75-minute service with the mainland as one of the island's leading inducements to tourists. In addition to the Key West-Havana line this company operated from Miami to Bimini and Nassau in the Bahamas. In the winter of 1920-21, 1922-23 the company maintained a daily passenger service upon regular schedule. United States mails are carried between Cuba and Florida. During the year 1922, 268,535 passenger miles were flown in 744 flights and 2,399 passengers carried on the Southern Division (the West Indies) of Aeromarine Airways. More than 1,000,000 passenger miles have been flown all told and over 20,000 passengers carried during the three years of operation. The distance between Key West and Havana is 100 miles over open sea and the regular time for this flight is 75 minutes. The type of craft employed include the elevenpassenger Aeromarine flying cruiser and the six-passenger Aeromarine-Navy HS open cock-pit type of flying boats. More than a score of these aircraft are attached to the Southern Division of Aeromarine. Aside from Aeromarine, the only other attempt at flying in Cuba, commercially, was made by individuals representing JunkersFlugzeuwerk of Dessau, Germany, who announced, late in 1922, that a seaplane service, with German equipment and personnel, would be established throughout the West Indies. Two planes arrived. The public reception was cold and on the official opening flights the only passenger was the German ambassador. Announced plans were cancelled when one of the planes was wrecked. It is understood that further proposed shipments were canceled. CZECHO-SLOVAKIA Czecho-Slovakia, the largest independent nation to be set up after the German collapse, has the unique record of attaining a position in credit more substantial than that of many other and some much larger powers engaged in the war. It is significant that the Government, pressed with demands for new construction, physically and legally, should regard aviation as a distinctly desirable element in the military and economic life of the country. Pre-war sympathy with France led naturally to post-war agreements in aviation and the French desire to radiate French controlled and operated air lines throughout Europe met sympathetic response in Czecho-Slovakia when the service to Prague and Constantinople was proposed (see France, this chapter). This company, the Franco-Rumanian Aerial Navigation Company, is subsidized by the Czechs, as well as by the French, 5,000,000 ck. ($1,000,000) being paid yearly by the former. The Prague Government's policy is to develop a national aircraft industry. To this end a tariff has been imposed upon foreign motors. The Czech industry was irritated when the Franco-Rumanian Navigation Company established its own repair stations within Czecho-Slovakia and partly as a result of this situation, though mainly through patriotic desires, Czech banks underwrote the Czecho-Slovak Aerial Navigation Company on May 2d, with a joint stock capital of 6,000,000 crowns, subscribed as follows: Legionnaires' Bank, 2,800,000 crowns; Moravian Agrarian Bank, 1,000,000 crowns; Bohemian Industrial Bank, 1,200,000 crowns; Bohemian Agrarian Bank, 500,000 crowns; Falco Company (Italian Aerial Navigation Company), 500,000 crowns. It is proposed to operate between Prague, Vienna and Berlin. It is understood that preparations for such service have already been made in Germany, pending permission to make international flights which, under the Versailles Treaty, was to have been given in 1922 (see Germany, this chapter). It is reported that the Czech Ministry of Public Works, which has charge of civil aviation, has recommended a subsidy of 1,500,000 crowns. The Ministry of Public Works is developing a civil air port at Kbely, near Prague. A deficit of 60,000 crowns has been met by gifts from President Masaryk and the Ministry. The Ministry of Social Welfare is also encouraging civil aviation through its Automobile and Flying Department. In 1922 9,080,000 kr. ($1,816,000) were voted for aviation, an increase of 2,230,000 kr. over 1921. Of this amount 6,000,000 kr. ($1,215,600) is a subsidy for the FrancoRumaine company and 3,080,000 kr. ($624,008) is for the construction, upkeep and improvement of landing fields. Lieutenant Colonel Engineer Kalarik is Chief of the Aviation Bureau. The Congress on International Air Navigation met at Prague, September 25th-October 1st. Sixteen foreign countries were represented, including the United States. The result was the formulation of an international air code. DENMARK April 1st an air mail service was opened between Copenhagen and London, making it possible for mail posted in London in the evening to be delivered in Copenhagen on the afternoon of the following day. Operation