The Times FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1938. Imperial Airways Inquiry

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 41, 18 February 1938, Page 6

The Times FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1938. Imperial Airways Inquiry

A recent short cable message, reporting a forecast by the Daily Mail of the findings of a departmental committee which has been investigating allegations of inefficiency in the running of British air lines, directs attention to two House of Commons debates of some interest and importance. At the end of October, Mr. W. Perkins, a Unionist member, spoke very strongly against the directors and policy of Imperial Airways, alleging mainly that the company’s employees suffered injustices in various forms but also charging it with failing to equip its machines fully and with using obsolete machines. The fact that Imperial Airways derived heavy subsidies from the Government, lie argued, constituted an obligation to maintain such standards, both in treatment of personnel and in the running of services, as would satisfy the Government; but the inquiry he asked for was refused by the Under-Secretary of State for Air on the ground that the Government’s subsidies were paid only in respect of “certain services,” and if they were efficiently provided, the Government could see no duty or right, to inquire into allegations on other matters. But Mr. Perkins was not easy to check; and when ho raised the question again, three weeks later, he had prepared himself more fully, he had received some public support in the interval, and it was evident that he had no small body of opinion in the House on his side.

In the result, the Under-Secretary in guarded terms promised a departmental committee of inquiry—there were others in 1934 and 1936 —and witli a humour that was perhaps a little abject said that “if that was not actually the Secretary of State’s head on a charger, he hoped that the hon. member would feel satisfied that it was his scalp.” The inquiry was to be limited to specific charges made during the debate; but these were of sufficient range and importance to make it certain that the inquiry would be far-reaching. For example, Mr. Perkins attacked the payment of subsidies to each of two services, helping them “to compete in cutting each other’s throats” on the same route; ho alleged—amid cheers—the total impossibility of Croydon’s ever becoming a first-class aerodrome; lie declared that Imperial Airways could not only use its position to “lower the status on pilots” hut would in future, as British aviation was coming under monopolist control, he able to demand what subsidies it desired from the Government, on the threat of shutting down ail civil aviation if they were refused. He criticised Imperial Airways organisation and service standards, describing its European traffic as “trivial” and its four main European services as “the laughing stock of the world.” Two services had been suspended and the pilots dismissed; on two that were regularly run the Imperial Airways machines took half as long- again as their competitors. In liis reply the Under-Secretary admitted defects in Imperial Airways European services, but claimed the great virtues of those on Empire and trans-Atlantic routes. He admitted, also, the delay in delivering new machines to the company, for which he blamed the re-armament programme; and he appeared to excuse delay in fitting machines with certain technical equipment on the ground that the Air Ministry had “not yet decided” on its merits. He retreated from the plea that the Government had no responsibility for Imperial Airways beyond keeping the company to its specific contracts with the State and then announced the decision of the Secretary of State to set up au inquiry. Its results will, of course, be of great public interest, and New Zealand can hardly be unaffected by them. The Daily Mail surmise may be quite inaccurate; but it may be assumed almost as a certainty that in one form or another the supervision of the State over Imperial Airways policy and methods will become closer and firmer