STRATOSPHERE FLIGHTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19128, 24 September 1936, Page 14

STRATOSPHERE FLIGHTS

NEW GERMAN BOMBERS TESTS IN SEPTEMBER LONDON. July 8. Germany's new six-ret stratosphere bombers, which have not yet been seen by the public, "are expected to lake part iiii air manoeuvres on a grand scale which will be held at Halle, near Leipzig, probably in September. A large number of the German Air Force machines will take part. • Halle, where I lie great refineries and dumps of the Luna petrol concern—the largest petrol producers in Germany-—are situated, is 103 miles from the Czeehosipvakian frontier. Aii invadinr -fleet of bombers will

"attack'* the Luna works. As the heavy twin-engined Dornicr and triple-engined Junkers bombers appear, converging on Halle from the south and east, swarms of fast fighter machines will rise to intercept them, and a mock battle will be -waged in mid-air. /According to the Berlin correspondent of the Daily -Mail, German engineers have for some time past been concentrating on the development of the new "stratosphere bombers." capable of fiy ing at 20,000 to 30,000 ft,, flying outside the range of any anti-aircraft guns •German Army experiments, in spraying poison From aeroplanes, alleged •to have, been watched by Hen- Hitler during a secret visit to an aviation centre m Mecklenburg lasting a> week, are described in a Berlin message to the organ of. the. German emigres in oris. Recalling that during the week. June 14-20. Hei-r Hitler disappeared from 'public vjew, the message declares that he was visiting aviation centres, the principal purpose, being to watch tests of an apparatus for disseminating liquid poison from the. air. These, it is slated, were being undertaken -as the result of the Abyssiniart campaign, 'in' which this method of gas'warfare was demonstrated for the hrst time by the Italian airmen. 'Two old Fokker machines were used in the German tests., it is stated, it being pretended that they were intended to be used for attacking" a pestilent spider which ravages the pine forests. The liquid used was of a brownish-yellow colour, and was sprayed from receptacles in the wings of the aeroplane. The equipment was. handled by men wearing protective clothing. Tile "aeroplanes tiy low and release the sprav in clouds. The Gloster Gladiator, the R.A.F. s latest, fighter,: is now being supplied to British squadrons. Carrying four Vickexs guns—two in the fuselage and two in the wings—night flying gear, navigation lights, two-way wireless, and oxygen apparatus, the Gladiator climbs 20,000 ft. in nine minutes. Her ceiling of 6| miles above sea level almost makes her a stratosphere aeroplane. Landing speed is £9 miles an hour. COCKERELS' CHORUS INJUNCTION GRANTED "DE-MTLITAEISED ZONE" LONDON", July 9. Nominal damages of £1 were awarded Ly -Mr. justice Greaves-Lord, in the ii-uigs Bencu Division yesterday, to a camey resilient who complained of the noise created by VcO cockerels. John Aibert Leeman, of Thorpe Cottage, ihorpe, Surrey, sued the Hon. Gerald Samuel Montagu, owner of- BlacK Lake Poultry Farm, Egham, claiming an injunction restraining him from continuing an alleged nuisance. Montagu's defence, was that the noise was one that might be expected on the countryside, and he also pleaded that he was unable to move .the cockerels to another part of his farm. The judge granted the injunetion,asked for, with Costs, but suspended its operation for'a month. He indicated areas on the farm where the cockerels might be kept so as nob to cause a breach of the iuj unction. Recalling evidence previously given, Mr. Justice Greaves-Lord remarked: "'When a cockerel starts to crow another tries to beat it. In process: of time the others are not content to lie idle. At, last yon get pandemonium because of the whole 750 joining in the competition." . ' . . . . ' "DE-MILITARISED" Mr. John Morris, K.C. (for Leeman), .suggested that the cockerels should not -.. be kept within' a certain number of yards of Thorpe Cottage. • "If Montagu kept the cockerels within tile 'de-militarised zone,' " continued Mr. Morris, "we should know that, if necessary, we could come to Your Lordship for sanctions straight away." Giving judgment, Mr. Justice GreavesLord said "that Montagu" took a keen interest in his poultry farm. "Unfortunately," he added, "by reason of that keenness, I • cannot help thinking-, that Montagu has not quite taken a view which, in other circumstances, he would have taken. "That , has been the position very much pf. the. National. Poultry -Councii. which became; I "thih^'ratlfer"obsessed with; air" absolutely exaggerated view of wh?t this case means. "This case does not mean the destrue tion of large numbers of farms up and down the country. Nor does it mean that any decision in this case is of vital importance to poultry breeders. It is a case which stands purely on its ! own facts,- having regard to the district in which it occurs." . This was an area which, by no stretch of imagination, could be called a purely agricultural neighbourhood. Conditions at Cottage were absolutely i".

tolerable. The difficulty was to deal with the matter without doing irreparable injury to Montagu's farm.