FUTURE AIR ROUTES.

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 32, 7 August 1919, Page 11

FUTURE AIR ROUTES.

"In the case of flying between England and India there is now a. long but well mapped out route, to som« extent provided with insufficiently numerous but regular stages, landing grounds, and spare part depots," said Brigadier-General Lord Montagu of Beaulieu before the Indian Section of the Royal Society of Arts on sth June.. "With the exception of the flight over the Channel, France, and Northern Italy, no serious climatic disadvantages- exist. As regards Imperial or international control, the pre sent air routes to India pass, with the exception of France, Italy, and Crete, entirely under the direction of the British Empire. Moreover, when India is reached, it is by no means a. dead end, to use an old railway phrase, as some may think. India is half way between London and Australia, and beyond India lie many important parts of the Empire, such as Australia and New Zealand, Burma, the Federated Malay States, British Borneo, and Hongkong. The winter conditions in Siberia and Thibet will preclude regular flying from China a,nd the East to Europe' for many years to come, and the route south of th» Himalaya* is therefore certain to b» used. The Northern Plainß of India, frorm Peshawar to Calcutta, therefore, will become one day one of the world's greatest airways. I consider that Heliopolis (Cairo) will be the most important single centre of air transport for the Old World—Europe, Asia, and Africa— for thence will-radiate services to East, Central, and South Africa on the- one side, and on the other to India and countries beyond. But next to Cairo in importance will be some; Indian station for reception of all mails east of India to places ranging from Vladivostock to New Zealand."