21 JANUARY 1928, Page 18

LONDON TO CALIFORNIA

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In a letter from Pau, Mi. Ferdinand Tuohy dogmatically asserts of the airplane that "it might be banished from the world to-morrow for all the peace, pleasure, or use it serves." Out here we cannot, do not, agree with him. We realize daily that the airplane serves mankind splendidly in peace. For instance, it enables us to write and dispatch by air-mail on a Monday a letter that will arrive in New York in time Wednesday to " catch " the Wednesday steamship for Southampton. Thus, by airplane the letter flies 3,000 miles in round thirty hours, while the time of the ordinary post by train is four days I Expensive? No. A ten-cent (fivepence) air stamp only is required. English business men here in constant correspondence with their home offices in London do not find, as Mr. Tuohy complains, that the airplane in peace serves no use. As the London offices have the American air stamps, letters from. London th California save round sixty-six hours in transmission.—! am, Sir, &c., P. g." 4-YN3s;

Los Angeles, California.

P. g." 4-YN3s;