THE EMPIRE’S FUTURE

Evening Star, Issue 22882, 14 February 1938, Page 13

THE EMPIRE’S FUTURE

LIES IN THE AIR JEAH BATTEN'S VIEWS What does the Empire look like front the air? How are its great dities growing, its land changing, its people progressing? These are questions that Jean Batten answers in the following article. T Four times in the past four years l have flown halfway across the world — over Empire countries nearly all the way, she writes. No other girls at my age (28) can have had such an experience. „ . Let me take you on a flying tour across the world and give you the glimpse I caught of the great countries and cities:—• New Zealand: Auckland, in my view, is one of the most naturally beautiful cities in the Empire. It was certainly the most welcome sight I had even seen when i glimpsed it through the rain at the conclusion of my 14,000 miles flight from England last year. Its striking cliffs, tree-clad slopes creating an ever-

green setting for a very modern town,make an unforgettable panorama from the air.

And how it is growing! As a city it has made tremendous strides since I first saw it. New factories are springing up like mushrooms. Its aerodrome has now the most modem equipment. In 1934 there were no organised air lines in New Zealand; now there are 25 first-class aerodromes, and mail and passenger flights have increased by leaps and bounds since I flew there last year.

Only one link remains to be forged in the All-Red air route from London, and that is the perilous 1,330 miles crossing of the Tasman Sea, which I flew recently in 9h 29min. This is acknowledged by mariners to be the most treacherous sea in the world, owing to the fact that it lies so very far south in the latitude known to sailors as the “ roaring forties.” That link is due to be completed this year, and then there will bo through, air services from London to Auckland —a 14,000 miles Empire route which will be the longest air line in the world. Australia: If Auckland is beautiful* Sydney, viewed from the air, is wonderful. Nothing quite like that harbour and the famous bridge is to be found anywhere else in the world. But it is in Northern Australia, back among the,-sheep stations in the scrub and bush, that I notice most change. The aerodrome is transforming life for the lonely families on these stations. Children there who have never seen a train qr boat in their lives watch air liners pass with clockwork regularity over their heads.

They were brought into the world, many of these children, by the “ flying doctor ” Dr Fenton, who is known au oyef Northern Australia, where he pilots his own plane, often taking a nurse- with Mm. on his , M rounds ” of thousands of miles.

Singapore; Hero “ defence work ” is the order of the day, and Britain’s great base at the Gateway to the East is one of the most impressive sights on the Whole flight. I remember passing over it at dawn on my last trip. Liners, tramp steamers, tankers—ships of almost every nation on earth—Ha still in the vast harbour below, jostled by hundreds of native junks with their grass-plaited sails. Indja: The country around Calcutta is one of the most uninviting-looking places on the whole route, for it is impossible to land anywhere other than at the aerodrome of this great town.The surrounding country consists either of impenetrable jungle or the vast swamps, called the Sunderbunds, at the mouths of the Ganges. The whole of India is indeed difficult country to fly over. Syria: Here, from the air, you can see how civilisation is slowly stretching out into the trackless desertA finelyconstructed bitumen road, like one of our big arterial roads in England, is creeping out from Bagdad toward Damascus.

I have watched it grow year by year. Now it extends for 50 miles, and soon it will reach Rutbah Wells, that lonely French outpost fenced off with barbed wire in the heart of the Syrian Desert. But there is one thing more I would like to add; In my four long flight* across the world what impresses me more forcibly, perhaps, than anything else is the fact that the Empire’s future lies in the air.