is in the hands of a Danish company. Connections are made at Copenhagen with Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Danish Government has promised a subsidy of 100,000 crowns for an air service between Copenhagen and Hamburg. It is understood that as a result, the Danish Airship Company is to operate a daily service for mail and freight, three planes being provided by German interests and three by Danish. Three hundred kilos of goods can be transported daily. Denmark has 88 aviators and 12 commercial craft. DUTCH EAST INDIES (Netherlands) The Colonial Government maintains an air force of six squadrons of six planes each, with 100 per cent reserves. ECUADOR The Government has contracted jointly, it is reported, with France and Italy, for the development of the air service. From Italy sixteen planes have been purchased. The Government has made appropriations for two flying schools, one at El Condor for beginners, and the other at Duran for graduates. Instruction is in both land and sea types. During 1922 two hundred cadets were enrolled. EGYPT (British Empire) The Royal Air Force mail service between Cairo and Bagdad has been extended to Palestine. Officers of the Royal Air Force have been lent to the Egyptian Ministry of Communications to advise on aviation. ESTHONIA At Reval is a car and locomotive factory engaged in the past principally in manufacturing equipment for Russian railways. It is understood that this plant in 1922 obtained a contract to build airplanes, the contract being guaranteed by the Deutsche Bank of Berlin. German motors, understood now to be stored in Denmark, are to be used. Esthonia has awarded a concession for an air service with Stockholm, Riga and Petrograd. The leg between Reval and Riga is in operation. Fokker monoplanes are utilized. Planes leave the terminii twice a week. The service connects with the air line from Riga to Danzig and Danzig to Berlin. The fare from Reval to Riga is 6,000 Esthonian marks (about $15 early in 1922). FINLAND Finland has established an aviation policy looking toward a national industry. At Sveaborg, outside Helsingfors, a factory has been erected and early in 1922 the first craft were completed-mono planes equipped with Italian motors purchased in France. The factory has a production capacity of 30 planes a year. Government aviation appropriations for the fiscal year 1922 were 15,000,000 Finnish marks, of which 4,500,000 marks are for new construction. Military, Naval and Marine aviation is under the Chief of the Army. Civil aviation is under the Ministry of Commerce. November 6th the Government submitted to the Diet a proposition concerning air traffic, and designed to bring about closer co-operation with Scandinavian nations and to intensify development in Finland. Two commercial companies have been operating in Finland, providing irregular service between Helsingfors, Reval and Stockholm. FRANCE The aeronautical situation in France may be epitomized in the statement that, during the first eleven months of 1922, 3,300 airplanes were constructed for military and civil purposes. In August, 1922, additional orders were let for 1,200, it is understood. This means, simply, that France has expanded the industry built up during the war with Germany and thus stands better prepared today, in the matter of aerial defense, than she did on November 11, 1918. The reason for this state of preparedness is-Germany. In the German section of this chapter are set forth the various rulings isued by the Allied representatives, all interpreted in the European press as based upon culpability on Germany's part in failing to observe the aeronautical sections of the Treaty of Versailles. Undoubtedly, the compelling motive in the French military policy has been partly a fear of German restoration to power, with consequent peril to France and partly forethought (extending over the last four years) as to the time when further occupation of German territory might be necessary. Apparently, in the French mind, aviation is the key of the republic's defenses and this conviction is reflected in the remarkably flourishing state of the aircraft industry, in the impressive international scheme of subsidized air lines (each drawn with an eye to military utility and each by requirement operating equipment capable of quick conversion to some form of military use) and, of course, in the vigor and extent of the French air service itself. Policies which have been much discussed by the press and politicians in the United States and Great Britain, have, in France, actually been put into operation, with the result that the latter country today is in fact the Master of the Air. An interesting sidelight is found in a press dispatch to the Phila |