e, by
financial and other assistance, to maintain her technical staffs and
airship bases in existence. At the same time German commercial interests
are negotiating with foreign countries with a view to the development of
airships abroad, and plans are being discussed for an airship service
between Spain and Argentina.

The United States, France, and Italy are all interesting themselves,
either financially or constructionally, in the future of airship
development.

In Great Britain we have made great strides, particularly in the
construction of small types, and our practical air experience in
lighter-than-air craft, during the war, is the greatest in the world.
With a view to carrying out the experiments necessary further to
demonstrate the capacity of airships for commercial long-distance
flights, a few months ago the Department of Civil Aviation took over all
airship material surplus to service requirements. The main object was to
test the practicability and value of mooring airships to a mast. Up to
the present, a principal factor militating against the economic
operation of airships has been the large and expensive personnel
required for handling them on the ground, especially in stormy weather.
The mooring-mast experiments have had considerable success and airships
have been moored in high winds and over long periods with the assistance
of a very small personnel.

The Government has decided, however, though recognizing their
potentialities for speeding up communications between the various
Dominions and the Mother Country, that the operation of airships cannot
be carried out by the State on account of the present financial
position.

Recognizing the limitations of Home services and those to the Continent,
it was for the purpose of directing attention to the Imperial aspect of
civil aviation that the great demonstration flights were organized in
which Alcock flew the Atlantic in a Vickers "Vimy," Scott crossed to the
United States and back in the R.34, Ross-Smith flew from England to
Australia, and van Ryneveld from London to the Cape.

These flights necessitated, too, considerable ground organization in
laying out aerodromes, as the following report on one in Africa vividly
illustrates: "If aerodromes are left unattended for one year," it says,
"practically all the work would have to be undertaken afresh,
particularly in Rhodesia. The growth of vegetation is enormous,
especially during the rains, and grass wi