EMPIRE COMMUNICATION

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14711, 28 July 1921, Page 5

EMPIRE COMMUNICATION

AERIAL AND WIRELESS REPORT OF COMMITTEE. SUBMITTED TO COLONIAL OFFICE. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Received July 27, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, July 26. Captain Guest (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury), in the House of Commons, replying to a question, said the Imperial Conference Committee appointed to consider Hie question of airships had been ordered to report;—Firstly, as to the costs of the masts, basis of fuel supply, upkeep and operation of the existing airship fleet for the purposes of Imperial air communications, with special reference to the routes between Britain, India, Africa, Australia and New Zealand; and, secondly, as lo the services by aeroplanes. The Committee will report also on the proposals for the formation of civil companies to operate airships. The report is now complete, and wilt be handed this day to the Colonial Office. Later. The Daily Chronicle forecasts the report of the Committee on Air Communications, which has been presented to Mr Winston Churchill. The paper says it would be too expensive an undertaking to maintain the present British airships for the purposes of an Imperial service 'instead of scrapping them on August 1, as the Government proposes. The proposal to try an experimental period of six months, at a cost of £IBO,OOO, has been abandoned, because of its having been already proved that Australasia and South Africa can be reached by air, and experiments are unnecessary. Little good would he obtainable from an Imperial air service unless run for a longer period than six months. A term of years is required to prove if such a service would be commercially remunerative.