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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0466.PDF
their wooden horses. Not only is there little apparent sympathy, but there would even seem to be hostility, as we may see presently. • • • The Postmaster-General has invitedThe tenders for the carriage of mails by air Post Office from this country to Holland. The' and , , , i r -i MAir Mails tenders are to be for a daily service, Sundays excepted, from London to Holland. It is set forth-as being desirable that any company tendering should be in a position to arrange for joint working with the company holding the contract with the Dutch Post Office for the service from Holland to London. The company tendering, however, will be solely responsible for the outward service, whether performed by its own aeroplanes or not, which must be carried out notwithstanding any breakdown or the discontinuance of the Dutch service in the reverse direction. Clause 9 of the document inviting tenders lays down a condition which seems impossible and which one would almost think had been inserted in order to discourage firms from tendering. It reads : "No payment will be due to the contractor in cases in which the service is not completed, or in which mails sent by air do not arrive at the terminal aerodrome by 8 p.m. If on any occasion it is impossible to complete the flight, the contractor must arrange at his own expense for the onward transmission of the mails to their destina- tion by the quickest means available." Strictly interpreted, this means that where the contractor cannot, by reason of fog or stress of weather, carry out his undertaking to convey the mails by aeroplane he is left with the responsibility of arranging on the spur of the moment for special trains and steamers—assuming these can run in the conditions—at his own expense and if he does not succeed in delivering his mails within five hours at The Hague he will, under the conditions of his con- tract, receive no payment. Is it likely that any firm, which is in the business for other than philanthropic or patriotic reasons, will tender under such con- ditions ? Or, if it should tender, will the price submitted not be too high to justify itself on any ground but the provision of an insurance against the inevitable day when there will be a failure to arrive at the terminal aerodrome to time ? Let it be clear that we are not asking that air transport should be favoured against older methods of transport. But it must be remembered that it is no infrequent occurrence for the seaborne mails to Holland to be very late indeed when there is heavy fog in the Channel and the North Sea. In these cases the contractor is certainly not asked to provide an alternative form of transport at his own cost and expense. Clause 11 is open to serious objection, since it seems to mean that the Post Office is generously offering the facilities of aerial mail transport to the public at the expense of the contractor. The tendering firm has to state what price they require per packet or per lb. carried, but there is no mention of any guaranteed load. Obviously, this means that the service has to be maintained by the contractor, even if the Post Office is able to find no more than 7 lbs. weight of mail on any particular day, so that it is quite possible that on occasion a flight from Croydon APRIL 29, 1920 to The Hague might have to be carried out for the gross payment by the Post Office for ^a couple of pounds ! Nor can the unfortunate contractor always cover himself by the carriage of passengers or. goods, since it is laid down as a condition that this will only be permitted when it does not interfere with the safety of the mails or the due performance of the mail service. How is the contractor to know what weight of mails he will be required to carry tomorrow, so that he may arrange, in the event of a light mail load, to make good by passenger or parcel bookings what the Post Office cannot find ? It is obviously impossible, as anyone but a Government official would realise if he gave the smallest thought to the matter. If this is the sort of encouragement the Post Office is prepared to give, then all we have to say is that the industry would be better without it. We should at any rate know where we stand, and should not be buoyed up by false hopes. It is very much to be hoped that no firm identified with aerial transport will tender until these two conditions at least have been modified and the Post Office consents to a contract which is not of the " heads I win, tails you lose " description. The Executive Committee of the RoyalTlie Air Force Memorial Fund are making Memor'al a stron& aPPeal f°r subscriptions to the Fund most worthy objects for which the fund exists—an appeal which we sin- cerely trust will result in a very substantial addition to its balance. It is intended to apply the fund to : flie erection of a commemorative monument to the fame of the officers and men of the R.N.A.S., the R.F.C., the Australian Flying Corps and the R.A.F., including the officers and men who joined the Force from the Overseas Dominions ; the establishment of . places of residential education (like the Trafalgar Homes) for the children of airmen ; the provision of bursaries available at approved schools for the children of officers ; and generally the provision of such treat- ment and the rendering of such assistance as means may permit, either directly or in cooperation with other organisations, to officers and men and their dependents who may be disabled, sick, or otherwise infirm. All officers and men of the Flying Services, whether from the Dominions or from the United Kingdom, will be equally eligible for these benefits. Could there be any worthier objects than these ? • The nation and the Empire cannot forget the won- derful self-sacrifice manifested by the officers and men of the Flying Services during the War, or the measurein which their services helped the cause of the Allies and assisted to ultimate victory. Let it show its appreciation of those services by a ready and generous response to the moving appeal made by Prince Albert and his colleagues in the administra- tion of the fund. There are no worthier objects to which money can be devoted than those to which the fund aspires—to educate the children of those who gave their lives for the Empire; to heal the sick; and to comfort the disabled of the Great War in the air. Those who would wish to further the success of so splendid a purpose should put themselves into communication with the secretary of the fund at 25, Victoria Street, Westminster. Aerial Mails in U.ST AERIAL mails in the United States appear to be assured,as it is stated that President Wilson has signed the Post Office Bill making appropriations for a trans-Continent aerialmail_route. New York-Chicago-San Francisco. Aviation in Scandinavia REPRESENTATIVES of the four Scandinavian countrieshave drafted laws to cover aviation in their respective coun- tries, and they are to be submitted shortly to the four Par-liaments. 466
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