AN EPOCH-MAKING ADVANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 10

AN EPOCH-MAKING ADVANCE

Suggestions from Australia that' there has been delay on the part of the New Zealand Government in concluding the negotiations for a transTasman air service seem to be fairly answered in the statement issued by the Prime Minister (Mr. Savage) yesterday and published in "The Post." Mr. Savage denies that the Government has raised "difficulties, alleged by the Australian Minister of Defence (Mr. H. V. Thorby) in a cable message from Sydney on Monday, which also referred to points that did not come within the scope of the agreement reached at the Air Mail Conference held in Wellington last year. Mr. Thorby declined to specify the difficulties and the "points," but the position seems perfectly clear from Mr. Savage's statement. The agreement provides that the three Governments concerned —Britain, Australia, and New Zealand —

shall each appoint either a Government Air Commission, or an existing company, or shall constitute a new company for the purpose of representing their interests in a joint company created for the operation of the transTasman air service.

The last-named proposal is the on< that has been adopted, and the pro visional nomination of companies is Britain, Imperial Airways; Aus tralia, Qantas Empire Airways; Nev Zealand, Union Airways. The onlj 'difficulty" or "point" at issui ippears to lie in the number oi lirectors. The agreement providec or nine directors, three each froir he countries concerned. The chair nan of Union Airways, according tc i cable sent by Mr. Savage tc Australia on May 14, has suggested i directorate of five as preferable wo from Imperial Airways, one rom Qantas Empire Airways, anc wo from New Zealand, including >ne appointed by the New Zealanc Government, which is taking up 51 >er cent, of New Zealand s share oi he capital of the operating company, The New Zealand Government, iccording to Mr. Savage, did nol tsell urge the change the lumber of the directorate, but simply sonveyed the opinion of Union Airvays on the point, though Mr. Savage hought it had "considerable merit." The reason is not hard to seek, we jelieve. Of the three countries concerned New Zealand, by the fact oi ts isolation, has the most vital inerest in the Taxman air service. Australia and Britain already have nter-communication by air and will, it is expected, have the new "all-in'" lir-mail service by July. The New Zealand service will be partly, from he Australian and British point of riew, an extension; to New Zealand t is everything, not only a link with Australia, but also a link with the Motherland and the rest of the Old World. Strong representation is herefore desirable. Moreover, while line is the minimum number for a lirectorate to represent three parties squally and preserve an odd number, it makes for a cumbersome body, compared with the alternative of five suggested. However, if five is not icceptable to the other parties, the >riginal proposal of nine will stand ind the negotiations, inevitably slow >y cable, can proceed. In any event t is unlikely that flying-boats of the ype suitable for the Tasman service iould have been ready before the legotiations were complete. Of equal importance was the innouncement by the Prime Minister hat the "all-up" rate of I^d P er lalf-ounce had been adopted for >ostage of air mail. This is a vast mprovement on the existing Is 6d >er half-ounce rate and will mean hat all letters from a given date will ;o by air mail between Britain and Sydney- and, at first, across the Tasman by steamer, but eventually jy air. So far as New Zealand is joncerned this will be an epochnaking advance in Empire communi:ations, and a great improvement on he earlier prospect of a modified cheme with about a fivepenny rate.