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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 1410.PDF
"DECEMBER 12, 1918 V THAT arch-brute the Bavarian ex-Crown Prince Rupprechtappears to be in chastened mind just now, aiter the collapse of the Hun machinations. What saints these one-timebloodthirsty villains have suddenly become. Apparently Ludendorfi, or Hindenburg, or any other old thing is the realvillain of the piece—not peace—and these Hunnish royalties were from the first out all the time advocating gentle per-suasion rather than the mailed fist. In fact by most of their present utterances they seem as if they were trying to qualifyfor super-Conchies. According to some " revelations " in the Bayerischer Kurier this is the latest version of a bit ofholy work by the gentle Rupprecht : " During the last days of the war Rupprecht learned thata striking invention had been made by a German engineer. A new type of bomb had been made, and the plan was thatGerman airmen should drop several thousands of these on Paris, and that a quarter of the French capital should be seton fire and destroyed. Rupprecht at once protested vigorously fb the Chancellor, with the result that von Hintzewent to Ludendorfi and prevented the use of the new type of bomb." We don't think ! AN " Air Survey " is a suggestion emanating from Mr. A.Mackenzie, of Moor-AUerton Lodge, Leeds. Mr. Mackenzie, writing, puts his suggestion as follows :— " Now that the Royal Air Force have comparativelylittle to do, would it not be possible to utilise their services until demobilisation in surveying the country by means ofaerial photographs ? Mosaics of these were of the greatest value in France for the purpose of siting the objects of military M. Tonso, the mechanic, who acted as assistant toCapt. Laureati in his flight from Turin to London, has, we regret to learn, just died in Italy of influenza.Above is a photograph of M. Tonso, taken at the time of the memorable flight. importance, such as earthworks, to the best advantage,and they would be undoubtedly of equal value to architects, surveyors, estate agents, and others, in developing landand in simplifying labour and drainage problems. I can speak with confidence as to the value of aeroplane photo-graphs in designing golf courses, which, although in itself of minor importance, is nevertheless an indication of itspossibilities in other directions." The idea is quite good, but evidently Mr. Mackenzie does• not follow the cult of the club, or he would never have dared to suggest a golf-course being of " minor importance." Justask any plus man what he thinks about it. No wonder the Briton gets there every time :—" Kindly reserve two stalls—front row centre if possible— for the evening performance on Monday, 17th, 1919. Ishould be much obliged if you could arrange this, although somewhat in advance. Circumstances prevent my obtainingseats under normal circumstances at the moment.—Faith- fully, W. E. L. Courtney, Lt." This was the matter-of-fact postcard received on De-cember 3rd from an R.A.F. officer by the Alhambra manage- ment, London, dated October 31st, from the English prisoners'lager for officers at Koln, Deutschland, and vis6d " Limburg, 58," by the German authorities. WHY should the Anarchial Extremist have a fictitious haloaround him by the adoption of the puzzling appellation of " Bolshevist." The latter just means and stands for " Ex-tremist," and let this for the future be the plain title by which these anarchist gentry are known. The term Bolshevistsuggests some mysterious mission, which these assassins do not possess—beyond barefaced robbery, unrestricted murderand annexation of everything portable or otherwise. No living person, whether he or she class themselves underlabour or anything else, who has so much as one single item of worldly possession or a one pound war bond to his or hername can afford to be an Extremist, for it means parting with their wordly possession, small or large, to the first ofthese cut throat " Extremist" assassins who happens their way. That's all there is in the " Extremists' " (alias " Bol-shevists ") single commandment—plunder and murder. IF our people want a picture of what Bolshevism standsfor, study what M. Oudendyk, Dutch Minister in Petrograd, has to say upon the subject, after personal experience of itsatrocities. Read :— " I wish to give a solemn warning to the working classesof all nations against the high-falutin' notions which I have seen in Russia, and which have brought such disastrous resultsalready to that country. Bolshevism, I say without ex- aggeration, is the end of civilisation. I have known Russiaintimately for 20 years, under the old regime and under the new conditions. Never have the working classes of Russiasuffered as they are doing at the present moment, notwith- standing all that the present so-called ruling classes in thatcountry choose to tell the world. Factories are at a standstill and are being ruined, and without the aid of foreign capitalthey can never be resuscitated. I have never seen nor dreamt of the possibility of such corruption, tyranny, and the absenceof all semblance of freedom, as there is in Russia at the present • moment. Translated into practice the five points of Bolshe-vism really come to this : (1) High wages ; (2) don't work ; (3) take other people's property ; (4) no punishment ; (5)no taxation. And I suppose there will always be a certain number of people who will adopt a programme which inpractice amounts to this. That is why, having seen myself the disastrous effects of this policy on all classes of society, •I take the first opportunity on my arrival in England to warn the public. The bulk of the workmen in Russia are to-day far andaway worse off than they ever have been, and the state of unemployment is simply terrible. When I left Petrogradthe situation was one of utter starvation, and most people hardly knew how they would exist through the followingday. The future to me seems hopeless. It certainly is impossible for me to forecast what may happen. One thingis certain—that left as she now is, Russia will be in a state of I4II
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