AIR MAIL PLANS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 158, 6 July 1935, Page 15

AIR MAIL PLANS.

ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC.

FEVERISH PREPARATIONS. WASHINGTON, May 27. Preparations are proceeding apace for the establishment this summer of air mail services over both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, linking Europe with America and America with China, according to officials of the United States Post Office. Imperial' Airways, an Irish company and Dr. Hugo Eckener are- engaged in a race to establish a regular Transatlantic service. It is expected -that the super-Zeppelin now under construction in Germany will carry the first aitmail between- the Old World and the new. The postal authorities of the United States and Germany have reached an agreement upon financial details, according to which the charge for letters will be 40 cents:. 5 cents will represent the Ordinary international postage, and 35 cents a surcharge, most of which will go to the Zeppelin company. Arrangements are to be made to drop mail bags by parachute at New York on the journey westwards, and at Paris on the journey eastwards, since the airship's termini will be Friedrichshafen and Lakehurst, New Jersey. The Graf Zeppelin is expected to undergo tests shortly on two flights to South America.' Dr. Eckener will then be ready to inaugurate the North Atlantic service. Imperial Airways, which have been surveying the southern route, via the Azores and Bermuda, are understood to have an agreement with Pan-American Airways whereby they will share the traffic' when an aeroplane service is started ih about a year's time.

For the moment the American concern is devoting its entire attention to the other great trans-oceanic route between California and China. It is hoped to establish it this summer. The United States Post Office will shortly invite tenders for Pacific air mail contracts. Besides .Pan-American Airways two other companies," one of which is connected with the Watson Line, arc expected to make bids. It was urged during the debate, in the Bermuda House of Assembly that plana to construct an air base on the island be carried out without del a}', and it was stated that Imperial Airways were willing to proceed with the work on the understanding: that f1'5,000 was contributed by the Bermuda Government.