PACIFIC AIR MAIL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 18, 2 November 1935, Page 6

PACIFIC AIR MAIL

THE AMERICAN AGREEMENT.

EXPLANATION BY THE PREMIER.

RIGHTS OF BRITISH COMPANIES.

(Per Press Association). (

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

The terms of the agreement which the Government has made with PanPacific Airways for a service between New Zealand and the United States were explained by Mr G. W. Forbes in his address at Hanmer last evening.

The service, he said, would be provided at no cost whatever to the country. There had been questions asked as to nvhy such facilities should be given to an American company, and he wished to make clear that there was in the Pan-American Airways agreement a stipulation that when a British company was prepared to operate, the Government should ask for reciprocal rights from the United States. Ilie Unitedi States must let British land ’planes have facilities for landing in the United States, and if those facilities were refused the Government could terminate its agreement with PanPacific Airways in 12 months’ time. The Government considered that a great advance had been made by the arrangements for an air service between New Zealand and the United States. Arrangements had also been made with Imperial Airways, through the British Government, for New Zealand to be connected with the England-to-Australia air service that would come into operation in 1937. The result would be that New Zealand would have a British service on one side of the world and an American service in the other direction. It would not he long until New Zealand, which was once regarded as isolated, would be linked up with the rest of the world, with services by air of passengers and mails, and its isolation would be broken.