INTERNATIONAL AUTHORITY PROPOSED

Evening Star, Issue 25324, 4 November 1944, Page 8

INTERNATIONAL AUTHORITY PROPOSED

ORGAN OF WORLD SECURITY ORGANISATION WASHINGTON, November 2. Mr A.. S. Drakeford (Australia), in a speech at the air conference in Chicago, said New Zealand and Australia both publicly ■ declared that. in the interest of the future peace of ■ the world and in order to facilitate rational development of the world's air commerce, an international air transport authority should be appointed which, through an appropriate organisation, would own aircraft and operate proscribed international routes on behalf of all nations, and that such, international air transport authority should be the organ of the proposed world security organisation. In order that these services may be operated effectively all the countries of the world should be willing to concede to the inter-; national air transport authority the greatest possible measure of freedom in its development of air commerce. "Only through an international authority does it'seem possible to achieve that perinanancy of tenure making for efficiency, economy in operation, and certainty of satisfactory service that all nations expect when peace returns," said Mr Drakeford "There is no more favourable time than the present to. achieve the desirable objectives, and any postponement of a solution of these problems can result only in the development of vested interests in many countries, which would prove a stumbling block in later years when inevitably it will be necessary to bring about a greater measure of international control. At the same time we realise that it is the sovereign right of each nation to develop air services within its own territory for the benefit of ir.< own people. The principle of international ownership leaves each country complete freedom regarding the development and control of internal air communications and the right to make agreements and establish secondary air routes and services with contiguous countries for the purposes of promotion of regional development and mutual interests and a contribution to regional security." Mr D. G. Sullivan (New Zealand) traversed much the same ground as Mr Drakeford, and pointed out that if the prevention of future wars was to be entrusted to an international body there should be no hesitation in empowering an international organisation to own and operate international- air transport services Any other system would lead to international competition. International ownership would through supervisory power afford a very large degree of safety against misuse of aircraft. By this means national rivalries, which had' been such fruitful sources of misunderstandings and led to open breaches among nations, would be avoided.