CIVIL AVIATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 111, 13 May 1939, Page 8

CIVIL AVIATION

AIR MISSION IMPRESSED

FACTORY ENVISAGED

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

LONDON, April 17,

Commenting upon the Pacific Defence Conference, "The Times" says that the Air Missions to Australia and New Zealand have been "greatly impressed by the development of civil aviation and see great opportunities for further advance. Sir Hardman Lever, the head of the mission to New Zealand, is confident that arrangements will soon be made to manufacture aircraft in the Dominion."

"The Times" adds: "All arrangements are now being made to construct in Australia air-frames suitable for Australian requirements and for those of the Royal Air Force in the Far East. As Sir Kingsley Wood pointed out in the House of Commons at the time, the creation of sources of supply in the Pacific Dominions is an important contribution to Empire defence.

"Conditions in that part of the world are favourable to a rapid growth of air transport, and airmen from Australia and New Zealand have proved themselves second to none in the world. Apart from considerations of defence the increasing needs of civil aviation make local production advisable. Not only will it ensure that supply will not be interrupted in an emergency; it will be possible by expansion to supply the wants of India and Malaya—a patriotic and resourceful colony which has just made another handsome contribution to Imperial defence —and thus to relieve the strain on the industry in Great Britain at a time when it may be hard pressed to satisfy urgent demands nearer home. And the new technical methods which have been evolved to meet the case for accelerated supply now make it possible to set up new centres of production with a comparatively small corps of highlyskilled craftsmen.

"Apparently Australia and New Zealand will follow the course which has been adopted with success m Canada, where a number of firms specialise in the manufacture of particular parts to be put together in a central assembling factory."