MOSQUITO PROTECTION

Southland Times, Issue 23000, 21 September 1936, Page 2

MOSQUITO PROTECTION

EMPIRE AIR ROUTES.

AFRICAN LANDING GROUNDS.

London, August 26.

Precautions against the most dangerous stowaway in the world have cost Imperial Airways hundreds of thousands of pounds. The stowaway is the fever-bearing mosquito. A man who has flown 14,000 miles over “darkest Africa” in search for more aerodrome and landing sites for Britain’s air services is Mr W. K. Brett. As the representative of a famous oil company, he has submitted a report to Imperial Airways on the conditions under which new petrol and oil stations can be established in Africa. Conditions which are inconceivable to those whose flying has been done in temperate zones are frequently encountered in Africa. Tropical thunderstorms, sand-storms which make flying impossible, and dust clouds which reduce visibility to that of a London fog, have all to be guarded against. In addition to the recognized landing places, scores of sub-stations and emergency landing grounds must therefore be prepared, and each of these must be free of the yellow fever and malaria-bearing mosquito. For an area of one and a-half miles around each aerodrome every pool and potential breeding ground must be sterilized.