IMPERIAL AIR MAILS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21419, 11 March 1935, Page 11

IMPERIAL AIR MAILS

Increasing Mileage LOW RATE OF SUBSIDY (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION —BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH —COPYRIGHT.} (Received March 10, 7 p.m.) LONDON, March 9. "The Times" welcomes as an important step to finality the Australian Cabinet's approval of the tentative air service agreement. It says: "There will be no difficulty about the adhesion of New Zealand when Australia decides to come in. "The scheme will increase to more than 5,000,000 miles the annual mileage flown by Imperial Airways, and also will involve a vast amount of preparatory work, some of which is already. in hand," "The Times adds. . Sir Eric Geddes, addressing the Press Club, said the assistance of the Post Office and the Air Ministry would enable the air mails to be carried throughout the Empire lor three-halfpence an ounce, at a much less proportional subsidy. Imperial Airways operated at a lower subsidy than any similar enterprise, and when the Empire governments accepted the new scheme the percentage of subsidy to earned revenue would be halved. A wave of speed hysteria swept over the world after the Melbourne air race. Safety, comfort, reliability and a reduction of strain were equally essential, and the new Empire aeroplanes provided these. It would cost £500,000 to increase the speed from 100 to 200 miles an hour on a seven or 10-dav route, whereas the total civil vote was only £600,000. Moreover, th° increase would save only one day on the journey. It was not worth while going entirely for speed or frequency: that was going headlong to bankruptcy. MAKING THE SERVICE FASTER < 'MAIN DIFF t CIILTI F.S O V EROOME" (PRESS ASSOCIATION TEM'.G RA M■) AUCKLAND, March 10. The view that the main difficulties had been overcome in the proposals for speeding up and otherwise developing the air mail services between England and Australia was expressed by Sir Frederic Williamson, Director of Postal Services in Britain, and Sir Edwaid Campbell, parliamentary private secretary to Sir Kingsley Wood (British Postmaster-General), who spent the week-end in Auckland. Sir Frederic and Sir Edward, who were members of the British delegation to the recent air mail conference in Sydney, said they were gratified at the news published on Saturday that the Australian Government had approved the principles of the agreement reached by the British and Australian representatives at the conference. Many complicated questions of detail lemained to be solved, they said, but they were questions that could be overcome. Finance was an important matter, but it was not one that was insuperable. This fact had been admitted. Asked if he was optimistic as to the possibility of c service including the Tasman link to New Zealand being in operation' in 1937, Sir Frederic replied: "I am very satisfied with the results of the mission." Sir Frederic said finance was a very important question, but both the Australian and New Zealand Governments had said finance was not an insuperable difficulty. Imperial Airways would co-operate with the air services in India and Australia. It could not be stated yet who would conduct the Tasman The scheme would be one of the most, if not the most, wonderful developments of the age. There was nothing comparable to it. Letters would be stamped and posted in the ordinary way without any bother about special stamos and surcharges. Sydney would be reached in seven days from London and New Zealand in. say, nine days. At present it took 31 days to go by ship from Sydney to London. With the new scheme in force one could eo to London, stay there for two weeks, and be back again in less time than it' now took to get there. THE TASMAN LINK SERVICE WITHIN TWO YEARs "NOT UNREASONABLE"_ (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND. March 9. "It is not unreasonable to hope there will be an air mail service across the Tasman v/ithin two vears. Something may be accomplished even ahead of that time," said Captain E. Johnson, Controller of Civil Aviation in Australia, who passed through Auckland to-day on a world tour of investigation of commercial flying. Captain Johnson said the crossing of an ocean as wide as the Tasman was certainly a problem. Only one such service was in operation—that from Dakar, French West Africa, to Natal, Brazil. This route was 1700 miles long compared with the 1200 across the Tasman. A careful study of the route, and much preparation would be necessary before these ocean crossings could be included in regular air services. The Tasman would have to be properly equipped with all modern aids to navigation. One of his objects on the present tour was to investigate the latest wireless equipment for navigation as the route across Bass Strait presented a great problem, the weather at certain seasons being bad. The crossing of the Timor Sea in a monsoon was another difficulty. Captain Johnson mentioned the difficulty of flying over inland Australia because the country was featureless. He said that at the key points direction arrows were being erected. They consisted of iron platforms 100 feet long and six feet across, painted white. ,