THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 2, 1940
ITALY'S FLYING CRATES Disparaging Estimate In New York Newspaper
FRENCH NAVAL FORCES WITH BRITAIN
London, To-day.
General de Gaulle, head of the French National Com-
mittee, announced officially last night he had appointed Vice-Admiral Muselier to be commander of the French naval forces.
He will also take over of the free French air force.
free
command
3
There are already several ships and several alr groups under Vice- Admiral Muselier's command. Vice-Admiral Muselier made thrilling escape from France. He was at Bordeaux on June 10 in charge of factories working for national defence, and when he heard of the pending armistice, drove all night to Paris.
Arriving at the capital almost simultaneously with the
entry of the German troops, he managed to destroy several secret plans and plant in national defence factories occupied, the
before the Germans city.
He escaped from Paris, using an abandoned private car, to Marseilles, where he rallied several naval officers and men, manned a warship, sailed for Gibraltar and subsequently flew to Britain.-Reuter.
RUMANIA THROWN INTO HITLER'S LAP
Bucharest, To-day. Interest is now centred in a marked and crucial change in Rumanian foreign policy.
All reliable evidence available here
indicates that the parallel policy
which Germany and Russia So far have followed is now at an end.
18
Henceforth Rumarilan policy expected to move quickly and completely into the German orbit. First public hint of what was brew- ing was given in a secret stereo-typed manifesto distributed in the streets of Bucharest
The manifesto declared the Russian demands were made at the instigation of the British and the Jews who were seeking to bring about war between Russia and Germany.-Reuter.
Guarantee Renounced
London, To-day.
It is reported in London that Ru- manic has renounced the British guarantee of her integrity.
It is pointed out in diplomatic cir- cles that since the guarantee was a un- ilateral one, the Rumanian decision does not affect the British Govern- ment's freedom to decide for itself whether circumstances calling for implementing of the guarantee have or have not arisen.-Reuter.
U.S. FLEET RETURNS TO HAWAII
Honolulu, Ta-day, Part of the U.S. Fleet which has been "missing somewhere in the Pacific" returned to Hawall yesterday, The Admiral, in charge said that they had been on training manoeuvres and the sudden departure was intended to simulate a war-time salling without prior notice.---Reu
|
A
Mussolini's SOVIET Effort Severely MOVING?
Restricted
New York, To-day.
WARSHIPS
Bucharest, To-day. According to reports from usually well in-
THE "NEW YORK DAILY Mirror" publishes a feature ar- informed sources, Rus-
ticle on Italian weakness in the air.
Reports of a clash between 2,000 workers and Rumanian troops at the Black Sea port: of Galatz are now of- ficially confirmed.
Italy's air force, it says, was given dress rehearsals in Spain sian warships are off the and Ethiopia and performed rather well, but one signi-Rumanian Black Sea ficant fault was revealed-Italian pilots, on the basis ports. of their showing in Spain, are inaccurate bombardiers and bad at formation flying. But an even greater weakness is the fact that Italy's air force is largely obsolescent. Italy's limited resources and industries have not permitted her to keep step with the, rapid advances in military aviation of the past few years,
miles an hour.
But still used by the Italians are such obsolete crates as the Caproni CA101, which lumbers along at a rate of only 127 miles an hour and has a range of only 700 miles. These weaknesses in the Italian air Thus the standard ships of Italy's arm dictated the strategy of Italian 3,200 plane air force are :
operations in the first 20 days of the Bombers: Breda 65 and Savoia Mar-war. chetti 79
.
-
es- the
A Ministry of Interior communique states: "A crowd of 2,000 workmen waiting at Galatz under military cort to leave for Bessarabia on evening of June 30 attempted demon- strations because the train was late, and tried to depart. When summon- ed to stop they opened fire. There were several dead and injured. A
Fighters: Fiat CR32 and Macchi C200. the Mediterranean to bombing Toulon / number of arrests were made. Order
Two years ago they led the parade but not to-day.
Great Weakness
The great
the Italian air picture is engine de- weakness, however, in sign and engine of more
production. Italy has no
than power in service and the biggest ones 1,200 horse-
in experimental shops only develop 1,500 horsepower. More horsepower
is the only way to put speed on a plane and until 11 Duce's engineers can build bigger engines, Italy's air power will not be a first class threat to England's new fighting and pur- suit ships.
Another deficiency is the lack of adequate training facilities for new pilots.
Italy has neither oil deposits nor coal (to make ersatz gasoline). To overcome these weaknesses Il Duce has been pushing experimental work.
Obsolete “Crates"
Thus work is beginning on such ships as the Breda 88 which has a top speed of 321 miles an hour but is hard to fly, and the Caproni CA135 bomber which has a top speed of 273
They confined Italian air activity to and Marseilles and sporadic attacks in Africa. So far they have held Mussolini back from his big push on the Suez Canal.-Reuter.
FILIPINOS ANXIOUS
(SPECIAL TO "CHINA MAIL"
Shanghai, To-day. Writing in the "China Press," the popular radio commentator, Carroll Alcott, says: "My calculations may be Japanese threat to Indo-China wrong but it seems to me that the has stirred Filipinos to the point where an organised move to get Washington to reconsider the independence ques- tion is about to get under way in Manila.
There is no doubt that independence is a nice thing to possess provided you have a big country with lots of re- sources and several hundred warships, not to mention such small side issues as swarms of aeroplanes, tanks and a few million soldiers."-Havas.
The London Zoo has its own fire-fighting unit and during ed to play their part. Photo shows the llama cart, useful ́aš tice at the Zoo. (Copyright, Fox).
was soon re-established.”—Reuter,
the
FRENCH WARSHIPS ON ACTIVE SERVICE
(SPECIAL TO "CHINA MAIL")
London, To-day. General de Gaulle, 'head of French National Committee, has ap- pointed Vice-Admiral Muselier ag commander-in-chief of "the tree French naval and air forces." It is many warplane formations are already declared that several
warships and
on active service-Havas.
BID FOR MARKETS IN SOUTH AMERICA
(SPECIAL TO "CHINA MAIL")
London, To-day.
A new effort to enlarge the British market in South America was made yesterday as the British Standards Institution announced the publication of a technical catalogue of British goods in Spanish.-Havas,
practice the animals a
'Aran