WESTWARD TO AUSTRALIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21983, 14 December 1934, Page 12

WESTWARD TO AUSTRALIA

"The final lesson of experience since the war, including the experience of the air race, is that for British purposes the route to Australia across Europe and Asia is not ideal," writes tho,Rt. Hon. F. E. Guest, formerly Secretary of State for Air, in the London Observer. "For a permanent service along that route, many foreign Governments have to co-operate and to bo kept helpful. Why should not the airway of British commerce follow the sea; -1 There is a route which lies along that part of the globe wliero tho weather is most reliable. It crosses the Atlantic along a rather southerly course, passes over the United States, and thence along a chain of islands in the Pacific, all British or American, to Australia. It is only 1000 miles longer, and it is an Anglo-Saxon route. If there is anything in kinship between nations, it will be easily organised and never interrupted. Only one thing is necessary to make it possible, and that is the seadrome. The seadrome.is no dream. It is designed. 'lt has been made upon a largo scale working model, and has triumphantly passed exhaustive tests in the United States. An aerodrome better than the best aerodrome on land can thus be placed at any desired point in the ocean. Surely this is an idea to which this country cannot bo indifferent. It has always been a handicap upon British aviation that the first point of British territory after leaving our shores is 2000 miles away. The seadrome sweeps that handicap away. It may well be tho means of catching up the ground which we have lost in civil aviation, and of bringing into full practice tho ever attractive theory of close and lasting co-operation between the English-speaking peoples.