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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 1564.PDF
that its numberless Departments have come to the conclusion that these no longer exist." IT may be carelessness or deliberate annexation, but Lord Rosebery will be fortunate if he reaps any benefit from the transaction in any case, judging by other cases of " grace " which have been so dis" grace "fully prevalent under bureaucracy. This object-lesson and the case put forward by Mr. Tankerville Chamberlayne of the outrageous treatment in connection with property of his at Southampton should once more focus attention on the absolute necessity for the immediate abolition of the temporary power placed—or misplaced—in the hands of a gang of inefficient swankers. WHERE the astute man of business comes in at the expense of the public war-purse is well exemplified in a suggestion of Mr. Calder at a meeting of the Council of the English Forestry Association, held the other day at the Surveyors' Institution, when the question was discussed of encouraging the use of home-grown timber in view of the large increase in the price of foreign product and its probable effect upon the finance of the Government's housing scheme. The point was how to fill orders, which the President of the Association said were coming along requiring seasoned oak and other timber. Had the Timber Supplies Department drying faciUties of which those outside could avail themselves of ? he asked. Mr. Calder, in saying the drying could be arranged for, offered the further information that " the drying kilns of the Air Board and the M.O.M. were to be obtained at practically scrap prices." So far good, but now, from the taxpayers' point of view, what we do not quite understand is who was looking after the said taxpayers' interests, having regard to the fact that Mr. Calder is described in the report of the meeting as " Chief of the Disposal Board of the Timber Supplies Department." FROM Sandwich comes a story of a forgotten anti-aircraft station. Golfers in this seaside town, writes a Times corre spondent, "have been astonished to find an anti-aircraft station still in being in spite of the fact that a fortnight has elapsed since the celebration of the first anniversary of the Armistice. The station, which is known as the 45th Anti-aircraft Station, is situated in the Haven, and is connected with another station in Sandwich Bay. The station is in charge of a sergant and one other rank, and every other day a R.A.S.C. lorry visits the spot with rations of fresh meat and vegetables. " It is true that parts of the guns at the two batteries have been removed, but one gets the impression that with the A Reminiscence of the Flying Meetings at Hendon ; The one-stringed violinist under the railway arch DECEMBER 4, 1919 exception of the fact that rations are regularly delivered, the stations and men have been forgotten by the authorities. The men seem to have no work of importance to do except to look after a few stores." WONDER if there are many more forgotten depots about like this one. At the same time, it must be remembered that certain anti-aircraft stations should be kept in activity for all time, if merely as training centres. When the great air- war does arrive, " Anti's " should be as common as milestones, if we haven't all become cave dwellers by that time. UPON aerial post issues Mr. F. J. Melville writes in the Telegraph : "A number of new aesial post stamps are to hand this week, including the first air-mail stamps from Japan. These are two of the current ordinary postage stamps of that country, the 1 J-sen blue and the 3-sen red, on each of which is overprinted a small outline of a biplane. These were issued on October 3 in readiness for the first flights of an experimental air service between Tokyo and Osaka, a distance of about 290 miles by air. The stamps were only to be valid for one month, and the total quantity of the two stamps issued is stated not to exceed 40,000. They were only placed on sale at first and second class post offices in Tokyo and Osaka, but the entire issue was sold out within an hour or two. " With reference to the mail service, this was to have started on October 4, and prizes were offered in connection with the flights for the quickest successful round trip. But unfortunately the weather on the 4th was not favourable, and on the following day it was worse, so the flight was postponed, and the first ' air mail " was forwarded to the destination by rail. My Tokyo correspondent tells me that it was intended to renew the project about October 20. Although the original flight had to be abandoned, the stamps are likely to be keenly sought after as souvenirs of the introduction of air mails in the Far East. It seems possible that, as all the first edition of these air stamps had been sold out on October 3, a new issue may have been prepared for the re trial later in the month. "Two quaint and rather crude air-mail stamps have just been issued in Germany. They are of very modest denomina tions, 10-pfennig orange and 40-pfennig green, but I have no particulars of the service in connection with which they are used. The stamps are inscribed 'Deutsche Flugpost' (German Flying Post). On the 10-pfennig the design is a winged posthorn and on the 40-pfennig is an aeroplane in flight." IT'S an ill wind that blows nobody a bit of good. And so James Parkin, of Bloemfontein, is one of the few who can claim aeroplane bombing as befriending them. Parkins, it appears, enlisted at Capetown in 1916 and later in France was sentenced to death for desertion on the battlefield. Sentence was commuted to five years' penal servitude, and while an escort taking Parkin to prison was waiting at a railway station in Northern France the station was bombed by a German aeroplane. Two men in charge of Parkin and many others were killed outright, and it was at first thought that he had shared their fate. As a fact, though, he escaped, but the shock had evidently done him no moral good, as he promptly set to work and robbed a sleeping soldier at a hostel of Treasury notes and papers, and followed it up by all sorts of other crimes and frauds. These particulars of Parkin's career transpired last week at Westminster Police Court, where he explained how he had mistaken another man's bicycle for his own. Another shock followed in the form of " six months' hard." WELLS CATHEDRAL is the latest to come into line with the vellum book containing the name, rank and cause of the casualty of every Somerset soldier, sailor and airman who lost his life in the war. SOMEHOW football gatherings always carry with them jus* a " sma' wee " suggestion of the rough element—irrespective of the gentle art itself. The mystery is possibly explained by thefollowing little paragraph of a police court report in the Midlands. It is only right that there should be some " place " available where in these days of profiteering and other pastimes man should be able to let off a little excess exhaust steam without incurring, etc., etc. Here's the little par. in question :— " In a case at Nottingham where a man was charged with using highly objectionable language the magistrate held that a football field was not a public place within the Act and dismissed the summons." 566
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