IMPERIAL AIR SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17845, 28 July 1921, Page 7

IMPERIAL AIR SERVICE.

UNPROMISING OUTLOOK.

COST TOO BURDENSOME.

£10,000,000 FOR SIX-YEAR TEST. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright (Received 7.30 p.m.) A. and N.Z LONDON, July 26Capt. F. Guest, Air Minister, replying to a question in the House of Commons, said that a committee of the conference of Prime Ministers had been appointed to consider the question of airships, and had ordered a report, in the first instance, on the cost of masts, bases, and fuel supply, and the upkeep and' operation of the existing airship fleet for purposes of Imperial air communications, with special reference to routes between Britain, India, Africa, Australia and New Zealand; and secondly, on services by aeroplanes. The committee would also report on proposals for the formation of civil air companies to operate the existing airships. The report had been completed and had been handed that day to the Colonial Office.

The Daily Chronicle, in a forecast on j the report, says that the committee points I out that it would be too expensive an I undertaking to maintain the present j British airships for purposes of an Imperial service instead of scrapping them lon August 1 as the Government pro- | poses. ' The proposal to try an airship • service for an experimental period of six ! months at a cost of £180,000 has been abandoned because, having already proved j that Australia and South Africa can be . reached by air, experiments are unnecesj sary. Little good can be obtained from an Imperial air service unless it is ran longer than six months. A term of yeats is required to prove if such a service can be commercially remunerative. A scheme for running an air service for five or six years at a cost of £10,000,000 was considered, but it seems unlikely that in view of the financial situation such an experiment will be adopted at present.