NEW AIR LIKES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18687, 22 April 1935, Page 5

NEW AIR LIKES

THE EMPffiE CHAItt HONG-KONG AND W. AFRICA LONDON, March 5. Important plans for the extension of Empire airway network are outlined in the memorandum, by Lord Londonderry, Secretary of State for Air, which was issued litis morning with the air estimates for 1935. Ail' services liu'king< Hongkong and West Africa with the existing trunk lines are the chief extensions at present engaging active governmental attention. Lord Londonderry states that negotiations are in progress for establishment) of an air service to connect Hongkong! with the main Australian route at' Bangkok. He declares his hope that this service will be begun experimentally soon: the estimates include provision for itand the Hongkong government has agreed to contribute a substantial proportion of the cost. Such a service will open up to British aerial enterprise tiie whole of i lie Far East ; air lines connect,ng the Empire trunk routes with the more important cities of China audi Japan should be running regularly with, in the next few years.

A weekly service is contemplated between the main Lgypi-South Africa line and • North-Eastern ' Nigeria. Khartoum will be the junction and Maidugari the. terminus of Ibis proposed new trunk line. From Maidugari the. plans provide for feeder services, operated by a local company, to serve Lagos (Nigeria), and Accra and Takoradi, in the Cold Coast. An extension of this feeder line to Freetown. Sierra Leone, may follow in due course.

Provision is 'made in the 1935 esti mates for initial subsidy pa\ incuts in respect of the Kliartouin-.Maidugari service. Lord Londonderry states thai colonial funds must furnish any financial assistance that might be needed for' the local feeder services. Thus again the regular commercial air service wilt. follow pioneering work by the Royal. Air Force, which has included a flights from the Sudan to West Africa iimonjjf its regular annual training exercises fi.nr* several years.

Too often the important contribution: thus made by British warplancs to the* progress of civil aviation and the peace • i'ul development of remote regions is for--gotten; its worth to ihe empire is not. assessable In lignres and appears in no. departmental balance sheet. Yet thatcontribution alone is certain to proves worth many millions in ihe fumivi development of Empire trade and. communications.

The Air Minister states thai the air Iservice between Bermuda and New York, should be working before the end of 197)5. A sum of .C6OCO is included in. the estimates for subsidy payments in respect of the service. 20 per cent, of which will be contributed by the* Bernindan Government.