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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 2425.PDF
258 FLIGHT. SEPTEMBER 3, I936_ CORRESPONDENCE The Editor does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters intended for publication in these columns VITAL PEACE I CANNOT, for the life of me, see why Mr. Wickham Steed, or, by inference, the writer of Flight's review of his book, Vital Peace, should display the "greatest contempt" for pacifists. Nobody but a homicidal maniac wants war and, therefore, everyone who is not a homicidal maniac is necessarily a pacifist. The word has no other meaning, and to impute cowardice, false idealism and lack of backbone from the word, as applied to a person, is to take an unjustifiable liberty with the English language. Pacifists may be divided into three broad groups: The morally courageous peace-at-any-price brethren; those who believe that an international (and unbiased) police force is a necessity if trouble is to be prevented; and those who pin their faith to medieval or Chicago-ean bodyguards on the principle that might is always right. I will make no attempt to prove that, in the present state of human stupidity, any one of the three groups is on the right track, but only the last method has been tried—and with no marked success. RATIONALIST. London, S.W.3. [It would appear that our correspondent has not read Vital Peace. If he had he would see that Mr. Wickham Steed, while possibly taking an " unjustifiable liberty " with the English language, evidently does not regard everyone who is not a homicidal maniac as a pacifist; and, in fact, the distinction between peace-lovers and pacifists is generally accepted. Mr. Wickham Steed is undoubtedly an intense lover of peace; so is Flight; but neither is a pacifist in the usual meaning of the term.—ED.] " AN AIRLINE AT LAW " I HAVE read with interest the comments on the cases of Grein v. Imperial Airways, and the Westminster Bank v. Imperial Airways as contained in your article of last week under the above heading. I do not propose to comment at all on the report of the latter case, which is already sub fudice in the Court of Appeal, nor do I propose to discuss the correctness or other wise of the findings of the Court of Appeal in the former case. It seems to me, however, that the barrister who contributed vour article is not only unfair to Imperial Airways, but may be dangerously misleading to air carriers generally by reason of certain inaccuracies which have crept into his report. In the first place a careful reading of the majority judgment of the Court of Appeal in the case of Grein v. Imperial Air ways seems to show clearly that it was only by reason of the finding that the carriage was " international " that the claimants were entitled to recover anything at all, the judg ment expressly stating that had the carriage not been governed by the' Carriage by Air Act a claim under Lord Campbell's Act would have been barred by the Conditions of Carriage. In the second place, the commentator's suggestion that air carriers should " embody the [Warsaw] Convention in their passenger and luggage tickets and air consignment notes rather than attempt to improve upon the Convention in such contracts" is an extremely dangerous one. It was an attempt to embody the Warsaw Convention rules of liability in their contract of carriage which involved Imperial Airways in a judgment for £4 000 against them in the Court of First Instance. Moreover, anyone who takes the trouble to read the Warsaw Convention, and to consider it in the light of the require ments of a contract of carriage which may, or may not, be governed by the Convention, will soon realise that it is im practicable for an air carrier simply to adopt the Convention as it stands without any additions. What the International Air Traffic Association did would seem to be the sensible course to adopt; namely, they pre pared draft tickets and consignment notes based upon the Warsaw Convention, but adapted for general use and incor porating such additional conditions as were necessary, and then submited it to the draftsmen of the Convention for approval. Having obtained this approval they proceeded to put the forms into use. Experience in the Courts has shown that, in seeking voluntarily to accept a basis of liability which had been approved by the Governments of all the principal civilised countries, they were, in fact, laying themselves open to risks which they failed to appreciate, but no fair-minded man could blame them for the course which they adopted The position would seem to be that the Warsaw Convention is a mixed blessing from the point of view of air carriers and air passengers alike until such time as it is universally ratified by all the signatories. Meanwhile the immediate moral to be drawn from the cases referred to would seem to be that our own Government can help to remove the anomalies by exer cising its powers under the Carriage by Air Act, 1932, and applying the rules of the Convention, with such amendments as have beei. proved desirable by experience, to national as well as international, carriage. Until this happens, or until the decision in Nunan v. the Southern Railway Company is overruled by the House of Lords, air carriers would seem to be compelled in self-defence to accept the principles of the Warsaw Convention only in respect of carriage governed by that Convention, and to con- ' tract out of all liability, as they are entitled to do, in other cases. SOLICITOR POP RIVETING W E have read with interest the letter over the signature of Mr. R. Ruddock, of the Geo. Tucker Eyelet Co., Ltd., Birmingham, in reference to the pop riveting system. We note the claims made by your correspondent in regard to his particular system of riveting as compared with the Chobert system, which was recently fully described in your pages, and we refrain from making comments or comparisons which are well known to the users of both systems. We would, however, definitely contradict the claim that it is possible for a juvenile operator to place 1,200 rivets an hour by the system referred to by your correspondent, and in order that this important point may once and for all be settled to everybody's satisfaction we are prepared to enter into a competition with this or any other system to. be adjudged by a competent referee, in order to prove that, irrespective of the comparative costs of the Chobert rivets on the one hand and the combined rivet and mandrel on the other hand, the total cost of the completed job done bysthe Chobert system will be considerably less, and it will be executed very much more quickly. Perhaps, therefore, your correspondent will be prepared to accept and take up our challenge. AVIATION DEVELOPMENTS, LTD., London, N.W.i. Stanley T. Johnson. WITH A STRING TO IT AT about 19.00 hours yesterday (27/8/36), there flew from the direction of Kentish Town, over Hampstead, a pale buff coloured, low-wing monoplane, which had the appearance of one of the Miles cabin types, according to a glimpse I had of it through a tree. It may be of interest to the pilot, if this should catch his eye, to know (a) that he was too low for his own safety and flying inconsiderately as regards the feelings of those on the ground, and (b) that he flew beneath the strings of two large kites which were being flown from Par liament Hill, and which (having inspected that sort of kite flying at close quarters), one can safely say would more probably have killed him than not, if he had touched them. Incidentally, I wonder who would be responsible in law for the damage to "the ground, to the kite, and to the aircraft, respec tively, in such a case ? W. E. P. JOHNSON. London, W.C.2. The Whole Works ANYONE who wants to learn in not-too-minute detail how the modern aeroplane and its engine is built and why an how it works can hardly do better than get a copy of The Air plane and its Engine. Although the joint authors are Am"] can and in consequence the terminology is apt to differ so what from that in current English use, everything is reaa understood. Every effort has been made to introduce ""t"»s which requires more than an elementary knowledge of p y and mathematics to make its meaning clear. The pr'ce l . and the publishers are the McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., ^ • Aldwych House, London, W.C.z.
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