CIVIL AVIATION OVERHAULED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20982, 10 March 1938, Page 9

CIVIL AVIATION OVERHAULED

AIR SUBSIDIES TO INCREASE CADMAN REPORT RELEASED CHANGES IN CONTROL TO BE MADE _ T Britlsb Official WlreleM RUGBY, March 8. The report of the Cadman Comtauttee which held an inquiry into civil aviation in Britain, has been issued, together with the observations and decisions of the Government. The report recognises, and the Government agrees, that the civil and military aspects of aviation cannot fundamentally be separated. The unprecedented effort which the Air Ministry recently had to make In the military sphere has necessarily created the impression that civil aviation has received less attention than is right, but the Government feels that it is now possible to make further efforts to assist civil aviaton and substantially improve its organisation. The most important decisions reached by the Government on the recommendations of the Committee relate to the Increased expenditure on civil aviation, and the allocation of external routes between Imperial Airways and British Airways. Other decisions affect the administrative reorganisation of these companies, and measures to strengthen civil aviation organisation within the Air Ministry, as well as matters of research and development, including the recommendation of the Maybury Committee. Subsidies Doubled The Government is prepared to reteomraend to Parliament that the statutory limit of the aggregate annual amount of subsidies payable to air transport companies, should be Increased from £1,500.000 to £3.000,000. In granting the subsidies, the Government will be guided in deciding between competing projects by two main considerations: (1) The importance of maintaining and developing Empire routes. (2) The Importance of selecting routes affording an opportunity for substantial traffic and postal revenue, and Where important British commercial interests lie. In deciding the ways of encouraging the development and production of civil aircraft, the Government will seek the co-operation of the air operating companies, and act in close consultation With Sir C. Brace-Gardner, the recently-appointed Independent chairman of the Society of British Aircraft Construction. The Government accepts the Committee's recommendations as to the number of operating companies, and the allotment of routes, which are based on the principle that British external air transport should be concentrated In a number of well-founded and substantial organisations, and that the same external routes should not be operated by more than one British company. They recommended that Imperial Airways should concern themselves primarily with developing Empire air services, and the British Airways should develop other European air services. Inferiority of Aircraft Tire Cadman Committee recalls the debate in Parliament on November 17, which, they say revealed genuine apprehension that the country was backward in Civil air transport, except on the Empire routes. The Committee is of the opinion that there is reason for more than apprehension. “We view the position with extreme disquiet. The yearly mileage flown on the Imperial Airways Routes in Europe is less than before the formation of the company. There is not today a medium sized airliner of British construction comparable with the leading foreign types." The Government’s reply had convinced the Committee that the policy of concentrating on Empire Routes had been right and the maintenance of these must be the first charge on the subsidy. The Government claims to have consistently followed the policy of developing new experimental types of Civil Aircraft. The Committee understands that Imperial Airways has introduced a new scale of pay for pilots on Empire services and taken other steps to remove prievances. “The Daily Mail” understands that in consequence of the Cadman Committee’s report, the Government has decided to reorganise the Air Ministry, the department controlling Civil aviation. Sir Donald Banks Will be offered control of the reorganised department. The Cabinet is also appointing an under-secretary of Civil aviation. SUBSIDIES ANALYSED SMALLER PAYMENT TO IMPERIAL AIRWAYS United Press Association— By Electric Telegraph -Cooyrlalit (Received March 9, 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 8. The Committee was not called upon to consider either broad questions of principle of which the policy of the Government has been fully explained to Parliament, nor matters relating to the development of civil aviation within the United Kingdom, which were the subject of an Inquiry and a report by the Maybury Committee. The report has a number of appendices, including one analysing the subBidies paid over several years to certain European Air Transport Companies. This shows that the subsidy received by Imperial Airways in 1937 represented 23.8 per cent of its total receipts, compared with 65.4 per cent for the Luft Hansa, 34.3 per cent for the Sabena, 67.8 per cent for the Ala Llttorla Lines.

Imperial Airways’ subsidy per ton a mile in 1937, cash, was 1/5.72. The cash subsidy was also lower than that for the Air France, the Luft Hansa, the Babena or Aero Transport of Sweden Lines.