EMPIRE AIRSHIP SCHEME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18612, 21 July 1922, Page 5

EMPIRE AIRSHIP SCHEME

TIER WITH RED TAPE. DEPARTMENTAL FRICTION. LONDON, July 7. Friction between two Government departments endangers the India-Australia air service project. The whole of Britain’s naval air development, says the aeronautical correspondent of the London Daily Mail, is involved in the dispute. Until recently the Admiralty and the Air Ministry both supported Commander Burney’s IndoAustralian project. The Admiralty saw in it the provision at comparatively little cost of six airships, which could be used for reconnaissance in war-time, and for the protection of the trade routes between Britain and Australia. The Admiralty even offered to give up a new cruiser so as to find the money. Then the Air Council discovered that if it sanctioned the scheme the control would bo entirely naval. The Air Ministry in consequence is now an obstinate opponent of the project. “This opposition,” says the correspondent, “brings the tension to breaking point. If the project does not go through, the Admiralty must build and maintain its own non-commer-cial airships.”