EMPIRE AIR LINKS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 260, 1 October 1936, Page 8

EMPIRE AIR LINKS.

DELEGATIONS IN WELLINGTON. CO-OPERATION STRESSED. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Sept. 30. A complimentary luncheon to the Australian and Rritish delegations attending the aviation and air-mail discussions was tendered by the New Zealand Government to-day. The Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) presided. In welcoming the delegates, the Prime Minister said that whatever difficulties they might have to discusa they could not overlook the outstanding* fact that they were part and parcel of the same race. He visualised the time in the near future when the Rritish Commonwealth of Nations would he bigger and closer together tnun it' was to-day. Up to the present he was afraid they had drifted along without realising the big problems around them, but to-day they were discussing matters that concerned the whole of the British race and the whole of the civilised world. Sir Archdale Parkhill (Australian Minister of Defence), in reply, spoke of the friendship between New Zealand and Australia. Anything that could be done to establish closer contact between the two countries should be welcomed. It was imperative that the two Dominions should be as closely allied ns possible, and at the same time, of course, preserving their own identities.

Mr F. G. L. Bertram, British airmail expert, on behalf of Britain, also returned thanks. His trip out to New Zealand had made him realise just what a big place the Empire was, and he saw the value of regular commercial air services in bringing parts of the Empire together. He hoped, on his next visit, that he would be able to cross the Tasman also by air.