CIVIL AVIATION

Southland Times, Issue 21101, 5 June 1930, Page 5

CIVIL AVIATION

BRITISH SERVICES

REVIEW BY SECRETARY FOR AIR CONTEMPLATED EXTENSIONS (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) Rugby, June 3. Lord Thomson, Secretary for Air, made a statement in the House of Lords regarding civil aviation. He said that here in this small island we could not develop civil aviation to quite the same extent as in larger countries where communications were not so good. On the other hand we had a far flung Empire, which we could only reach by crossing other people’s territory, and to do that we. had to enter into a variety of agreements with the Governments of other countries. Lord Thomson explained that there were differences in the various countries regarding an interpretation of the freedom of the air as defined by the International Convention. This country, however, had not had the least difficulty in reaching agreements with those countries over which the air route to India passed. Italy took a more restricted interpretation of the freedom of the air. The difficulty of reaching a satisfactory arrangement with Italy was due to the fact that we could not find, a basis, of reciprocity because we had nothing to give Italy in return for the privileges we enjoyed on Italian territory. Meanwhile, the position was not at all bad. The mid-Euro-pean or Balkan air route to India was functioning with remarkable success and punctuality. The British Empire had now .23,350 miles of air route in regular operation. As a people we were rather apt to decry our own achievements, but we had the second largest air route milage in the world, second only to- the United States. Our. services were manned by the finest machines and certainly many of the best pilots in the world. It was a feature of Continental air travel that passengers always tried to fly in British machines whenever there was a choice. That was a tribute to our ground organization, our pilots, and the efforts takes to avoid risks arising from faulty structure.

Developments of the air services now being arranged were an extension of the India route to Australia, which it was hoped to have in operation by the end of next year, and a service through Africa from Cairo to Cape Town. That would be completed as far as the Great Lakes, Central Africa, at the end of this year and extended to Cape Town by the spring of 1931.. Finally, we were now beginning to see light in opening up Atlantic airways with the cooperation of the Canadian Government. Referring to airships Lord Thomson reminded the House that the building of these ships was an experiment. The final stages of that experiment would be made at the end of this month by a flight to Canada. There was going to be no risk while he was in charge of anything being rushed so that lives might be lost through lack of foresight. Lord Thomson paid a tribute to the magnificent work done by airship men, who had sacrificed promotion and other advantages in order to undertake these great experiments. People asked why the Graf Zeppelin could go round and round the world while our two ships remained in the sheds. The reason was that the Germans had 30 years’ experience behind them, but with all their excellence the Zeppelins could not be compared with RlOO and RlOl. Despite many setbacks and some disappointments his faith was absolutely undimmed, and he was sure the people of this country would be right in continuing these experiments on the basis of research alone.