1. I have recently paid a visit to Egypt and Mesopotamia with the object of finding out the particular troubles that are experienced with aeroplanes and engines in tropical climates. My stay in those countries only lasted for a total of 41/2 weeks in July and August, and that, of course, is quite an insufficient time to get complete knowledge of the subject. In many cases I am afraid the information I shall give will be somewhat indefinite, but my main object is to indicate the troubles and leave their solution to other people.

2. First as regards the climatic conditions. The general impression I got was that, as regards the effect on aircraft materials, Mesopotamia was very nearly as much worse than Egypt as Egypt is than England, so that although one may get a solution for a particular difficulty in Egypt, it does not necessarily follow that the same solution will get over the difficulty in Mesopotamia.