AIR TRANSPORT COMMAND

Waikato Times, Volume 196, Issue 22548, 5 January 1945, Page 3

AIR TRANSPORT COMMAND

OPERATIONS IN DOMINIONS DEVELOPMENT AFTER WAR (Received Jan. 5,2 p.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 5 Air Vice-Marshal R. L. Marix, Officer Commanding the Royal Air Force Transport Command Group operating the Pacific ferry service, has arrived in Sydney. He is visiting Australia and will later go to New Zealand to gain first-hand knowledge of the new Canada—New Zealand—Australia route. The group under his command also operates tile Atlantic air ferries of the Royal Air Force to Canada and the United States. Air Vice-Marshal Marix, who is 55 years of age, is accompanied bit a staff of Royal Air Force officers. He has been flying since 1912 and has an artificial leg as a result of an air accident in France during the last war. Air Vice-Marshal Marix said he believed that the Air Transport Command would continue to operate for a long time after the war, perhaps indefinitely. It would be necessary in the strategic linking up of parts of the Empire, and it could play a big part in the rehabilitation and feeding of Europe. For a long time civil aviation would be unable to cope with the air traffic, and the existence of the command would be of great importance. He said he envisaged Air Transport Commands in the various Dominions, each operating its own services in an interlocking network. He hoped that this would be done with British aircraft.