AIR ROUTE BY SUDAN

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30452, 28 May 1964, Page 14

AIR ROUTE BY SUDAN

New Hopes For Agreement "The Press’’ Special Service LONDON, May 27. The British Government hopes, as a result of the State visit this week of the President of the -Sudan (Feneral Ibrahim Abboud) to secure the right to fly over the Sudan with military and civil aircraft for the next five years,, says the “Guardian’s” defence correspondent.. The Sudan provides the best and cheapest route for aircraft from Britain to East Africa, Aden, the Persian Gulf, the Far East and Australia. But the most vital rights are for military aircraft needed to support possible commitments in the Southern Arabian Federation, the Persian Gulf, and Malaysia. . . Alternative Routes "Officially, it is frequently emphasised that military aircraft could, if necessary, use the alternative route by way of Turkey (a member of N.A.T.O.pand Persia (a member of C.E.N.T.0.), but this would involve a longer journey, especially if the destination were Aden, and would incur greater risks. “The aircraft would be forced to fly over peaks rising to more than 16,000 ft in both Turkey and Persia, where the weather is often bad. It would also rob the pilot of the possible use of the emergency landing grounds with which the Sudan and Libya abound.”

Miss B. B. Evans and Mr R. J. Harrison were elected to the Dominion executive of the New Zealand Educational Institute at the Dominion con ference in Wellington.— (P-A.)