SABOTEURS ACTIVE

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20495, 11 May 1938, Page 10

SABOTEURS ACTIVE

IN AIRCRAFT FACTORIES STRICT WATCH MAINTAINED PILOTS LIVES ENDANGERED (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, April 4 Who are the men responsible for the worst type of sabotage, the men who deliberately endanger the lives of pilots by tampering with vital parts of aircraft? Eight cases of sabotage to warplanes have been admitted this year. Many more cases are suspected, although they cannot be proved. At airfields I have heard talk of mysterious things happening to aLr' planes, controls not wired up, petrol interfered with, bolts left in engines —facts that are causing grave disquiet. Powerful Minority Investigators are convinced that these things must be the work of men actually employed in the aircraft factories —not the work of foreign agents, and not the work of fanatics making their way in from outside. It makes one wonder who the men employed in the aircraft industry are. I can answer that. The majority of them are typical, honest, hard-working British craftsmen. They are skilled men, proud of the work they do, always willing to put in a little extra effort if necessary. Almost without exception they have an intense interest in aviation for its own sake. These facts rule out the average workmen. But there is a powerful minority. It is this minority that that produces the factory agitator and, it is feared, the saboteur. They form themselves into strong, unofficial groups. Some of these groups, in time, begin to have an influence on the rest of the men in the factory. They talk about their alliance with Russia, even guardedly hint at. the help they are receiving from their comrades in the Soviet. Fight To Stop It These rumours are untrue, but do help to give them a kind of misdirected power over the more simpleminded of their co-workers. It may be their fanatical pacifism that prompts them to acts of sabotage. They read about warplanes dropping their bombs on civilian populations, on defenceless women and children. They may imagine that by sabotaging bombers over here they are making their protest. A serious fight is going on behind the scenes to stop this sabotage. Naturally, the police authorities have taken charge in the areas that affcct them. But. in addition, another body has conn' into the picture. It is an organisation Mint has never been written ah'itil before. it is Hie Royal Air | <ovr’s own secret service. As an organisation it has no secret room in a Government office; no strange officials working for it. But it is one of the most efficient organisations I have ever come across, for all that. Plots Forestalled Rumours of political agitation societies and sabotage plots started a veur ago. Within a few days new men started working in the key warplane factories.

There was nothing to. distinguish them from any of the other workmen. None of the workmen thought anything of it. There was a serious shortage of skilled men, and there was nothing strange in new men coming into the factories. In addition, the new men set a standard of workmanship. Their labour was good. Little by little they grew to know the extremists. Only the archives of that service can tell how many plots fhe unknown agents forestalled in time. That is one side of the fighting force. There are others. One. of them is the increased inspection routine. Before any aircraft goes up on its test flight it is now gone over with a small-tooth comb. Nothing can escape the inspectors' eyes. This routine may delay the delivery date of the aircraft. Is that what the saboteurs are trying to do? Guards Doubled All factories were warned recently about visitors. Nobody unconnected with the business may wander about a Government contracting factory wit bout, a Government pass. This may take two weeks to obtain. Any person who does g*t B ts safe. manufacturer can give him the free-d'-m of Hie factory. Even this precaution was Seemed insufficient. Factory police forces and night watchmen services have been doubled. Nobody can get in a factory at night. All entrances are guarded, patrols walk the buildings hour by hour. Ho the aircraft works of Britain are watched from outside by the regular protective men, from inside by the secret service men.