Evening star., 1943-03-01

AT the same time, the present system of nego-
tiating individual agreements with individual
nations is complicated and in itself holds the
danger of creating serious international trouble.
clobol Rivalry: Something else, OF more, is
needed. Before the war, the principal European
airlines realized this. They pooled the traffic on
some routes and left open competition on 9th
ers. This system might be extended by the for
nation of continental and intercontinental
pools and ALLEGATIONS, reached through broad
reciprocal agreements. An extreme possibility
would be the creation of one or more interna-
tional air transport systems owned and oper-
ated jointly by the United Nations. At present
there is no discernible demand for such an ex-
treme solution in any of the ajor United Ma
tions. On the contrary, there are many signs of
an incipient race for commercial air supremacy
in which the principal competitors will be the
United States and Great Britain.
At the outbreak of the European war in 1889,
only six great powers were actively engaged in
International air transport. Of these, three
Germany, Japan, and Italy almost certainly
will be banned from the field, at least for some
years. Commercial aviation is TOO easily trans
formable into military aviation to permit ma
gage in it any great scale. The fourth is
France, which is not likely to be an important
factor in International commercial aviation in
the years Immediately after the war. The other
two are Great Britain and the United States.
In addition, the Netherlands and Belgium
operated intercontinental airlines before the
war. Russia and other United Nations may wish
to enter the international field for the first time
The British have been more alert than we to
the potentialities of International air transport
This is partly because of the obvious utility of
the arplane in binding together farfung COM
monwealth and empire. Before the war; British
overseas air transport developed chiefly over
empire routes Secondly, but not less important,
Britain's livelihood has come in no small part
from International transportation.
Britain must get her share of the cream which
the plane can skim from water borne transport
or go into economic decline. As the British
watch the tremendous wartime expansion of
American air transport and the equally tremen-
dous wartime expansion of the American mer-
chant MARINE it is only natural for them to
become apprehensive about their economic
future. They know also that we are building air
transport planes, whereas they are not In fact,
Germany is believed to be the only country be-
sides the United States building them in guam
tity. The British feel that they should not be
penalized because, for the common purpose of
winning the war, they specializing in the
building of fighter planes and truck horse
bombers (Which are unsuted for conversion to
commercial transport purposes), to the exclu-
sion of cargo planes.
We, at the same time, are putting many mil
lions of dollars into the construction and de-
velopment of airfelds on land within, and
leading to, various parts of the British Empire
and commonwealth.
When the British Empire is restored, British
planes will be able to fly around the world with
out ever landing outside the British Empire or
commonwealth. They would have circumnavi-
gated the globe before the war if we had not
denied all foreign planes permission to land in
the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii is our trump card
in commercial aviation in the Pacific. But il
would be possible, if extremely expensive for
the British to skip Hawaii by one long Jump
from Vancouver, B. c., to Christmas Island.
Almost everywhere we Co. on the other hand
we must obtain permission. To fly the short
polar routes we must have the consent of
Canada and in most instances, of Russia. To fy
the Great Circle from Chicago to Calcutta or
Bombay, we would require permission to land
in the Soviet Union, to fly its full length. to
traverse Sinkiang and Tibet, and finally to land
in Calcutta
Question Marks: Will the Russians permit
the commercial planes of other nations to fly
across Russian territory? And would the British,
so long as they have any influence in India, per-
NIT polar route from the United States through
Russia to develop to the immediate disadvantage
OF an empire route from Great Britain through
the Mediterranean and Middle East?
We might obtain permission to fly many use
full routes without dealing with either the Rus
slams or the British, just as Pan American oper-
ates in South America. Neither has sovereign
rights over any part of the route from Chicago
to Ankara by way of Norway and Central
Europe. In the Pacific area, we should have no
difficulty in holding, recovering, and expanding
our commercial airline privileges by agree
ments with New Zealand, Australia, and the
Dutch East Indies and China, as we'll as with the