Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-04-27
Britain Held Slow
To See importance
OF Air Transport
Expert BIumes Official
Prejudice Against
Shift From Ships

by the aviation eTpert OF the
London Daily Mail, Colin BednaH.
LONDON, April Give believe
that the time has come to draw the
attention of the nation to ques-
ton which, up to now, has been
submerged under the weight of the
more immediate perils of war.
1t is question concerning the
most momentous development of the
age. 1t is question with which
may be bound up the whole future
of the British Commonwealth OF
nations-their trade, their prosperity
and their right to survive.
1t is the question of the postwar
freedom Of the skies.
Many far-seeing people have been
thinking, talking and writing on
these lines for a long time. They
have found it difficult to claim pub
lie attention. They have found it
impossible to enlist the sympathy
Of the government.
The facts should now be set
down. And the facts should be
faced.
Peace Will Bring Change.
The immense development OF
aviation now applied so dreadfully,
with vicious fighter planes and mon
strous bomber planes to works OF
destruction will, once the peace
comes, be turned to a TRANSITIONAL
ton of the whole service of inter-
national travel and trade.
Mails posted in footing Bee, Lon
don, S. w. II, on a Friday will be
awaiting delivery in Bondi, Sydney,
Australia, on the following Monday
morning. A thousand tons of cargo
bought in America in a morning
will be shipped across the Atlantic
during the night.
These are no romantic dreams,
but practical possibilities for air
transport services in existence at
this very moment-air transport
services that will precipitate an
economic REVOLUTIONARY transport
services in which Great Britain has
no part at the moment beyond that
of a customer begging for favors.
The whole British Empire, spon-
sor of the greatest legion of fight
ing air forces in all the world now
possesses but one international
merchant air line This is the semi
governmental British Overseas Air
ways Corp.
Fleet Is Small.
It's total operative fleet, charged
with showing the merchant air en-
sign to the world, numbers some
thing alike one-tenth of the bomber
force sent to raid Cologne on one
night this year.
It's tiny fleet is a motley make
shift of a score of different types,
shapes and sizes of airplanes, mostly
cast off from elsewhere.
There is not a single British-built
aircraft, apart from a few converted
bombers, in its service today which
was built since the war began.
So misery have been the replace
ments allowed to it in the last
three years that it would be incapa-
BILE today even of reopening the
infant Empire Air Mail service
which existed in 1889.
This does not mean that if the
opportunity presented itself this
year or next there would be no such
air mail service. What it does mean
is that Britain would have to rely
on others to do the job for her
that is, unless she acts now.
Nobody can tell when the war
will end, but at any moment it
might take another spectacular turn
and end much sooner than expected.
AT the moment nothing seems more
certain than that this country, the
heart of a great empire and geo.
graphically the hub of world COM
munications, will be left standing in
the race for vital air routes which
will begin with the first sight of
victory.
Blind to Developments.
Let us set down the main reasons
why this crisis confronts us. They
are:
First, blind eye to develop
ments before the war, and the ur-
gent need, since. of achieving parity
with the enemy in all types of
warplaneS.
Second, an unwarrantable preju-
dice against anything which sug-
gests a change in Britain's tradi-
tional role as nation of seagoing
mariners.
Third, a stubborn inclination, even
In the highest quarters, still to
regard the aeroplane as a new
tangled, bothersome, but repressible
invention. This has recently been
more obvious in an inability to
consider the aeroplane as anything
more than flying gun-platform or
a piece of long-range artillery.
Of these points, the first accords
with the national and certainly the
governmental frame of mind over a
long period. And it is not Surpris-
ing that service department, the
Air Ministry, given control both of
civil and military aviation, should
devote its attention almost entirely
to fighters, bombers, and the like.
The solution here may be to
remove civil aviation from the Air
Ministry to wider Ministry of
Transport. We should certainly end
the farce of Jumping air transport
in with sporting aero clubs. We
should begin to regard it in its
proper perspective as the Merchant
Sea Service.
0Aleased b. the North American
Nawspar,Ar A1lionce IocN