Evening star., 1943-03-01

from the United States to Chungking via Bra
zil, Africa, Arabia, and India, with spurs
ming up to French North Africa. Cairo, and
Iran. 1t has developed and expanded routes to
the Southwest Pacific, and through Canada to
Alaska.
The ATC is about to become bigger than all
the prewar International airlines of the world
combined-whether the measurement be cargo
carried air miles flown, or number of planes in
service. 1t has projected the Big Four into trans.
ocean flying and given every one of the larger
domestic airlines assignments across our bor-
ders. At the end of the war it may easily have
more transport planes, more experienced trans
port pilots, more trained navigators, and more
seasoned trained ground crews than all the 9TH
er nations earth combined certainly more
than all the United Nations combined.
Add to these the pilots, navigators, and
ground crews of the Flying Fortresses and Lib
orators and medium bombers, who receive SIM
liar training, and their navigational instru-
ments and we have reservoir of equipment,
seasoned personnel and operating experience in
global flying which stretches the Imagination.
The Catch: But where will these pilots, and
navigators and planes be permitted to fly? This
leads into military, legal, and political ques.
tons. We do not know how the United Nations
will undertake to police the world after the
war. Each country may cling to its own sphere
of interest and security. There may be some
overlapping or interlocking. Or there might be
truly international police force to function in
certain areas. But whatever the ALLEGATION of re-
sponsibiities, military aviation, including stra-
I1v hoeo NIL ho -
1t should be noted, however, that even if we
lease or retain access to military air bases on
territory owned by other United Nations. we
would not necessarily thus obtain landing
rights for commercial aviation. We do not have
now the right to use the Western Atlantic bases
leased from Great Britain for commercial pur-
poses Moreover, the bases best located to assure
military control are not always the best situated
for commercial purposes - and even if they
were, it might be deemed wise, for reasons of
security to deny commercial craft access to them.
The International law of commercial aviation
is governed by two principles which are related
but distinguishable. The first is that every ma
ton holds sovereign rights over its own air
space. The only legally free air lies over the
oceans beyond the smile limit Legally, you
cannot fly over any foreign nation without
permission. The second principle may be called
the closed port" system because it is the oppo-
site of the open port system, which, by
written International law, prevails in sea COM
merce. In time of peace, ship of any nation
may enter the harbor of any other nation and
may sail up its rivers to the limits of navigation.
Since Commodore Perry opened Japan to for
eign commerce, this system has been universal.
But it does not apply to air transport.
A nation might grant the right of transit by
air without granting the right to land. Or it
might grant the right to land without granting
the right of complete transit. The air over all
nations might be internationalized without the
adoption of an open-port system. Or the open
port system, granting to all comers the right to
land at designated airports and to take on or
discharge passengers and cargo, might be uni
versally adopted without internationalizing the
complete air space which lies over land. Either
type of Observation-Disclosures would create prob
lens of safety in the air and at arports. Either
would involve questions of national security.
And the open port system goes to the heart of
commercial policy.
Under the open-port system the United States
had one period of commercial superiority on
the high seas. That was when the clipper ships,
by virtue of their speed, commanded premium
rates. After that era, the American merchant
marine languished. 1t has been revived period
ically only with the aid of large subsidies. In
fact in recent times, International transport on
the seas has tended to become an anarchic COM
petition in subsidies.
Considering the present widespread knowl-
edge of aeronautical science, it is doubtful if
any one nation can secure more than briefly an
advantage in airplane design over its potential
competitors, and it could hold even a momen-
tary advantage only by refusing to sell its best
planes. In the air, as on the sea, American trans
port would have to bear the cost of higher
American wage scales. In uncontrolled interna-
tional competition its future would probably
depend on the patient generosity of Congress
in voting subsidies. Judging from the history of
the American merchant marine, the willingness
OF Congress to appropriate large sums of money
one year at time would be weak underpin-
ming for American-owned and operated inter
national air transport.