MIGRATION BY AIR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26531, 5 August 1947, Page 5

MIGRATION BY AIR

INITIAL PARTY ARRIVES ONTARIO GOVERNMENT’S SCHEME Rec. 9 fc.m. OTTAWA. Aug. 3. The initial hop in the historic mass air migration scheme was completed late this afternoon, when 34 men and 4 women from the United Kingdom landed at Melton airport, Toronto, in a four-engined Trans-Ocean Airline Skymaster. They were the first of about 7000 Britons who will be flown across the Atlantic to Ontario at the rate of about 250 a week. All were weary after their 20-hour flight and a delay at Gander airport, Newfoundland, caused by ground fog, but said that they were happy to be in Canada. The first words uttered by the first person off the plane, a man from Kent, were: “ I had four weeks’ egg ration for breakfast this morning at Gander.” Among the crowd who greeted the group at the airport were prospective employers, and less than an hour after landing all the immigrants, who comprised engineers, builders, farmers, mechanics, a former test pilot who is seeking a position as an aerial spi*ayduster, and typists, had more offers of jobs than they knew what to do with. The State Premier Mr George A. Drew, who officially welcomed the group, said that the date of their arrival was exactly two months after the first discussions had started on the air migration plan.