EMPIRE AIR-MAIL CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 35, 11 February 1936, Page 8

EMPIRE AIR-MAIL CONTROL

Australia's refusal to concede control of the Australian section of the Empire air-mail system in accordance with the British authorities' plan for a flying-boat service round the coast to Sydney is not apparently meeting with the approval of all Australians. There is, moreover, the position of New Zealand to be considered. The "Sydney Morning Herald," according to a cable message today, commenting editorially on the Federal Government's attitude towards the British air-mail scheme, says: • j

Apparently New Zealand can have the London connection when Australia feels able to provide it, and on Australia's terms. It may safely be concluded that neither the British nor the New Zealand Government will sit down meekly under that sort of attitude from Canberra.

We are not so sure that such a conclusion,, so far as the New Zealand Government is concerned, is as safe as the "Herald" anticipates, but whatever decision the New Zealand Government does eventually reach, it should not be without the closest study of all relevant considerations. These are not all so simple and obvious as they might seem at first sight. The Imperial authorities have evidently good reasons for urging the use of flying-boats from Singapore to Sydney (or Brisbane) and thence to New Zealand. There is the defence aspect which is emphasised in the "Herald's" comment and on which the layman is hardly competent to express an opinion. There is also another aspect which so far seems to have been ignored in the argument. This is the difference in the cost of the mail service which a change of plans may entail. At the Air Mail Conference in Sydney, which preceded the extension of the Empire air-mail service to Australia and at which the Imperial authorities were fully represented, it was distinctly stated that it was hoped to carry Empire air mail at the standard rates charged for correspondence by ordinary channels, and it was further suggested that it might be possible to introduce the system by next year. Presumably the whole arrangement was contingent on the acceptance of the British scheme for running the service. If that scheme fails through Australia's refusal to co-operate on the lines laid down, then a cheap Empire air-mail service for New Zealand looks like fading into a dream. This is a very vital matter to New Zealand in its isolation, for the high cost to the user is a serious drawback to the present air-mail service. If a satisfactory uniform service between Britain and New Zealand can be secured with cheap postage rates, it would seem worth while for the Dominion to continue the effort for co-operation with the authorities at the other end.