Palisadian., 1924-09-26
CAPT. DARBY BACK
FROM EUROPEAN TRIP
TELLS EXPERIENCES
Continued from page 1

mighty fast tailoring-but they do
that in London. New York is not
noted for that sort of thing"
Speaking of his airplane trip to Par
is, Captain Darby said:
This was a genuine experience-a
thrill, 1 might say. We left London
around 2 in the afternoon, were in
Paris two hours and twenty minutes
later. / have never seen anything
like that airplane trip. 1t was won
derful. The saloon, or cabin, of our
plane held just fourteen people, seven
on each of a center aisle. There were
six ladies in the party, besides the
two air men and their aides, and the
fare on that kind of a fast plane was
bit over $40. When we were ready
| to start we rolled along over the
rather uneven field, but did not pay
much attention to what was going on
until all of a sudden the joltiness
stopped and we were in the air! The
sensation did not bring the thrill
looked for, because we appeared to
shoot up at tremendous pace, and all
without culver, and in jiffy were
5000 feet high, which we maintained
till we got over Paris. The panorama
was wonderful. We could see the
great fields and cities and highways
of England spread out before us and
could see the English channel as we
passed over it, going through rain
storm while passing over, but we went
quickly above the rain and looked
down on the clouds beneath us. 1t
was soon over. The greatest pictures
we saw were in France, however,
where the scenes were of SURPRISING
beauty. The great height softens the
landscape to degree l never dream
ed of, and l shall never forget it. One
of the noticeable things about the
trip was the occasional air pockets we
struck. We would go sailing along
at tremendous speed when suddenly
the plane would drop like a plummet
twenty to fifty feet and go on off as
though nothing had happened We
only some of the passengers who had
had the experience before told us.
Then it looked uncanny Yes, we
could hear each other talk in the cab
in bit better perhaps than in the
New York subways. The planes each
carry two great Paige-Handley mo-
tors and make terrific noise. When
we came down at Paris we were at
our hotel in half an hour by taxi"
Captain Darby said he spent some
time in Berlin. In speaking of the
situation there, he said:
"You may say for me that l saw
literally no suffering in Berlin. Starv-
ing babies? There are no such things
there. The Germans are not as pros
porous as they would like, but they
are trying hard to master the situa-
tion and are doing we'll at it. But
at that l could not do business with
them, because they are too radical in
their attitude. l asked four well
known men in Berlin, men of high
standing, about several things con-
nected with the war. They all were
of one mind. They do not believe
they had a square deal at Versailles.
They still feel that Wilson's Four
teen Points were not lived up to in
the strict sense, and they bitterly re-
sent it, not hesitating to say so. L
asked some very plain questions of
these four men and got the same kind
of replies from each. They do not
believe there were any German atroci
ties and say it was all French propa-
ganda. They think the situation
would have been better if the kaiser
had not left Germany. They no doubt
will go back to a monarchy in time.
There is great feeling for it. They
attribute all the hard things circu-
lated about Germany in the war to
French propaganda-every The
violation of Belgian neutrality was a
war necessity, as were all other things
done by Germany of which the world
does not approve, they still claim.
They justify all. And, seeing how they
felt, could only listen to what they
said. But on the reparations issue
they are equally outspoken. 1t is my
opinion that, regardless of the Dawes
plan acceptance by the present Ger
man government, when they find a
way to evade it they will not hesitate
to do so. At least this is the one i'm
preston | got from everyone to whom
talked. | hope they will get over it,
because l believe they cannot evade
If -