Paris-Berlin Direct

Since the War the Franco-German frontier has been as an imaginary wall, towering into the sky and shutting off air traffic not only between these countries but between Northern and Southern Europe, forcing all such traffic to be circuitously routed through the Netherlands. As everyone knows, this state of affairs has persisted because the French have bitter-endedly enforced the air restrictions imposed upon Germany by the Versailles Treaty, thus causing Germans to retaliate by closing their frontier to French airplanes and to confiscate all French machines forced down on German soil.

Last week at Paris a Franco-German air compact was signed. Its purport was to smooth out the more embittered points of contention between France and Germany, while leaving in effect the drastic Allied restrictions upon purely military German aircraft.

The effect of this penscratching was of the first importance. It was seen at Paris when a Berlin-Paris air line was announced to commence operation in a few days by a German firm. Travelers will shortly be able to fly from London to Moscow via Paris and Berlin (nearly 2000 miles) for about The London to Moscow air route has, of course, been regularly operated for many months, via Amsterdam and Berlin.