NOT ARMING SECRETLY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21018, 6 May 1930, Page 12

NOT ARMING SECRETLY.

GERMANY INVITES EXPERT ■INSPECTION. WAR MATERIAL SOLD. To put an end to the ever-recurring marge that Germany is arming secretly sy. the maintenance of armament factories, war aviation plants, aud chemical laboratories outside her own borders, notibljr m neutral countries like Holland and soviet Russia, fhe authorities at these factories have invited military and scientific jxperts from allied and neutral countries to come and inspect their stock and carry it away at bargain prices. The so-called plants are really storage places of raw material which Germany svas to get rid of under the provisions of the Versailles Treaty, but which was judged too expensive for destruction, and lienee was moved outside the country. American military experts, among them Lieutenant-colonel Wesson, military attache at the London Embassy, and Major Zormg, from the Berlin Embassy, have been going over the material in the various storage plants in Holland, where all the rigidly-guarded war secrets that .enabled the Kaiser's army to maintain its superiority over the Allied forces for a long time,_ are for sale. . The United States is not buying extensively, but the smaller nations, such as Holland, Belgium, Czecho-slovakia, and the Scandinavian countries, are in the market for range-finders, searchlights, optical goods, and naval fire control devices. Moscow also has sent several Red army chiefs to see. what can be picked up. The heaviest buyers are the Japanese and the Italians. The sale was opened some weeks ago, while The Hague Conference was in session. The military experts connected with the conference took, a day off to travel to the German storage plant at Hengelo at the invitation of the Germans, to watch the effect of anti-aircraft range-finders. These machines had not been perfected at the time the war ended, and so none appeared , among the war material surrendered by Germany to the Allies. The Zeiss Company of Dresden continued the experiments on Dutch ter ritory, and has now invited foreign Powers, regardless of wartime hostility, to take their pick. A new type of machine gun lias been evolved since the war. It is superior to anything that ever appeared on the Western front. The soviets have bought the models and patents at Venio. Of enormous interest to the international experts is a new type of antiaircraft searchlight, the beams of which were powerful enough to pierce the fat and murky clouds of Holland in winter time. It is equipped with a special set of microphones that enable the operator to hear the whirring of aeroplanes thousands of feet_ above the clouds. An extraordinary device_ connected with the microscope automatically keeps the beams focused upon ,an electrically-driven aeroplane. The aeroplane was brought down in flames within 70 seconds after the novel range-finding device for anti-aircraft guns had been put in operation. This perfected anti-aircraft fire control looks somewhat like a radio receiving set. and a buzzing sound was heard when the distance, speed and height of the aeroplane was established. This worked out the angle of fire automatically. As a demonstration of its efficiency an electrically-driven aeroplane travelling 90 miles an hour, at a height of 8000 feet was brought down in -a little over a; minute’s time. This exhibit was withdrawn on. the following day, and representatives from Japan, who had come rushing from London, were told that the item had been disposed of. The buyer’s identity was not disclosed-