TASMAN AIR LINK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 16, 19 January 1940, Page 6

TASMAN AIR LINK.

It is to the credit of the Government that it did not use the war as an excuse to postpone indefinitely the inauguration of the trnns-Tnsman flying services. Had the Government done so, none would have complained and all would have accepted any statement that other things were more, important. But now it is reliably reported from Australia that agreement for a modified service has been reached. This is not yet definite, and the public will be chary in accepting it na such, for this is by no means the first time that they have been told that the service was about to start. Still, the mere fact that negotiations have taken a new lease of life is encouraging. It may be that the Tasman service has been deemed important not in spite of but because of the war. As hostilities progress troops are likely to cross the Tasman in larger numbers, so that any aerial patrol and reconnaissance of that area must be of the greatest value. There is no reason why the flying boats could not be used indirectly—

<>r, if need arose, directly—as ancillaries of both the Dominion and Commonwealth air forces. Designed especially for the Tasman crossing, they would be able to maintain patrol at least as well as any other type of aircraft, while the fact that their normal route is across the ocean might free other machines for duty elsewhere —round the Australian roast, to Singapore or in the Pacific. Meanwhile one advantage "t the air crossing luts been demonstrated by th<> visit of the Minister of DHViirc to Sydney. Jn future, negotiations bet ween the Australian and New Zealand Governments should be easier, quicker and generally more satisfactory than they have been in the past.