Peking, June 7. The training of Chinese aviation pilot to handle the half-dozen Handley-Page aeroplanes bought by the Ministry of Communications for commercial purposes has been in progress for more than a month and the anticipations of their instructors have been in large measure realized. Not unnaturally a commencement was made with men who have already flown, pilots who have been accustomed to flying over the city in the frail little Caudrons which were bought by the Chinese Government before the war, and, as may be expected, the difficulty-with them'is to make them unlearn some of the science and knowledge which they applied to a small machine. It is difficult to impress upon them that they cannot handle a huge Handley-Page in the same manner as their Caudrons. Their courage is unquestioned. Even British fliers admire the intrepidity of the pilots who handle these small machines, and more than one has been heard to declare that he would not take £1,000 to go up in any of these.
It was mentioned last week that General Chang Tso-lin had requested the War Office to send him three military aeroplanes, and that three Caudrons had been' despatched to Mukden. These machines may be of use to him for observation purposes, but their value is exceedingly limited, as they could not carry bombs. If follows that the Handley-Page aeroplanes, although bombing machines converted to commercial purposes, could not be properly requisitioned inasmuch as they belong to the Ministry of Communications the head of which is a member of the Anfu Club to which General Chang Tsolin is in opposition.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.