GERMAN AIR MATERIAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 166, 9 April 1921, Page 7

GERMAN AIR MATERIAL

METHODS OF COLLECTION AND SURRENDER.

The Air Ministry recently issued tho following note on the German aeronautical material at Antwerp, "in view of inaccurate statements which have appeared in the Press regarding the receipt, examination, and disposal of German aircraft, engines, and other aeronautical material assigned, to Groat Britain under the terms of the Peace Treaty”:— “Aeronautical material surrendered by Germany under the terms of the Peace Treaty is collected by the Inter-Allied Aeronautical Commission of Control, which arranges for its allocation to the various Allied Powers.

"The material allotted to Great Britain is dispatched by rail to Antwerp in. sealed cases, which are opened in the presence of Belgian officials. Thp material is taken on charge by the Royal Air Force Port Detachment, and is carefully surveyed by special officers of the Research Department of the Air Ministry, who select those articles which appear to be of technical or scientific value. "All material selected is shipped to the Royal Air Force experimental stations, ■where a considerable amount has already been collected, and ts now undergoing the most minute inspection and test at tho hands of experts. Several machines of various and important types arc expected to be ready shortly for actual flying trials'in the air. Many types of aero engines are at present undergoing running tests on the bench, and it is anticipated that very complete data will be available as a result of the experiments conducted upon them. “The material remaining at Antwerp, after the process of selection, is handed over to the Disposals Board of the Ministry of Munitions. In accordance with the orders of the Supreme Council, no aeronautical material received from .Germany may be disposed of unless it is reduced to scrap. This surplus material will therefore be reduced by the Disposals Board ‘in situ’ and sold, locally. Hitherto, however, no reduction has taken place, as the arrangements of the Disposals Board are not yet completed. “No stores have been tampered with while in transit to Antwerp,- but thefts of material are known to have occurred at earlier stages. In all cases the stolen articles have lieen of little commercial and of no technical value. It is also certain that pilfering took place during the period between the armisi Ice and the institution of the Aeronautical Commission."