PASSAGE BY AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 33, 7 August 1936, Page 4

PASSAGE BY AIR

A BALKANISED EUROPE

RESTRICTIONS ON SERVICES

ZEPPELIN INCIDENT

Some people who ought to know better have been making a considerable fuss about the airship Hindehburg's flights over England, says the "Manchester Guardian" editorially. When the very existence of Imperial Airways and our own Empire an- routes depends on foreign good will—the consent of half a dozen Governments—it is hardly becoming for us to start being quarrelsome. Consistently since the war, and with good reason, we have championed the freedom of the air against tho opposition of most of the rest of Europe. Actually, since we have never obtained it, the delays caused by interminable bargaining and political obstruction have cost us thousands of pounds and set back the normal progress of aviation by decades. Why, then, should we begin to be illiberal now merely because a few apprehensive souls are suspicious of spies, airships (useless in modern war), Gex'mans, or perhaps all three? The only point that really matters about tho Hindenburg's visits is whether her crew behaved themselves properly while they were over this country, and. Sir Philip Sassoon in the Commons could make no complaint on that score. True, as he said, Germany is expected by the 1927 Angle-German air agreement to ask "formal permission" before running a regular air service across Britain; he therefore would make inquiries in Berlin. But since the Hindenburg is supposed not to be running a regular air service to the United States, but only making a limited series of experimental flights, it is at least arguable whether her visits come within that limitation. For the rest, Sir Philip said, "there was no reason to believe that the regulations were not properly observed." No unauthorised photographs are known.to have been taken and she did not fly over any prohibited area. :

A LITTLE EXTRA VALUE. li\ other words,: and in default of direct proof to the contrary, it is not unreasonable to assume that if her commander strayed-farther over England than he need have done^his motive was nothing more sinister than the wish to give his passengers a little extra value'in the shape of a sightseeing tour. . '

The reactions of the public mind are sometimes highly mysterious; Any German light aeroplane, with the necessary permits, could fly over England and do just as efficient spying as any that could be performed from the Hindenburg. But nobody seems to bother much about German private . aeroplanes, presumably because they are not ostentatiously enormous, noisy, and festooned: with swastikas. Again, every day of life German pilots—and, of course, French, Belgian, and Dutch pilots also —bring commercial . air liners into Croydon. They may fly in cloud or fog; their job depends on their ability to find' London unerringly in all weathers, and actually they accumulate immense experience in doing so. For any bombing attack they have precisely the knowledge any foreign; Government would want. But no M.P. has so far been badgered by his constituents to demand that all foreign aviation should be kept out of this country. It would be a pify if the protests about the. Hiridenburg should .show that we are now joining in the general European neurosis'.''', Peaceful flying is already ;' sufficiently handicapped, as the history of its international regulation since the' "''war abundantly shows. The foundation document in public air law Is the 1919 Convention, to which-most States are parties. GERMANY NOT A PARTY. • Germany, as an ex-enemy Powers did not adhere originally, and since the Nazi revolution she has continued to abstain, "for the time being," as has been officially, stated, "owing to her withdrawal from the League of Nations and the Disarmament ' Conference." Consequently Germany (with other non-contracting countries) was obliged to negotiate separate treaties, as, for example, the 1927, agreement with Britain. Those agreements, however, mostly conform to- the pattern set by the 1919 Convention.' Article 1 of that Convention sets out a splendid programme for Utopia:— Ench contracting State undertakes in time of peace to accord freedom-of. innocent passage above its territory to the aircraft of tiie other contracting S.taies. : -. '.■■■'." The rest of the Convention is less happily inspired, for by Articles 3 and 15 it proceeds to contradict the first great thought and to' give a country power to exclude any aeroplane or air line it chooses, at anytime, in any district, and. without giving any reasons.1 Successive British Governments have tried hard to get the restrictions modified or removed. Our domestic record also, it should be said in fairness, is creditable. Contrary to the apparent beliefs of some members,, there are no "air corridors" in this country— routes, that is, which a foreign aeroplane or airship is bound to take. And "prohibited areas," places which can be assumed to house the most momentous national secrets, are few. ONLY FOUR PLACES. ' The Continent is liberally bestrewn with both sorts of warning, notice. There are. only four places at which an aeroplane may' cross the FrancoGerman frontier. Most of the Italian land frontier is forbidden ground. Only one route is allowed for flights between Italy and France. Yugoslavia can be entered at only one point on each of its seven frontiers. The borders between Finland and Sweden are virtually closed to air traffic. In other words, the air in Europe has been'fairly efficiently "Balkanised." After "reason of State" follows commercial bargaining. Why have Imperial Airways passengers for years had to cross Europe from Paris to the Mediterranean by train? Among other reasons, because we had. once refused an Italian company permission to fly over Egypt, then because Italy wanted a "pooling" arrangement which we found too onerous, and then, when the Italian difficulty was settled, because France was thought to have excessively munificent ideas on her share in the London-Marseilles receipts. It is not Imperial Airways, Tor any other company which is genuinely trying to make aviation pay on the basis of small subsidies, that will object indignantly to a German airship flying over Britain, especially on a route where we can at present offer no competition. If bargaining weapons exist we shall use them. But complete "freedom of innocent passage" everywhere to the aircraft of all nations remains the British ideal.