RECIPROCAL RIGHTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19372, 9 July 1937, Page 13

RECIPROCAL RIGHTS

FLYING OVER THE PACIFIC NEED FULLY RECOGNISED COMMERCIAL SERVICES (From a Special Correspondent) LONDON, June 15. Recognition by the Imperial Conference of the need to seek reciprocal rights in granting foreign air lines permission to operate on British territory is commented upon by The Times this morning in an editorial headed "Flying Over the Pacific." The agreement among members of the Commonwealth upon this question, it is stated, may be taken as an expression of the particular interest of British commercial Hying in the area of the Pacific.

Continuing, The Times stales that it may ultimately be as important to have ' a British air route between Canada and New Zealand as it is for the United States to have a service across the Atlantic. On the latter route Nature has dictated the course that must be taken in such a way as to leave no alternatives for different nations to adopt, whereas in the South Pacific at all events the two nations may go their own ways to a common junction and a common terminus.

Interest in Christmas Island The way of the British Empire may be inferred from the recent access of interest in Christmas Island, which stands on a direct route from Auckland to the Hawaiian Islands. Like Midway Island and Wake Island, which the United States turned into air stations for its service from San Francisco to the Philippines, Christmas Island promises to emerge from the comparative obscurity of its absorption in coconuts and copra to grace the timetables of fast transport with the hint of good-followship which its name conveys. British aeroplanes may come by the stepping-stones of British islands from New Zealand to this point, 1200 miles distant from Honolulu, or nearly halfway to Canada. For the rest of the journey they will be dependent on the goodwill of the United States, just as that great nation has had to count on British co-operation in its plans to fly the North Atlantic by some route south of the Arctic Circle.

Foreign Air Traffic In the Pacific, the editorial continues, the United States Government has not yet been asked to admit a foreign air line to Honolulu. Up to the present it has not had to admit any foreign air traffic from across the sea into its territory. The beginning this week of a British service between Bermuda and New York must open the new era. The entry of ocean mails into the United States from Montreal in British aircraft mav have to be considered within perhaps 'tow years. Soon afterwards a British air line may bo expected to ask for permission 1o fly regularly to Honolulu, and possibly to San Francisco, on the way between New Zealand and Canada.

In readiness for that clay the New Zealand Government has stipulated, in its 15-year agreement with PanAmerican "'Airways, that the permission must not be withheld if American aircraft arc to continue to run into Nov; Zealand.

Favours Asked by U.S. Company The chosen operating company for United States oversea services so far has been in the peculiar position of having to ask favours abroad without being able to promise reciprocal favours. A belief in the ultimate good faith of the United States has secured to that operating company most of the favours it needed, and the valuable pioneer work of American commercial Hying has been enabled to proceed. The approaching opportunity to return such hospitality is announced in the vast British preparations in the North Atlantic; in the air mail plans of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand; and in the location of a Government representative with wireless apparatus at Christmas Island. The significance of these developments in relation to the Pacific, The Times concludes, is not to be mistaken; nor can there any longer be doubt that the British Empire looks to the United States for assistance in the Pacific similar to that which is about to be afforded by the British Empire in the Atlantic.