AUSTRALIAN AIR MAIL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 757, 10 May 1933, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN AIR MAIL.

Weekly Service to Darwin from London. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. • LONDON, May 9. The Secretary for Air, Lord Londonderry, has issued a memorandum embodying the principal provisions for a weekly air service between London and j Australia, connecting by steamer with New Zealand. The proposed contract with Imperial • Airways will provide a service’ between Karachi and Singapore, via Calcutta and Rangoon, connecting with the London-Ivarachi and Singapore-Darwin services. The agreement with Imperial Airways runs approximately for five years, commencing from the date of the opening of the Darwin-Singapore section, and terminating on March 1, 1939, when the existing Anglo-Indian service agreement expires. The Karachi-Singapore section will !be opened jointly by Imperial Airj ways and an Indian company. The maximum subsidies for the Karachi-Singapore service will be £40,000 for the first year of the through service to Australia, £30,000 for the second and third years, and thereafter £20,000 a year. The Government of India, the Straits Settlements and Malaya have undertaken to provide and maintain landing grounds and other facilities, including wireless and meteorology, in J their territories. For through mails between England and Australia, Imperial Airways and the Indian company will receive £1 4s per lb. and £1 10s per lb for mails between England and Singapore. Lord Londonderry says that the simultaneous inauguration of the services between Kahachi and Singapore and Darwin and Singapore is impracticable, therefore he proposes an interim service to Calcutta in July, to Rangoon in October and to Singapore by the new year, for which special temporary terms will be arranged. He confidently expects that the Darwin-Singapore section will operate by April. The inclusive charge for a half-ounce letter from Britain to Australia or New Zealand will be Is 3d.