The Dominion. THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1935. IMPROVING AIR MAIL SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 108, 31 January 1935, Page 8

The Dominion. THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1935. IMPROVING AIR MAIL SERVICES

4» There is encouraging evidence in several cabled dispatches to-day that an all-round improvement in the Imperial air mail services is a possibility of the not-remote future. A joint delegation representing the British Air Ministry and the Postal .Department is now on a tour of investigation of the Imperial air route from Cioydon . o India, Singapore and Australia. The objects in view are the acce elation of the mail services and the improvement of the ground organisation. There is also the question of reduced postal charges, whica, it is pointed out, is a matter involving co-operative arrangements with the Dominions which will be benefited. _ Ever since the Melbourne Centenary Air Race demonstrated that the air mail schedules from Croydon to Australia were fat too slow, pu j lie opinion has been active in pressing for a substantial acceleration o the services. This pressure, moreover, has been exerted from points along the line. At the English end The Times, noting the fact that the Christmas air mails to India had increased by 30 per cent., and those to Africa by more than 70 per cent., argued that this. success would appear to have proved the need for faster communications, and o have established the fact that cost alone restrained a greater pub ic from using the air mail.” The Calcutta Statesman, m urging . ie need for speeding up the pace and lowering the cost of these services, points out that as things are at present “it may be argued that tne whole of the commercial risk has to be borne by Imperial. Airways while the Post Office stands to make a profit without any risk. . .. • The company can justifiably .plead that if faster services are required the public (or the taxpayer) must be prepared to pay more for them. The air-mail user, on the other hand, feels that he is being asked. to pay more than enough already in direct charges, and that a i eduction is overdue.” At the Sydney end of the line discussion has centred more upon the shortcomings of Australia’s ground organisation, as revealed in the recent delay to the air-liner Athena at Darwin. It is idle, said the Sydney Morning Herald on this point, “for the department to talk about speeding up the air mail while such deficiencies remain... . • Speeding up must begin in the department.” All of this is evidence of widespread dissatisfaction with the present services. . The development of aviation, it would seem, has outrun the official mind; but there is hope for the immediate future in the spurt of energy, now being displayed. Now that this imposing delegation of experts is. on its way to Australia via air-line wayports might it not be appropriate to suggest that they should extend their tour across the Tasman to New Zealand? Our financial contribution, though a modest one, to the Imperial air-line to Australia is in token of benefits to come, and while the more immediate questions arc the speeding up of the Crovdon-Australia schedules, and the cheapening of the postal rates, -it seems proper to suggest that official consideration of the New Zealand link might -well be speeded up at the same time. It is no use to argue that this' is an impracticable proposition at present.. All the world knows that tvhat was considered impracticable in aviation a few short years ago is a matter of routine fact to-day.