KYEEMA DISASTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 November 1938, Page 5

KYEEMA DISASTER

EVIDENCE AT INQUIRY PROPOSAL TO BUY AMERICAN PLANE DEFERRED UNTIL AFTER ELECTION By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. MELBOURNE, November 7. Departmental correspondence was read at the Kyeema inquiry today disclosing that the Civil Aviation Board requested the Government last year to purchase an American plane and radio beacons for the board’s own use.

The letter, dated September 20, 1937, was from the secretary of the board to the Secretary of the Defence Department, and said that this provision was most urgent. The letter, which apparently came before the Cabinet on September 24, had a note initialled by Sir Archdale Parkhill (the Defence Minister): “Defer for the present.” A further memo on the same letter dated September 27, 1937, said: “Captain Johnston (Comptroller General of Civil Aviation): Resurrect after election.”

Other documents read today stated that the Cabinet in March, 1937, approved of the purchase of an aircraft, but stipulated that it must be British, to which the Secretary of the Defence Department replied that there was no suitable British plane available. On July 1, 1937,''the board cabled London asking the cost of a Bristol machine. This was £30,700 Australian currency, where an American plane, c.i.f.- Melbourne, was £ll,OOO.