Imperial Valley press., 1941-05-09

WASHINGTON, May 9 You
could ask for no better example Of
the kind of international business
competition the United States is
going to run into after this war is
oyer-if not sooner-than is visible
III Portugal today, where three in
ternational airlines are waiting for
a chance to apply for and begin
commercial passenger and express
trans oceanic flights to this coun-
try. All three companies are osten-
sibly Portuguese, but the catch is
that one of the companies, the
Iberia line now running service
from Lisbon to Barcelona and Cape
Verde Islands, has German ard
italian backing; another, Aero
Portuguese, now running service
from Lisbon to Tangiers, is French; ;
while the third, Servicios Aereos
Portguesas, running from Lisbon to
Spain, is German.
The background is this:
Pan American Always, which
now runs the clipper service to
Lisbon, has exclusive rights with
the Portuguese government for the
operation OF an airline between
Portugal and the United States.
Kicking around Congress for the
past few months has been the post
office appropriation bill for 1912
The Senate Appropriations Com
mitee, reversing the decision of the
House, has added 100000 to this
bill as subsidy to the new Amer
ican Export Airlines for one flight
every two weeks between New York
and Lisbon. Pan American now
schedules three flights a week ovei
the route and, under this same ap-
preparation bill, would be granted
subsidy for fourth weekly trip.
TOUGH ONE FOR
STATE DEPARTMENT
Much oratory may be expected
over these subsidies. Even if the
Senate does pass the bill as rec
cmmended by the Appropriations
Committee it must go back to the
House for conference and further
arguing. The basic issue at stake
is whether the United States gov
eminent is to Subsidize two aii-
lines for international service or
stick to just one. the existing Pan
American Anyways. If the latter is
the policy, Pan American would
bC given full government backing
to compete with foreign airlineS in
the further development of its lines
to Europe, Africa, Asia, New Zea-
land and Central and South Amer
lea.
The U. S. Department of State
comes into this situation in a pc
culiar manner. AS mentioned,
Pan American now holds an eX-
elusive agreement with the Portu-
guese government for operation to
Lisbon. The u S. Civil Aeronautics
Board, however, has issued a certi-
ficate to American Export Airlines,
authorizing 1t to fly to Lisbon,
though before it could operate Pan
American would have to surrender
its agreement with the Portuguese
government, and a new agreement
would have to be worked out by the
Department of State. This could be
done now only on the basis of
granting Portuguese airlines equal
and reciprocal rights with the
American lines, trip for trip.
PORTUGUESE
COMPANIES DUMMIES
The catch here, of course, is that
there are no purely Portuguese
companies with sufficient resources
of either capital, equipment or ex-
perience to operate airlines into
the United States. Such companies
must therefore be dummy Portu-
guese corporations like Iberia, Aero
Portuguese, and Servicios Aereos
Portuguesas, with italian, French
and German cotnrol.
If reciprocal rights were grant
ed these companies TO fly trip for
trip across the Atlantic with
Americ clippers, the United
States would be in the strange
position of granting right for~com-
rnercial planes of countries whicn
are at war with Britain TO base
on the United States, observe U. S.
patrols, conveys and
shipping to England.
WASHINGTON
W.T. Ann WISDOM