AIRCRAFT FUEL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 72, 27 March 1939, Page 8

AIRCRAFT FUEL

THE NATIONS AGREE

CONVENTION DRAWN UP

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, March 2.

Agreement was reached by the international conference upon the exemption from taxation of liquid fuel and lubricants used for air traffic.

A -convention was adopted agreeing that fuel contained in the tanks of aircraft arriving from foreign countries should be exempt, from duties, but that no quantity might be unloaded temporarily unless it were placed under? Customs control.

It was also agreed that fuel or lubricants in departing aircraft should be free from taxation, or that the duties levied should be refunded. Forty-four nations attended the, conference, and the convention may'%e signed at the British Foreign Office during the coming three months. The basis is one- of reciprocity.

The Berlin-Rome axis, on a question of prestige, at one time refused to sign the convention. This was because the agreement was to become official in French and EnglisK Twice the Ger-man-Italian request .for their languages to be included was turned down hy the conference, and their delegations left the room on one occasion. ,

Both the Russian and the Spanish delegates declared ironically that if the convention was to become authentic in , German "and Italian their languages should be included also.

Finally, it was decided that the convention should be authentic only in French, but that there should also be texts in German, English, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Polish, and in any other language' desired by a Goverment. It was added that these texts would have the validity of official translations, which only emphasised that French was the one authentic language recognised by the conference.

M. Maisky, the Riissian Ambassador in London, asked bluntly: "Is that a threat?" when the Germans and Italians declared their previous intention of not signing.

One of the Germans admitted, unofficially, that it was merely a question of national prestige for their language to be included. '

New Zealand -was represented at the conference by the High Commissioner, Mr. W. J. Jordan, and Mr. T. O. W. Brebner, assistant official Customs representative at New Zealand House.