DISCOVERY 



123 



north. A service also connects Amsterdam, Brussels, 

 and Paris. It is probable that these lines will be 

 extended this year. 



Germany, despite the inter-allied restriction on the 

 manufacture of aircraft and the exploitation of air- 

 ways, is rapidly going ahead with aerial transport. 

 Practically all Western and Eastern Germany is linked 

 by a network of airways over which aircraft ply with 

 great frequency and regularity, carrying mails, 

 passengers, and goods. To encourage the use of air 

 mails, the German Government has reduced the postage 

 fees with such success that aircraft carry large quan- 

 tities of letters on every flight. Services are being 



Corunna, and from Lisbon to Madrid, but few par- 

 ticulars of these new services are available other 

 than the fact that the capital of the company con- 

 cerned is 2,000,000 escudos. 



Britain comes a poor fourth in the development of 

 the airways if one considers mileage only. At present 

 one route alone is being exploited by British com- 

 panies — that from London to Paris, over which two 

 companies, the Instone Air Line and the Handley- 

 Page Transport, operate regularly.' The recent 

 granting of a subsidy for aerial transport has encouragedl 

 other firms to investigate the question of aerial trans- 

 port, and services will shortly operate to Brussels and 



V*'^f?TROmA ^ Pi>rjus ana Suova -n Northern 



Scale. 

 o 100 zoo 300 



Fig. I.— a U\V showing the; EUROPEAN AIRWAYS. 



organised to link up Germany with Esthonia and 

 Latvia, and there is every probability of the large 

 German firms of Junkers and Sablatnig being moved 

 from Germany to one or other of these Baltic Republics 

 in order that they may carry out their activities with- 

 out restrictions. It is possible to fly from London 

 to Berlin within a day, taking the K.L.M. service from 

 London to Bremen, and thence continuing to Berlin 

 by the Lloyd-Sablatnig airway. The German Zeppelin 

 firm is also responsible for the coming airship service 

 from Spain to South America. 



Portugal is now coming into the world of civil 

 aviation with services from Lisbon to Paris via Valla- 

 dolid and Bordeaux and other lines, from Lisbon to 



probably to Amsterdam as well as to Paris. It is a 

 pity that Britain is so far behind other countries in 

 the development of her airways, since her organisation 

 for aerial transport is the best in the world ; her 

 machines are unbeaten by those of any other country ; 

 and the qualities of British pilots are so well realised 

 that several foreign companies employ them in pre- 

 ference to pilots from their own nation. 



Many people have been deterred from travelling on 

 the airways because they believe that air travel is 

 unreliable, if not dangerous, uncomfortable, and expen- 

 sive. With regard to the question of unreliability and 



1 Daimler Hire Ltd. has also commenced operations on the 

 London-Paris service since this article was first written. 



