SOCIALIST “BLIGHT” ON FLYING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22657, 7 June 1948, Page 5

SOCIALIST “BLIGHT” ON FLYING

MELBOURNE, May 14.

Had Wilbur Wright had to operate under a Department of Civil Aviation there would never have been an aeroplane, Australian National Airways’ general manager, Mr. H. F. Walsh, told the Constitutional Club at lunch. A Government committee would have found that it was scientifically impossible for a heavier-than-air machine to leave the ground, Mr. Walsh suggested. Socialist administration had imposed a blight on Australian civil aviation, an industry, which given a free hand, could transform a continent. But not even the Socialists could put a lid on progress and sit on that lid for ever. They would slip off the lid, and then Australia would see real aviation progress. Two years ago ANA offered the Commonwealth Government to run, “without one penny from the public funds’, an Australian Airline into China. . The Government refused permission and there was still no Australian link with China. The Government had promised to start one “one day” with ancient flying-boats; this was comparable to starting a shipping line with rowdng boats. . Private enterprise had pioneered every Australian air service and only private enterprise could provide Australia with air services which were not a constant drain on the public purse. Behind the private airline was the spirit of the pioneer; behind the Government airline was the spirit of committees and reports.