The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1937 THE RIDDLE OF PACIFIC AIR LINES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20781, 16 July 1937, Page 8

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1937 THE RIDDLE OF PACIFIC AIR LINES.

Miss Amelia Earhart’s tragic failure to make a safe crossing of the long ami hitherto unexplored sea flight from New Guinea to the Howland Islands will not have been wholly unproductive of some contribution to the progress of the development of the airways across the Pacific, if tlie thorough search conducted by the naval and air arms of the United States defence forces turn the attention of the people of Australia and New Zealand to the strategic importance of certain Pacific Islands in relation to transpacific air services. Quite a lot of talk has been indulged in by critics who do not look beneath the surface of things, because Miss Earhart and her gallant pilot Captain Noonan, were permitted to embark upon a perilous adventure. Moreover, disgruntled and narrowvisioned politicians in the United States have permitted themselves to indulge in foolish and uninformed denunciation of the costly part played by the United States Navy in the search for the missing aerial pioneers. It has yet to be shown, however, that the flight organised by Miss Earhart had no relation to the most exhaustive planning the Pan-American Airways is conducting in the Pacific. Moreover, the fact that tv ell-eq nipped war vessels were almost on the spot, carrying their full complement of aircraft would seem to suggest that the Government of the United States, while not officially /associated with Miss Earhart’s flight, were most interested. If then the failure of Miss Earhart to make Howland Island, which by the way is one of the key positions in the Pan-American Airways’ planning, has the effect of turning the eyes of the people of Australia and New Zealand to the air lines tjiat have already been drawn across the Pacific from the United States to the Orient via Midway Island and Quam, and also right down across the Pacific via Howland Island, Samoa, to New Zealand, they will begin to realise that perhaps after all Miss Earhart’s try out of the ocean jump from New Guinea to Howland Island was not so purposeless as appearances seemed to suggest. If air services are to become the means of transportation across the Pacific from Canada and the United States to the Orient, and to New Zealand and Australia, the possession of certain islands in the Pacific may yet be of immense importance. And behind the preliminary moves are the master minds of Whitehall and Washington, for the game is essentially between Britain on the one hand, and the United States on the other. Some day, the larger pieces in the game may come into the play, but at the moment, experimental flights are being conducted by the Pan-American Airways with something of good will flavour about them. But to-morrow, it may be discovered, unless Australia and New Zealand wake up to all that is going on, that the United States airways has secured a stranglehold on the trans-Pacific air transport services with the same deadly assurances as has been effected on the sea lanes that join Australia and New Zealand with the United States and Canada. Two glances at the map will reveal first the strategic importance of Canton Island (now in the news) in the air links connecting New Zealand and perhaps Australia, with the prospective Imperial Airways Empire-wide air services from Canada; and secondly, the probable purpose of Miss Earhart’s flight in exploring the airways to discover the fastest and most suitable air route connecting the United States with Australia via Honolulu, Howland Island and New Guinea. It is just as well that the people of Australia and New Zealand should study the map of the Pacific aud ask themselves if the delays in the conclusion of agreements between the Mother Country are not dangerous, since while the members of the family bicker among themselves the Americans are planning to link up Australia and New Zealand with the United States air services. The first essential move then to avoid an American stranglehold in the air in the Pacific which would be more damaging than the stranglehold at sea-—a move that will establish British prestige—is the speedy establishment of the last link in the planned Empire route between Australia and New Zealand.