settlement of the debt question will only be possible when Russia has been so far re-admitted to the comity of nations as to make it worth substantial sacrifice on ber part to retain her place there by fulfilling recognised conventions. Wo believe it is not unlikely that the President of the Reconstruction Committee at Moscow will shortly come to London, and tho opportunity will bo an excellent one for further exploring the numerous ways in which British trade can recover its ascendancy in Russia.” FIVE KILLED IN AIR CRASH. Five persons, including the two pilots, were killed by the crashing of tho London to Manchester air mail last week at tho village of Iviughoe, in Buckinghamshire, near tho borders of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. The accident occurred at a time when a heavy storm broke over tho district. Rain was pouring in torrents, and it appeared that tho machine was in trouble as flying very low, it approached the village. Evidently an attempt, was being made to laud in the field in which the aeroplane crashed. 'lbis disaster, which breaks the long-en-joyed immunity of British air lines from serious accidents, appears to have been due to bad weather; but there may have been contributory causes. The death of the occupants and tho destruction of tho machine cut out the possibility of direct evidence. The observations of eye-witnesses suggest three points —namely, that the pilot was seeking a landing place, that his engine had not failed, and that ho was attempting a “side-slip” lauding. One of the eye-witnesses of tho accident thus describes it: “Shortly before 6 o’clock I heard a machine coming from tho direction of London. She was flying at, a. low altitude. It was raining very hard at the time, and the mist mid the rain made visibility rather bad. The machine was not very high -in fact, no higher than three times the length of some elm trees on the roadside. '1 bn machine rarno over the village of Ivinghce, as if looking for a place to land. The engine seemed to bo working all right, because no unusual sounds came from it. 'Hie machine descended lower and lower, and on reaching one end of the field seemed to be in tbo act of turning, as if to have the whole length of (he field before her in which to land. She had almost got round when the engine stopped suddenly with a loud report. The machine turned sideways and crashed to the ground. Hie propeller, which was still revolving, dug a deep hole in the ground. The nose of the machine then struck tin earth. Tho aeroplane quivered all over, rebounded a yard or two with the tail ■ perfectly upright, and then completely collapsed.”

Dr Johnstone Harris, of Leighton Buzzard, who was the first doctor to arrive, said ho found a heap of wreckage in the hold about 60yds from the ro:/i. People) who bad reached the spot earlier had already removed the bodies and covered them with tarpaulins. The doctor found in each ~i ise a iractured skull and broken limbs. All the bodies were terribly mangled, A RUNAWAY AEROPLANE. From Calais there comes a strange story () f an aeroplane which leaped out of control and ftew away with nobody on hoard. A French airman was starting the, motor c ids machine at Drucat-le-Plessiel Aerodrome when he was suddenly called away and lei (lie machine unguarded. A few minutes later the aeroplane was seen to taxi slowl;. along the grass. It increased its speed gradually until it had reached a height 50ft, soaring above the heads of the mechanics. Then the machine ro.so and quickly disappeared in the clouds. Search parties scoured (he country for several miles round, as it was expen that the pilotless aeroplane would soon crash, but at nightfall operations had to be abandoned. They were resumed in the morning with renewed energy, ami scores ci people joined in the search for the runaway aeroplane. It is believed that the machine's escape was due to the pilot having left i without having first pulled buck certain levers.