THE TASMAN AIR LINE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 304, 19 September 1936, Page 10

THE TASMAN AIR LINE

There is an agreeable surprise in the. cabled report that the differences between the British and Australian Governments over the Empire air mail proposals have been satisfactorily adjusted, and that as a result the Federal Minister of Defence, accompanied, by a delegation of senior officers from the Postal and Civil Aviation departments, is to sail for New Zealand to-day to discuss future developments with the Dominion Government. The wav is now clear for an earlier realisation than was expected of our hopes for the extension of the Imperial air mail service across the Tasman. The delegation from Australia looks like real business at last. Various preliminaries will have to be settled, and considerable time elapse before the service becomes an established fact, but it is highly satisfactory that things are beginning to move. The Prime Minister states that in addition to the question of the air-mail service the conference will discuss aviation problems generally. It is evident from the personnel of the conference that these discussions will cover a fairly wide field which will probably include an examination of the problems of defence. The fact that, as reported, the Australian delegation will be headed by the Minister of Defence, and will include also the Secretary of the Federal Defence Department, suggests the opening up of the question of closer cooperation between the two countries and possibly consideration of co-ordinated schemes of defence.