AIRCRAFT AND FRONTIERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19947, 16 May 1928, Page 10

AIRCRAFT AND FRONTIERS.

Two instances will be found in the cable news of aircraft having been detained by the authorities after having crossed an international frontier. >ln one the flight was from the United States to Canada, in the other from Afghanistan to India. Here is illustrated again the way air navigation has rendered all the old barriers, signs and even armed posts, formerly making a frontier practically inviolable, now of no real value. The aircraft can sail far above them. It habitually does on many of the commercial service routes, and frequently does during the long flights made with the object of establishing new records. As a rule no trouble arises. Most nations are parties to the Air Navigation Convention of 1919. In this they pledge themselves to allow "innocent passage of commercial aircraft of members over the territory of all." Further, they undertake to ''designate customs aerodromes at suitable points, at which aircraft must land." These are the two vital clauses of the convention. They obviously provide a rough working system for air navigation, but they also leave on the crews of the aircraft a certain duty to prove their bona-fides. In the case of the Afghan machine, as it contained two Russians, and as Moscow has been showing a suspicious interest in current Indian labour troubles, the Indian authorities naturally feel justified in demanding proof that it was an "innocent passage" over the border. The Canadian officials who detained the aeroplane from the United States were ostensibly concerned only to insist on scrupulous observance of the law. The two incidents show how the ease with which boundaries can be passed by aircraft has brought its problems in international relations.