PACIFIC AIR SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 60, 12 March 1937, Page 10

PACIFIC AIR SERVICE

PAN-AMERICAN AGREEMENT

SURVEY FLIGHT AT EARLY DATE

The .New Zealand Government, after consultation with the United Kingdom and Australian Governments, has decided to grant to Fan-American Airways an extension of time till the end of the present year within which to commence ils trans-Pacific service. The announcement was made last night by the Prime Minister {the Rl. lion. M. J. Savage). The extension is quite distinct from I he. request by Pan-American Airways last year for a variation of the original agreement of 1935, and it is understood that there would have to be further consultations between the Dominion and Ihe Imperial authorities b,.cl'ore any amendments to the contract could be made.

The original agreement provided that the service should ba commenced by December 31, 1936, but it further provided that m the event of unforeseen circumstances an extension of this commencement period to December 3], 1937. might be made. It is ibis clause upon which agreement has now been reached. It is not possible to state al what date the first survey flight will be madej but it is very probable that the first Pan-American Clipper Ship, a huge l'our-engined Sikorsky flying-boat, will arrive at Auckland within a week or two. Arrangements may be made for the Clipper Ship to fly on lo Wellington on this first visit.

Mr. Savage said that under its agreement (made with the previous Government) the Pan-American Company was required to commence the service not later than the 3ist day of December, 1936, but that if by reason of unforeseen difflculties the company should be unable to commence the service by that date the time.might, with the Government's consent, be extended. The time for commencing the service, continued Mr. Savage, had thus expired at the end of last year, but the Pan-American company had repre-j sented to the Government that certain unforeseen difficulties, e.g., those created by the maritime strike on the Pacific Coast of America during part of last year, had so impeded the company's efforts to commence the service, or the exploratory flights preliminary to its commencement, that a start before the end of 1930 had been impossible. ■ I

In view of these circumstances, said ' the Prime Minister, the Government ' had, felt that it might be inequitable £ to refuse an extension of time to PanAmerican Airways and had decided to j give -the company a period of grace i until the end of the present year. t BRITISH INTERESTS. The public would be glad to know, !1 continued the Prime Minister, that a before arriving at a decision in this ' matter the New ■ Zealand Government had consulted the Governments of all A the members of the British Common- * wealth having interests in the Pacific. The paramount consideration for the * New Zealand.Government was the safe- 1: guarding, of British interests, potential as well as, actual, in the Pacific, and ; effective steps have been taken to that end. ' . Consultation with the Governments, particularly of Great, Britain and Aus- , tralia, had been close and continuous, ■_ and the whole matter bad been care- 'r fully reviewed at a conference' in Wei- !; lington last September, when reprc- !' sentatives of the three Governments— i 1 British, Australian, and New Zealand— ]} had been present. In consequence of * the decisions readied at that confer- n ence, the New Zealand Government " had decided to refuse certain modifications of the terms of . the agreement which "the Pan-American Company had asked for. The question of an exten- , sion of-time, based on circumstances ' contemplated in the original agreement, was, however, separate and distinct from the question of modification of the agreement, and fell to be decided jupon entirely different considerations. w

The public could rest assured, \concluded the Prime Minister,-that the Government's present action, of which the Governments, of Great Britain and Australia had been made aware and with which they agreed, had been arrived at only after full consideration had been given to.the interests' of each of the members of the British Commonwealtli concerned.