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State, for the control and development of air transports. The meteorological services previously connected with five different ministries were placed under the new department.

It was apparent from the outset that commercial aviation could be neither a purely private nor a purely State enterprise. If the State held aloof, the great initial expense would check development and keep down competition, so that when a service was established, there would be a tendency, in the absence of competition, to take advantage of the situation and exploit the public. If, on the other hand, the State accepted a monopoly of the enterprise, the result would be to create an artificial atmosphere unfavourable to de- velopment. Nevertheless, the State necessarily had to exercise some sort of control. The new means of transport called for a discipline 'similar to that of the mercantile marine. There were certain inter- national obligations which could not be carried out in the absence of regulations enforced by law. There could be no general system of air navigation without air ports, landing grounds, repair and supply stations. All these formed part of a foundation which only the State could direct and maintain. The companies who contemplated embarking upon the business had few suitable machines, and the public had to be gradually educated to the utility of the new service. It was evident that the industry must have State support.

From the first it appeared that the main lines of communication would be as follows (see Map, p. 117) :

London, Calais, Paris, Dijon, Lyons, Marseilles, Italy, and the East.

Amsterdam, Brussels, Valenciennes, Paris, Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Spain.

Havre, Paris, Strassburg, Central Europe and the East.

Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseilles, Italy and the East.

Casablanca, Oran, Algiers and Tunis.

At the end of 1919, very little had been done towards the work of providing these routes with landing and supply stations, repair shops, wireless and weather services. The Government had only four sta- tions: at Le Bourget, near Paris; Bordeaux; Avignon, and Lille. Repairs could be effected only at Le Bourget and Bordeaux. There was no weather service, and communication by wireless between the various lines was uncertain.

At the end of 1920 considerable progress had been made. Thirteen air ports, stations or landing-places had been fitted up, there were seven emergency landing-places and negotiations were in progress for the purchase of land for 28 others. Some had nothing but a caretaker and a telephone ; others had appliances for temporary re- pairs, and others again had regular workshops. Some were provided with corrugated iron shelters about 100 ft. square. The process of marking out the routes had begun. Seven lighthouses, each visible at 25 m., were in use. Another, with a range of 90 m., was being built in the summer of 1921 with a view to flights across the Medi- terranean. There were 10 wireless stations giving communication between the terminal stations of the Paris-London, Paris-Brussels, and Paris- Strassburg lines. The aerodromes at Le Bourget and Saint Inglevert, on the Paris- London route, were also provided with wireless telephone apparatus for communication with the pilots of machines in the air. The meteorological system included 20 sta- tions, divided into three groups covering the whole country. These stations sent out weather reports four times a day and also recorded observations of great use to air navigators.

In 1919, despite the uncertainty of the situation and the almost complete absence of organization, four French companies, with the help of State subsidies, were carrying on regular air transport.

There was considerable development in 1920 as regards the num- ber of new enterprises and the additional lines, both national and international, opened to traffic.

On the purely French system, the Nimes-Nice line, worked for nine months in 1920, carried 25 passengers and 215 kgm. of parcels. The Paris-Cabourg line in five weeks carried 44 passengers and 882 kilogrammes. The results for the first four months of 1921 showed still further progress.

Flying had become sufficiently well established in France in the summer of 1921 to justify the publication of a monthly time-table. It may be of interest to summarize the information given therein as to the various services in operation in France :

Bordeaux-Toulouse-Montpellier line. Daily, except Sundays and holidays. Time, Bordeaux to Toulouse, 15 hours; Toulouse to Montpellier, ij hours. Fares: Bordeaux-Toulouse, 88 fr. ; Toulouse- Montpellier 88 francs. Goods, 3 fr. 30 centimes per kilogramme.

Nimes-Nice line. Mondays and Thursdays. Time, 2 hours 50 minutes. Fare, 240 fr. Goods, 4 fr. 50 centimes per kilogramme. Connexion at Avignon with express trains on P.-L.-M. main line.

Toulouse-Spain-Morocco line. Toulouse-Barcelona. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Time 2 j hours. Fare, single 468 fr., return 795 francs. Toulouse-Alicante-Malaga-Rabat-Casa- blanca. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Fares from Toulouse to Alicante 924 fr., to Malaga 1, 068 fr., to Rabat 1,560 fr., to Casablanca 1, 680 fr. Goods Toulouse to Rabat 9 fr. per kgm., Casablanca 10 francs.

Paris-London, daily, except Sunday. Worked by four com- panies. Time, from 2j hours to 3 hours. Fares, single 300 francs. Goods 7 fr. 50 centimes per kgm. up to 6 kgm., 6 fr. from 6 to 25 kgm., 5 fr. above 25 kilogrammes.

Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam line. Daily to Brussels and Rotter- dam; Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to Amsterdam. Fares, Brussels 175 fr., return 300 fr.; Amsterdam 300 fr., return 500 francs. Goods, from 2 fr. 50 centimes to 6 fr. 50 centimes according to weight and distance.

Paris-Strassburg-Prague- Warsaw. Paris to Strassburg, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Strassburg to Prague and Warsaw, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Fares, Strassburg 150 fr., Prague 500 fr., Warsaw 800 francs. Goods from 2 fr. to 6 fr. 50 centimes per kilogramme.

Bayonne-Bilbao-Santander line. To Bilbao daily, except Sun- days. To Santander, Mondays only. Fares, Bilbao loo fr., San- tander 150 francs. Goods, from 75 centimes to I fr. 50 centimes per plate kilogramme.

Rivers. France's river traffic in normal times is considerable (42,000,000 tons a year). Practically the whole is carried in ordinary barges, the costs of vessels with auxiliary engines having been found too great to compete with the older styled transport. A few cement barges were built during the war, in consequence of the shortage of plates, but as one of these vessels weighs about 220 tons more than a steel barge of the same length (150 ft.), the cost of traction is pro- hibitive. (G. A.)

The Rhine. The traffic on the Rhine is controlled by a system of treaties which dates back to 1804. Before that date the many riverain states used their position to levy toll upon river traffic; only boatmen of specified states were allowed to carry on their trade within certain sections of the river. The appearance of the Re- publican armies on the Rhine naturally put an end to this archaic system of complicated restricted monopoly. In 1804 Napoleon and the German representative signed the First Convention of the Rhine, in which the principle of free navigation and the suppression of tolls was laid down. This Convention has had many successors. When the Treaty of Versailles was signed the Mannheim Convention of Oct. 17 1868 was still in force. This instrument maintained the freedom of international navigation and the suppression of all traffic taxes. The International Control Commission of the Rhine was entrusted with the duty of enforcing its stipulations. It was formed by commissioners, appointed by Holland, Prussia, Hesse, Bavaria, Baden and France. The Treaty of Frankfurt shut France off from the Rhine. After 1871, Germany sought more and more to make her authority predominant in the Control Commission, and only to apply those clauses of the Convention which accorded with German interests. Thus in 1911 an imperial law created navigation taxes on German rivers, but the empire at that time had not the courage to ignore the protests of the other states, and to apply this law to the treaty rivers of the Rhine and the Elbe. During the war, in 1917, however, a transport tax was applied to Rhine traffic, in defiance of the Mannheim Convention, and in spite of the protests of Holland, the only non-German state represented on the Commission. When Marshal Foch, commander-in-chief of the Allied armies, came to the Rhine in 1918, like Napoleon, these fetters were again broken. The question of admitting Switzerland to the Commission had been raised in Berlin in 1903, when the Prussian Minister of Public Works declared: " The admission of Switzerland is not to be desired. We have already seen what the admission of Holland has cost us. To-day Switzerland, a riverain state of the Rhine, has been ad- mitted, and the Treaty of Versailles lays down that the Control Commission of the Rhine provided for by the Mannheim Conven- tion, shall consist of 19 members, two representatives each of Holland, Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy and Belgium, four representatives of the German river-side states, four of France, who is given the right to nominate the president of the Commission. The seat of this new Commission is in the old palace of the German Em- peror, which was built at Strassburg in 1888, and is now known as the Rhine Palace. Article 354 of the Versailles treaty charges the Control Commission with the task of revising the Mannheim Con- vention, which was being done in 1921 under M. Claveille.

France, by reason of Art. 358 of the Versailles treaty, has the right to take Rhine water for canals already in existence or still to be built. The same clause gives her exclusive rights in the energy produced by river improvement, provided that she pay to Germany half the value of the energy so produced. It is proposed to build a Grand Canal d'Alsace which, running alongside the Rhine from Huningue (Hiiningen) north of Basle, will join the river again near Strassburg. This canal will improve navigation, and produce hydraulic power. At Strassburg the fall in the Rhine amounts to as much as 66 cm. per kilometre. From Brisach to Basle it varies between 90 cm. and I -02 metres per kilometre. The Rhine is a wild and capricious river, especially between Basle and Strassburg. The stream has been tamed between Strassburg and Lauterburg, where the fall is only 44 cm. per km., but between Basle and Strassburg this has not been .possible. The river is constantly making its own bed deeper, but in front of Istein the digging-down process has reached a resisting, rocky bottom, and in ten years' time a cataract will have been formed there which will make all navigation impossible. The system of controlling the waters, which has been successfully used between Strassburg and Lauterburg, is not applicable to the Strassburg- Basle reach. Moreover, with high-water-mark there are only two metres of water on this latter stretch, and traffic is only possible during three months of the year. Also, so strong is the current that