“(...) regarding my letter to the League of Nations requesting the abolition of aviation as an instrument of destruction.”

• Handwritten letter from Alberto Santos Dumont to the Director of the newspaper Estado de São Paulo, Júlio de Mesquita.
• One page.
• In Portuguese.
• 21.5 cm x 26.5 cm.
• Val-Mont Clinic, Switzerland, November 7, 1926.
• Excellent condition conservation.
• Unique piece.

In the late 1920s, several letters show Santos Dumont referring to his debilitated state. He spent long periods in a famous rest home, Valmont, in Glion-sur-Montreux, Switzerland, from where he wrote this letter. Multiple sclerosis? Depression? Biographers disagree, but the fact is that his condition worsened and he was unable to attend the tributes that had been planned for him. In 1927, when Charles Lindbergh crossed the North Atlantic in a solo flight, Santos Dumont was invited to the reception, but he did not attend because he was hospitalized in Valmont-sur-Territet, Switzerland.

It was from there, in 1926, that he attempted an appeal to the League of Nations (now the UN), through his friend, Ambassador Afrânio de Melo Franco, the Brazilian representative at the meeting to be held on January 14th.

“I read in several newspapers that there are plans to limit the actions of submarines, prohibiting them from taking an active part in future wars. However, as far as I know, no thought has been given to the Air Force. We do, however, know what aircraft are capable of. Their exploits during the last war allow us to glimpse, with horror, the degree of destruction they could achieve in the future, spreading death not only among combatant forces but also, and unfortunately, among harmless people in the rear. Those of us who, like me, were humble pioneers in the conquest of the air, thought more about creating new means of peaceful expansion for peoples than about supplying them with new weapons of war.”

In this context, this letter seems exceptional to me. Santos Dumont writes to Júlio de Mesquita, the emblematic owner of the Estado de São Paulo newspaper, very influential at the time. He comments on his poor health, the tributes paid to him, and, above all, the famous... "A letter to the League of Nations calling for the abolition of aviation as an instrument of destruction." A historic letter and, unfortunately, still very relevant today.