FREEDOM OF THE AIR

Wairarapa Daily Times, 10 December 1937, Page 8

FREEDOM OF THE AIR

BATTLE IN U.S.A. ALLEGED MONOPOLY. WASHINGTON, Thursday. A series of criticisms concerning the alleged Pan-American Airways monopoly marked the opening of the battle for ‘ ; freedom of the air. ’ ’ Witnesses for the Merchant Marine Committee, which urges that control' of; drans-oee-anic aviation be traiisferreß'to the Maritime Commission, asserted that post office control tended to preserve the monopoly. Mr John Slater, executive vice-presi-dent of the Export Steamship" Corporation, declared that man-made obstacles were preventing the shipping companies from entering the air. .“I do not wish to detract from PanAmerican Airways ’ developmental work but I find no precedent for rewarding a pioneer company with a monopoly,” he said.

Mr J. P. Kennedy, chairman of the Maritime Commission, before the Senate Committee, urged that overseas aircraft should be given construction and operating subsidies in the'same way as shipping. He. said the foreign trade service in future will be integrated as an air and water service in which fast passenger traffic and express cargo will travel by air and slow passenger traffic and heavy cargo by water. “This will be far less costly than super-ocean liner services,” ho said.