SMUGGLING PEOPLE BY AIR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 244, 9 July 1919, Page 11

SMUGGLING PEOPLE BY AIR

. • A FUTURE POSSIBILITY. (Bv Paul Bowslier, in the "Dnily Mail.") The advent of the aeroplane may alter the political- history of the • world, becuuso. swat changes in a nation's life frequently depend on the existence of ono person whose influence is euch that he can ewav multitudes to liie" point of view. The aeroplane gives to siich people a: greater chance of survival in the hot turmoil of revolution or change, and it gives them also a much wider field of operation.- I will give tlvo ex-amples-7-one of bad influenco, one of (food:

If Lenin or Trotsky were to desire to influence Spain to Bolshevism by his own presence be could not go thoro by road, or rail, or sea. He would inevitably be .stopped sinoo ho must needs travel by more or less fixed routes. Should, however, an aeroplane fly to a ■place near Madrid at night the archBolshevik could drop overboard in a parachute, land placidly in a field with his carpet-bag, and take iip his residence in a pre-arranged farmhouse, and there, living under an assumed name, start-the machinery to overthrow monarchic rule.

Should there be a great strike in soino industrial area in any country a man with, a powerful magnetic personality, working for his Government/ might drop through the darkness into the centro of the 'disturbance, and in a few weeks, by putting forward (ns .a workman) a new point of view, avert a catastrophe. The smuggling of people by air, too, ■will develop in the future. Sympathisers with political or religions offenders will arrange for their escape from dangerous surroundings. Any good field ie. ail aerodrome; it is .impossible to prevent the unlawful passage of nn aeroplane across a., frontier if it travels on a dark night, and once it is in another country it can proceed to an appointed tfpottahd.liind its hero or martyr, who will hide' with friends.

P/ofessional criminals may find the nerbpljinp of ...vital , use to.'enable them to escape.Bwiftlj*.from-the scene of their robbery, .leaving ; no trnce.; Fnnatics who. on so'iho'ditric rond,"'shoot at a passcoiitainiiiff the; object of tlioir Eo'cietv'e,.-hatted, mil , be,able, to mal;e Koodtlieir escape in a waiting machine. How ■ different might l have been the lnst'oty of:• tho world had/the , noroplano bqctfmoi'!ii--practicability J in • the- times- of tlie- I?bmans.- Think how to-day it may be altered. It is possible—and this is no "penny thriller" the Kaiser to bo removed from Holland by air and established near Berlin, where, perhaps for'ft .time working in secret, he might overthrow the German Eepublic and reestablish the Monarchy. -,'Frontiers of every kind are now for ever broken down. No "cordon eaiiitaire" can be drawn. The movements of agitators and rebels cannot be regulated. Tho khifoi hofrovor, cuts both ways, and- envoye of penco and 6,inity cannot be kept out -by those who dread to sec their evil sway overthrown by the voice of common eense or the light of reason. ' ...