THE FIRST SHOT

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 76, 23 December 1919, Page 7

THE FIRST SHOT

Tho Teason given by Germany for declaring war 011 Franco, was hhat a French aeroplane 'had dropped bombs on Xurenv berg. Light has been thrown on this incident by the Second Cniirt-murUal, which, in October last year, had sentenced in default an engineer named Tlnno to fivo years' imprisonment, besides imposing a lino of X'l3oo and depriving him of civil rights, for having given money to officers and non-commis-sioned officers charged to superintend the trials of aviation motors (says the Paris correspondent of the "Daily Mail"). Unno was in America when sentence wns passed, and recently he appeared before the court-martial, which acquitted hill) after hearing hi* appeal. He (old an astonishing story, which, ono paper describes n.s a pendant to the Ems dispatch that led to the war id 1870. He explained that towards the en« of Julv, 1914, an aeroplane belonging ro tho f-ialmsou Company, piloted l>y the aviator Laporte. ' started on a journey from Paris to Constantinople. Laporte had a breakdown in Bavaria, and Ij'nne was sent for to repair the damage. The aviator wns aoout to conl'mio hijourney when the O.mniin audio: Hies stopped him. After the lapse of two days thev gave him permbsion to .return to France on August 1, spocil'yini,' the route he should follow. He had te fly over certain towns, including Nuremberg, and as he was flying over ('lis town guns opened lire on him, and he ran great danger, but succeeded in reaching France. Thus has been cleared up the alleged bombardment of Nuremberg by a. French aeroplane, which the German ia Paris gavo as. an act of wur.