AIRSHIPS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIV, Issue XLIV, 7 May 1924, Page 5

AIRSHIPS

POLICY OF BRITAIN

INQUIRY BY CABLNET COMMITTEE

THE BURNEY SCHEME,

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION- COPYRIGHT

. LONDON, May 5. Ike Evening Standard states that a Cabinet committee, including Lord Cnelmsford (First Lord of the Admiralty), Mr J. H. Thomas (Colonial Sec<retary) and General Thomson (Secretary ot btate for Air>, met to-day to decide the fate of Commander C. Dennis Burney's airship stheme. The committee has already examined many witnesses, and Cabinet will probably authorise the construction of two airships far superior to any in the world fqr a service to India. The new scheme may involve an expenditure of £1,000,000 Commander C. Dennis Burney's scheme for an Empire airship service was formulated in March, 1922 It proposed the formation of a company with a capital of £4,000,000 to establish an airship mail and passenger service from Britain to India and Australia, lhe object aimed at in the scheme was a service on the following schedule, the times now occupied being given in parentheses: To Bombay, 5£ days (17 days); to Rangoon, 1\ days (21-22 «ay«); to Hongkong, %\ days (4-5 weeks ; to Australia, 11£ days (4-5 weeks).

The progress of development was proposed by Commander Burney to be made in two stages: (a) A bi-weekly service to India- (b) an aJternate day service to India, with a weekly extension to Australia. He proposed that the existing airship should be used for short flights and for training, and that new ones be built capable of carrying 100 passengers, and from eight to ten tons of mails At a cruising speed of oO miles an hour, Commander Buraey estimated that such new airships would be capable of reaching India with one stop, or Australia with three. The financial side of the scheme as 2l°§^nn by } h* ori? inator > was that £1,200 000 ordinary shares and £2,200,-' 000 debentures should he issued forthwith, leaving £600,000 ordinary shares unissued. The total contingent subsiry per annum in the torm of a guarantee of dividend on the ordinary shares and interest on the debentures (on the capital proposed to be issued"* would be, on the ordinary s^res £72,000 for ten years, and on the debentures £99,000 till redemption. On a proportion of 2—l—ll between the countries obtaining the benefits, Commander Burney calculated that it would mean a contingent subsidy which would be divided as followsBritish. £91,000 per annum; Australia £40,000; India, £40,000. This scheme was approved by the Baldwin Government on the grounds that the airships would provide a. muchneeded improvement in Imperial communications in time of titat-e It also considered that it would form a valuable reserve for naval purposes in time of war.

It is believed by members of the Bouse of Commons who have interested themselves in the Imperial airship scheme that the present "Secretary for Air, General Thomson, has had another scheme prepared, and that this has been submitted to the Treasury. The basis of the new proposals is nndertsood to be the re-commissioninn-by the Air Ministry of two of the old airships and the building of a newvessel for experimental imrposes. If this scheme wer^ adopted by the Government in substitution for the Burney scheme, the effect would be, it is arsrued. to prevent an airshin. industry being founded in England, and to keep airships completely in the hands of the Air Ministry. thus destroying the possibility of their development fo» commercial mimosas.